T410s/T410/T510 DP->HDMI, audio questions, survey

[fermion]

Hi,

after all the confusion concerning DisplayPort-audio and the T-series, I decided to find out for myself and test it at my local Lenovo dealer.

As my dealer had not a single HDMI and audio capable output device in his shop, I brought my own Medion MD 20226 LCD TV, which has 2 HDMI-in ports.

The idea was to use a 2m DisplayPort->HDMI-cable provided by the dealer in order to connect the T410s in question to my little TV.

Background: Due to the misleading information from Lenovo concerning the last generation T400s/T400/T500 models and their audio over DisplayPort issue (no audio at all), I expected to get a picture without any problems but that I would need to figure out how to enable the sound by changing some settings inside Windows 7.

What happened: Actually neither me nor my dealer were able to get ANYTHING out of the DisplayPort, when using the DisplayPort->HDMI-cable. There was NEITHER video NOR audio!

I should point out that at the time being my dealer only had T410s models without the (maybe) switchable NVidia graphics.

Another point that I want to emphasize is that, after 45 minutes of trying everything we could to make it work, we switched to the T510 that was standing right beside the T410s in his show room. Unfortunately I was too confused to ask what kind of graphics setup this machine had, but the result was the same: no video, no audio at the TV.

As it is apparent that there are quite a lot of confused Lenovo customers out there that have similar questions:

I HEREBY FORMALLY ASK FOR A DETAILED AND IN-DEPTH INVESTIGATION/CLARIFICATION OF POSSIBLE DP->HDMI, DP-AUDIO AND DP->HDMI-AUDIO ISSUES WITH THE CURRENT T410s/T410/T510 SERIES (all combinations of graphics cards).

Of course I think that it would be best if one of the Lenovo engineers would take care of that in one of the Lenovo blogs.

But until then, it might be a good starting point to ask those of us, who already have a T410s/T410/T510.

So I just start right away:

MODEL:                   T410s (NUK39GE / 2912-39G)

used GPU:              Intel GMA 5 / QM57

DP->DP-video:       not tested

DP->DP-audio:      not tested

DP->HDMI-video:  tested->not working

DP->HDMI-audio: tested->not working

As I said, I was only able to test it at my local Lenovo dealer and I gave up after around 1 hour of testing. So it might be, that someone who has more time and resources (different adaptors) might be able to get it running.

So to all of you out there with a new Tx10(s), please take the time, find your next HDMI-TV and try it.

And to Lenovo: as long as there is no official statement concerning this, I will keep asking for an official response ;-) (and THIS time, don't blame the chipset, as the new Intel-Calpella has all the HD-video/audio goodness one could ask for: wiki article on Intel Calpella and its DP features).

Thanks for reading all this!

[TinyRK]

Fermion already found  a forum with success-stories!

For everybody else;

Here you'll find success-stories rearding Audo via DP:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=453665&page=4

But all of them have the dedicated nVidia GPU

[fermion]

Hi TinyRK,

you're right about the other forum thread

BUT:

a) I opened this tread AFTER I read through the other thread, because I DID NOT FIND the needed information there.

b) As you say, the only "successful" attempts were made with T-Series notebooks that were equipped with dedicated NVidia GPUs.

So I still did not find a single statement concerning audio over displayport on the Intel integrated GPUs. I hope that there are a forum members with new T-Series, integrated graphics cards by now who can test it for us.

What I also don't understand is why none of the Lenovo engineers around is reading this and/or able to give us a qualified and reliable answer.  I would really appreciate that.

[sys3175]

---

fermion wrote:

Hi TinyRK,

you're right about the other forum thread

BUT:

a) I opened this tread AFTER I read through the other thread, because I DID NOT FIND the needed information there.

b) As you say, the only "successful" attempts were made with T-Series notebooks that were equipped with dedicated NVidia GPUs.

So I still did not find a single statement concerning audio over displayport on the Intel integrated GPUs. I hope that there are a forum members with new T-Series, integrated graphics cards by now who can test it for us.

What I also don't understand is why none of the Lenovo engineers around is reading this and/or able to give us a qualified and reliable answer.  I would really appreciate that.

---

There is no reason why a decent quality DP->HDMI adapter will not work.  However, I am not sure if audio transport will work.  Keep in mind when you are testing HDMI that not all adapters are of equal quality and not all displays will work with the adapters due to the HDCP (copy protection) which is in use. 

I also would love to know if this works on the IGP versions of the system and with which video drivers it works.

[surp]

I thought you guys might like to know that I just tested a DP>HDMI setup out as well.  I have a t410 with win7 and it has the integrated intel video card.  I used a 6FT DP Male to HDMI Male cable to pass the signal to my 52" Sony Bravia.

The cable I used was fromTripplite - http://www.tripplite.com/en/products/model.cfm?txtModelID=4214

All said and done, video worked without any problems (as expected), but I did not any audio.  I tested on my bedroom TV as well and had the same results. Grrr.

I'm debating picking up another cable from monoprice and seeing if that makes any difference since someone said they got a cable from there and it worked.  Another thing to note, in the Intel Video / Media system tray application, it has settings for TV but it says Not Supported and there are no options.  Dunno what that's all about... 

[Agotthelf Community Moderator]

Hello all,

please check out this thread too.

Where Ken (Lenovo staff) explains this feature and possible problems.

I would suggest to do a forum search before starting another thread.

[lwpro2]

i have tested on my new t410, both dp to hdmi audio and video works.

[fermion]

@Mod: of cause I did a search before. I started this thread way before the one you linked to... so maybe you might want to remind the other guy of doing a search.

Back to topic: I can testify that my T410s has no problems with DP-audio. It works both with the on-board Intel and the discrete NVidia graphics cards. I normally use a standard off the shelf DP-to-HDMI adapter to connect my T410s to my Full-HD-TV.

Its a bit sad though that no Lenovo staff answered to my E-Mails and forum questions before. It would all have been a lot easier if Lenovo just had published the correct and full specifications of the device. I hope they'll give more power to their engineers in the future and less to marketing people.