Impossible for 16in? Reliable 4K 60fps & audio over HDMI - 0% success.

[joevt]

@joevt That would be great. I tried setting pixel clock in SwitchResX, and didn't detect any changes in behaviors, even after saving and a reboot.

I received the second Cable Matters adapter, and symptoms are also the same. I haven't checked or updated firmware yet, but here's the latest AGDCDiagnose with the new adapter, FWIW:

EDIT: Plugged into the TCL and noticed that HDR seems to work fine in Big Sur, but in Monterey it's tinted pink and washed out. I've added AGDCDiagnose for the TCL in HDR as well.

Changing the max pixel clock might not have an affect but I made overrides with the change anyway for you to try.

It was unlikely that another adapter of the same model would see a change. I suppose you should try an adapter that is not the Cable Matters (after you check the firmware).

As for HDR, my testing with that involves just checking if the option exists in the Displays preferences panel for various refresh rates and clicking it on and off.

 

[Ahheck01]

Changing the max pixel clock might not have an affect but I made overrides with the change anyway for you to try.

It was unlikely that another adapter of the same model would see a change. I suppose you should try an adapter that is not the Cable Matters (after you check the firmware).

As for HDR, my testing with that involves just checking if the option exists in the Displays preferences panel for various refresh rates and clicking it on and off.

After applying the overrides, SwitchResX now allows setting to (what looks like) any resolution, however many of them result in no signal to the Vizio. Also, the resolutions that do work (I'm on 2160p30hz now) have a very strong magenta hue over everything. Here's the diagnostic:

 

[joevt]

After applying the overrides, SwitchResX now allows setting to (what looks like) any resolution, however many of them result in no signal to the Vizio. Also, the resolutions that do work (I'm on 2160p30hz now) have a very strong magenta hue over everything. Here's the diagnostic:

The AGDCDiagnose says it's using 8bpc YCbCr 4:4:4. Maybe you need RGB?

It also says you're using a 4K HiDPI mode 7680x4320. Check the scaled modes in SwitchResX. The active resolution for each should be 3840x2160 instead of 7680x4320.

In the attached ver 4 overrides, I changed the product ID of the vizio to 0x1019 instead of 0x1018 to make sure there is no chance that the Apple override is patching it. If this doesn't work, then we can try removing YCbCr support.

 

[Ahheck01]

The AGDCDiagnose says it's using 8bpc YCbCr 4:4:4. Maybe you need RGB?

It also says you're using a 4K HiDPI mode 7680x4320. Check the scaled modes in SwitchResX. The active resolution for each should be 3840x2160 instead of 7680x4320.

In the attached ver 4 overrides, I changed the product ID of the vizio to 0x1019 instead of 0x1018 to make sure there is no chance that the Apple override is patching it. If this doesn't work, then we can try removing YCbCr support.

Replaced the overrides with V4 - it seems behaviors are unchanged from the previous versions, aside from the device ID of the Vizio. Attached AGDCDiagnose. Still showing magenta as well (attached photo)

 

[Ahheck01]

@joevt Any suggestions on another adapter that has the best chance of 4k60 HDR on the vizio?

 

[joevt]

@joevt Any suggestions on another adapter that has the best chance of 4k60 HDR on the vizio?

We could try making more changes to the EDID or try the EDID for your Beyond TV as the override for the Vizio.

All the adapters I know are listed at

Thunderbolt Hub with Ethernet for Big Data Transfers Recommendation?

Instead of a second dock (if the first dock has enough ports for you), you could use a less expensive Thunderbolt to Dual HDMI or DisplayPort adapter. If your 4K 60Hz displays have DisplayPort input, then you should use that to allow 10bpc without chroma subsampling (HDMI 2.0 4K 60Hz is limited...

forums.macrumors.com

Since the Cable Matters isn't working, maybe try a Club-3d CAC-1085. It uses a different chip so it can have different behaviour.

Your original post was about audio. Have you gotten that to work at least?

 

[Ahheck01]

We could try making more changes to the EDID or try the EDID for your Beyond TV as the override for the Vizio.

All the adapters I know are listed at

Thunderbolt Hub with Ethernet for Big Data Transfers Recommendation?

