DVI to HDMI on ATEM Television Studio

I am coming out of my DELL XPS laptop with a DVI to HDMI cable to the ATEM TVS and . . . . the ATEM will not even show up as a display on the DELL to allow me to go dual-view. I have rebooted with the cable connected . . . nothing.
PLEASE HELP! How can I get my TVS to accept my laptop so I can run it as an input source?

That's a very weird one.

It's highly unlikely an XPS would be outputting on analogue on the DVI, which is one of the few ways I can get any PC to "Not Display" on the ATEM.

Could you try XPS -> Home TV on your DVI to HDMI cable.

If you cannot get the XPS to output to a modern TV in your average living room, you won't get it into the ATEM.

Is your XPS set to "Only allow HDCP compliant devices"? Again highly unlikely, but you could be running a service or app that has told windows to only allow HDCP compliant devices. Although BMD say their devices are HDCP compliant, they are only compliant, in that they will correctly signal a device requiring HDCP, that the BMD kit shouldn't be allowed to process the signal.

If you are happy your laptop is capable of outputting a HDCP-free digital signal, then please try:

1. Leaving the laptop connected and on, whilst rebooting the ATEM
2. Leaving the laptop connected and on, whilst re-pluging the ATEM HDMI connection into different ATEM ports
3. Leaving the laptop connected and on, whilst you change the video mode format the ATEM is operating in.

Through-out these tests, watch your laptop carefully.

Once you have the ATEM recognised in Windows as a monitor, you simply need to use the "Advanced Settings", to correctly set the video mode.

Whether Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8, Windows 2003/8-R2 Servers, with either Intel HD2000,3000,4000 embedded graphics / nVidia or ATI discrete, I've never been unable to get a laptop or PC to display to the ATEM.

If still no success or any visible effect on the XPS, give up and get a different laptop.

Good Luck

John

That's very common problem. And main problem is with RGB color space. Just search around this forum for color space problems.

How would colour space problems be affecting why the ATEM doesn't show up as a Monitor within Windows? Seems like a big diagnostic leap of faith, without any relevant information....

Perhaps it could be useful if you posted links to the topics containing this information..

ATEM will accept only YCbCr (YUV) 4:2:2 color space, but DVI is RGB 4:4:4 by nature.

DVI and HDMI are electronically compatible connection types, so you can connect DVI to HDMI connector by using passive adapter or cable. When connection is established, source and target will try establish best possible supported resolution and color space by EDID handshake.
- It is unknown what is the result in your case, but it sure looks like common resolution cannot be found.

If you are looking for a solution in BM product range, it could be DVI Extender:
http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/dviextender/
This device presents itself as a monitor with a list of supported resolutions (see tech specs).
You could connect your computer to SDI input of your ATEM.

Is it possible you need a DVI/VGA to HDMI scaler (like I have) in order to allow the TVS to recognize the computer resolution signal?
See my post here: http://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3922#p23995

plegilink,

Like Tom says on the thread you link have kindly linked to; there should be no reason to use scaler to get a PC or Mac into an ATEM.

Esa,

Thanks very much for that clarification. Could you please list any graphics cards you believe will not output YCbCr. Like I said in my original reply to Jhill, I've extensively tested every graphics card I could lay my hands on, and no graphics card I have tested is "incapable" of outputting the correct signal to the ATEM.

Depending on your version of Windows/OSX, and Driver versions installed, the auto-negotiation may fail, I totally accept, however one of the great things about computers and graphics cards in contrast to BMD products; is that they are completely configurable, and are normally available with fully featured SDK kits allowing owners to tell them exactly what they want them to do, again in stark contrast to what the ATEM provides.

Suggesting Jhill buy more BMD equipment seems a little premature & potentially a waste of money, before we know if this user really needs to. If the XPS they are using is very old, I suppose there is a tiny possibility it won't be able to output directly to the ATEM, although I highly doubt it.

Cheers

John

Thanks for the thoughts. FYI, my XPS laptop displays perfectly when connected to an external LCD monitor via this same dvi to HDMI cable. What could the difference be?

Also, I have another desktop Dell connected to the Atem via HDMI to HDMI cable and it displays flawlessly. Seems like my issue is either with the dvi to HDMI cable, or with my XPS laptop settings.

As John says...

If the computer is not detecting the TVS as a monitor then it is nothing to do with colour space or resolution. Both of those may be reasons for the output not to display on the TVS but the computer should always detect the TVS as an external monitor, regardless of the settings.

I would try alternative cables / adapters and maybe an different input on the TVS.
I know some people have had issues with cheap HDMI adapters.

Tim

We have a Dell laptop (not a XPS) connected to our TVS, but we used a Displayport-to-HDMI adapter. Does the XPS have Displayport?

Were you able to get this working?? I am actually coming out straight from graphics card as HDMI and PC still doesn't read ATEM TS as a secondary monitor option.

Well, I installed the dvi extender and voila . . . Everything works perfectly. Thanks everyone for your input.

Well, I installed the dvi extender and voila . . . Everything works perfectly. Thanks everyone for your input.

What's the model of that DVI extender? Would be nice to know in case something comes up.
Thanks

I used the Blackmagic extender.

an EDID emulator such as the DVI Parrot or Gefen DVIDetective will solve your display detection issues.