Instead of a second dock (if the first dock has enough ports for you), you could use a less expensive Thunderbolt to Dual HDMI or DisplayPort adapter. If your 4K 60Hz displays have DisplayPort input, then you should use that to allow 10bpc without chroma subsampling (HDMI 2.0 4K 60Hz is limited...

forums.macrumors.com

Since the Cable Matters isn't working, maybe try a Club-3d CAC-1085. It uses a different chip so it can have different behaviour.

Your original post was about audio. Have you gotten that to work at least?

@joevt I'm certainly game to try more things on the existing adapters in the meantime, if you're game for it!

 

[joevt]

@joevt I'm certainly game to try more things on the existing adapters in the meantime, if you're game for it!

I'm updating my script to allow adding/removing CTA data blocks like it does for DisplayID blocks.

In the mean time, try this override. Your Vizio should now appear as your Beyond TV.

 

[Ahheck01]

I'm updating my script to allow adding/removing CTA data blocks like it does for DisplayID blocks.

In the mean time, try this override. Your Vizio should now appear as your Beyond TV.

With this override, it seems I'm maxed at 1080p60, with the magenta hue. Higher resolutions/framerates just show no signal. See attached.

Side note, I tried the splitter mentioned earlier in this thread, but that seems to just pass through the ECID, so nothing different from plugging in directly.

 

[joevt]

With this override, it seems I'm maxed at 1080p60, with the magenta hue. Higher resolutions/framerates just show no signal. See attached.

Side note, I tried the splitter mentioned earlier in this thread, but that seems to just pass through the ECID, so nothing different from plugging in directly.

Did you try 4K 30Hz (297 MHz)?

Use SwitchResX. Double check the timing that you choose.
533 MHz is CVT-RB timing.
1080p60 148.5 MHz, 4K30 297 MHz, 4K60 594 MHz are HDMI 1.0, 1.4, 2.0 timings which are more likely to work.

 

[Ahheck01]

Did you try 4K 30Hz (297 MHz)?

Use SwitchResX. Double check the timing that you choose.
533 MHz is CVT-RB timing.
1080p60 148.5 MHz, 4K30 297 MHz, 4K60 594 MHz are HDMI 1.0, 1.4, 2.0 timings which are more likely to work.

I had 'use simplified settings' checked, so it was CVT-RB and 532.56 MHz. If I uncheck that it requires more fields that I'm not sure how to determine:

 

[joevt]

I had 'use simplified settings' checked, so it was CVT-RB and 532.56 MHz. If I uncheck that it requires more fields that I'm not sure how to determine:

The modes should be automatically added by macOS and should be listed in the Current Resolutions tab. What 4K modes/timings do you see there?

Might be nice of SwitchResX had a column to describe the type of timing according to the timings known by edid-decode (CVT, CVT-RB, CVT-RB2, CVT-RB3, GTF, Standard, Established timings, DMT, VIC, HDMI-VIC,

For HDMI timings, you can look them up or you can use edid-decode to get the info.
https://git.linuxtv.org/edid-decode.git/about/

download the source code, edit the first two lines of the makefile so they look like this:

ifeq ($(OS),Windows_NT)
	bindir ?= /usr/bin
	mandir ?= /usr/share/man
else
    UNAME_S := $(shell uname -s)
    ifeq ($(UNAME_S),Darwin)
		bindir ?= /usr/local/sbin
		mandir ?= /usr/local/share/man
    else
		bindir ?= /usr/bin
		mandir ?= /usr/share/man
	endif
endif

then execute these commands to make and install it:

make
make install

then you can get timing info like this:

edid-decode --list-vics
edid-decode --list-hdmi-vics

edid-decode --hdmi-vic 1
edid-decode --hdmi-vic 2
edid-decode --hdmi-vic 3
edid-decode --hdmi-vic 4
edid-decode --vic 93
edid-decode --vic 94
edid-decode --vic 95
edid-decode --vic 96
edid-decode --vic 97

 

[Ahheck01]

The modes should be automatically added by macOS and should be listed in the Current Resolutions tab. What 4K modes/timings do you see there?

A massive list. Sorted the 60hz in the attached screenshot.

Edit:

❯ edid-decode --list-hdmi-vics

HDMI VIC 1:  3840x2160   30.000 Hz  16:9    67.500 kHz  297.000 MHz
HDMI VIC 2:  3840x2160   25.000 Hz  16:9    56.250 kHz  297.000 MHz
HDMI VIC 3:  3840x2160   24.000 Hz  16:9    54.000 kHz  297.000 MHz
HDMI VIC 4:  4096x2160   24.000 Hz 256:135  54.000 kHz  297.000 MHz

The non-hdmi list was huge, but 4k60 was 97:

❯ edid-decode --vic 97
VIC  97:  3840x2160   60.000 Hz  16:9   135.000 kHz  594.000 MHz
               Hfront  176 Hsync  88 Hback 296 Hpol P
               Vfront    8 Vsync  10 Vback  72 Vpol P

Activating with those settings yields blank screen, but it says to reboot so doing that now.

 

[joevt]

A massive list. Sorted the 60hz in the attached screenshot.

You have two 4K 60Hz options. One of them might be HDMI timing (594 MHz). The other might be CVT-RB (533 MHz). The HDMI timing might work.
You can double-click a timing to see the timing info.

 

[Ahheck01]

You have two 4K 60Hz options. One of them might be HDMI timing (594 MHz). The other might be CVT-RB (533 MHz). The HDMI timing might work.
You can double-click a timing to see the timing info.

Edited the above post. Also, after a reboot, I have the proper 4k60 option selected and active, but TV shows no signal.

 

[joevt]

I made a new override using the Vizio EDID - I fixed all the warnings and failures that edid-decode shows. I included the BBEdit worksheet with the commands I used.

The review at https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/vizio/e-series-2018 (which might not apply to your -E0 display) seems to indicate that Computer picture mode should show 4:4:4 mode properly (maybe works in macOS for 533 MHz timing?).
Game Low Latency may also have an effect.
Another option to check is Full UHD Color (might not apply to your display)

The review for your display might be this one: https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/vizio/e-series-2017
It says "4k @ 60 Hz @ 4:4:4 or 4:2:2 color is only supported on HDMI input 1, and only when 'HDMI Chroma Subsampling' is enabled. 4:4:4 color is only displayed properly in the 'Computer' picture mode."

That might imply that 4:2:0 is always supposed to work?

Each of the HDMI ports may have a different EDID so you should rerun AGDCDiagnose with each port.
Each setting of the display may affect the EDID so you should rerun AGDCDiagnose for each setting.

 

[jakeuten]

I have a hard time believing the Mac is causing the issues, I can reliably stream 4K 60Hz to a TV on my 2020 13" MacBook Pro with an integrated graphics card. I've been using an Anker dongle with a standard HDMI cable purchased in the last year or two.

 

[Ahheck01]

I made a new override using the Vizio EDID - I fixed all the warnings and failures that edid-decode shows. I included the BBEdit worksheet with the commands I used.

The review at https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/vizio/e-series-2018 (which might not apply to your -E0 display) seems to indicate that Computer picture mode should show 4:4:4 mode properly (maybe works in macOS for 533 MHz timing?).
Game Low Latency may also have an effect.
Another option to check is Full UHD Color (might not apply to your display)

The review for your display might be this one: https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/vizio/e-series-2017
It says "4k @ 60 Hz @ 4:4:4 or 4:2:2 color is only supported on HDMI input 1, and only when 'HDMI Chroma Subsampling' is enabled. 4:4:4 color is only displayed properly in the 'Computer' picture mode."

That might imply that 4:2:0 is always supposed to work?

Each of the HDMI ports may have a different EDID so you should rerun AGDCDiagnose with each port.
Each setting of the display may affect the EDID so you should rerun AGDCDiagnose for each setting.

Great find about the settings! While it didn't change my results with the Cable Matters adapter, it did allow 4k60 HDR on HDMI1 when using an eGPU (Mantiz Venus with Radeon RX580).

Frustratingly, I can't seem to get 60hz on anything but HDMI1 even with the eGPU, and HDMI1 is where we have our AppleTV hooked up to for watching HDR movies.

Then a weird glitch in the matrix again the other day - using the Aukey adapter, it gave me about 4 minutes of 4k 60hz before the screen went blank and then back to 30hz.

Anyway, attached is the AGDCDiagnose for:

• HDMI1
  • CableMatters (4k30hz magenta hue)
  • eGPU SDR (4k60hz)
  • eGPU HDR (4k60hz)
• HDMI2
  • CableMatters (4k30hz magenta hue)
  • eGPU (4k30hz)
• HDMI3
  • eGPU (4k30hz)

If I could get 4k60 on HDMI2/3, even if I had to use the eGPU, that would be awesome. I would have assumed it's a limitation of the TV's ports, except that the Aukey used to do it all day long, and now will occasionally do it for. a few minutes before switching back to 30hz. That has me baffled.

 

[joevt]

Great find about the settings! While it didn't change my results with the Cable Matters adapter, it did allow 4k60 HDR on HDMI1 when using an eGPU (Mantiz Venus with Radeon RX580).

Frustratingly, I can't seem to get 60hz on anything but HDMI1 even with the eGPU, and HDMI1 is where we have our AppleTV hooked up to for watching HDR movies.

Then a weird glitch in the matrix again the other day - using the Aukey adapter, it gave me about 4 minutes of 4k 60hz before the screen went blank and then back to 30hz.

Anyway, attached is the AGDCDiagnose for:

• HDMI1
  • CableMatters (4k30hz magenta hue)
  • eGPU SDR (4k60hz)
  • eGPU HDR (4k60hz)
• HDMI2
  • CableMatters (4k30hz magenta hue)
  • eGPU (4k30hz)
• HDMI3
  • eGPU (4k30hz)

If I could get 4k60 on HDMI2/3, even if I had to use the eGPU, that would be awesome. I would have assumed it's a limitation of the TV's ports, except that the Aukey used to do it all day long, and now will occasionally do it for. a few minutes before switching back to 30hz. That has me baffled.

This new set of AGDCDiagnose adds two new Vizio EDIDs. That makes three total, one per HDMI port. The Source physical address value in the EDID indicates the HDMI port number. You didn't try seeing if display onscreen settings changes the EDIDs?

• HDMI port 2
  • has maxdotclock set to 380 MHz.
  • has HDMI 1.4 VSDB but no HDMI 2.0 VSDB.
  • has 2160p 50Hz and 60Hz timings (both 3840 and 4096 widths) available only with 4:2:0.
  • Apple's Vizio EDID patch doesn't make sense for this EDID.
• HDMI port 3
  • same as HDMI port 2 (except the Source physical address).
• HDMI port 1
  • has maxdotclock set to 600 MHz (same as what I put in the override that was based on the HDMI port 2 EDID).
  • adds 2160p 50Hz and 60Hz timings (both 3840 and 4096 widths) to the normal Video Data Block (which means they don't require 4:2:0 to achieve). 4:2:0 is still supported for these modes.
  • has HDMI 1.4 VSDB and HDMI 2.0 VSDB.
  • Apple's Vizio EDID patch doesn't make sense for this EDID either - it sets the Audio latency to unknown and removes the HDMI VICs (4K 30Hz, 24Hz). The override does make more sense for HDMI port 1 than it does for HDMI port 2 though.

I've attached overrides that use the EDID for HDMI port 1 since it is the most capable. It should allow port 2 and port 3 to use 4K 60Hz modes as long as macOS chooses 4:2:0 chroma subsampling (in Big Sur, choose the 594 MHz timing to get 4:2:0. Choose 533 MHz timing for RGB but only for port 1 probably).

I wonder if Apple has a method to make override for a specific HDMI port? I don't think so but it would be useful.
In Windows, EDID overrides are per GPU port and vendor/product.
In macOS, EDID overrides are per vendor/product or vendor/manufacture date.

I would like to make a graphics driver patch (maybe using Lilu/WhateverGreen) that can do overrides directly in the driver (just patch the I2C functions I guess). That way you can do overrides per GPU port like Windows, or overrides per display port, and you can make macOS believe one monitor is a different monitor at a lower level (since some driver decisions ignore EDID override). At this lower level, you can make EDID overrides for each tile of a dual tile display.