Ubuntu-TV via HDMI

keith 1955

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I seem to be taking up a lot of peoples time with questions since joining. believe me i do try to sort things out before posting.
For the first time since migrating to Ubuntu 18.04 from windows i connected my laptop to the Samsung smart TV to watch something via HDMI lead. The TV detected the connection, click on the icon on tv to open the connection.
Bionic Beaver background opened without dock showing, Started programme on laptop which played but nothing started on tv screen or no sound just shows the background with beaver silhouette any ideas please,
The wife is beginning to think i,m having an affair the amount of time i am sending posts.
 


Hello keith 1995,

I'm going way out left field and saying it sounds like a graphics card issue perhaps needing a proprietary graphics driver to run HDMI mode.

You may also need some media codecs to run the HDMI media so you might consider VLC media player or Gnome MPV Player.

One or the other may already be installed by default.


This may be of use.

 
I've been running Kubuntu and Neon since I got my laptop about a year and a half ago. It doesn't have a docking station option, not in the traditional sense at least. So I decided not go with Dell's docking box for my laptop and opted to just use a USB hub and an HDMI cable to my monitor and sometimes TV. I have no problems, but I always change the driver out from Nouveau to Nvidia. The only way to truely support all the video card functions is to use the manufacturers driver. You can change it in the Additional Drivers tab in Software & Updates.
 
Thanks you for the reply.
@poorguy, already using VLC player, sorry should have said this.
The item plays well on the laptop full screen etc, it's just not coming through HDMI lead to TV.
As said previously only seeing Ubuntu Beaver silhouette on TV screen no sound no picture.
TechoJunky. found Software & Updates, says no additional updates available.
 
Did you go into the Additional Drivers tab? On all my computers, it gives options, doesn't say no updates.
 
keith 1955 hasn't posted any specs / model type of laptop being used and without knowing what type of laptop is being used it's hard to determine if a proprietary graphics driver or any additional drivers are available imo.
 
TechnoJunky, opened Ubuntu software clicked on Software & updates then Additional Drivers it searched and No additional drivers available came on screen.

poorguy my machine is a HP Laptop Pavilion dm4. Intel R-i3-2319m CPU 2.10 GHz 4gb ram 64bit
Intel R H/D graphics family.

Thank you.
 
poorguy my machine is a HP Laptop Pavilion dm4. Intel R-i3-2319m CPU 2.10 GHz 4gb ram 64bit
Intel R H/D graphics family.

Thank you.
It appears your graphics is the Intel HD Graphics 3000 so more than likely I believe you may be SOL for an Intel proprietary graphics driver although I could be wrong.

Here is the spec sheet for the processor (Intel R-i3-2319m) listed in post # 7 .
It seems to show a different processor for the processor you posted but the graphics should be the same.

 
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poorguy i want to thank you for your time and help.
so followed link found post 7 . clicked download driver & support assistant opened. clicked open with Archive manager then message An error occurred while loading the archive .
tried saving again with same message.
 
Hey keith 1955,

Yeah it appears that Intel has dropped support for Linux so the open source driver appears to be the only driver. :(


I'm really hating Intel more and more these days. :mad:


FWIW you might go to HP forum or website and enter in the exact model and or serial number and see if an Intel graphics driver for Linux may be available from HP support.

Yeah it's a long shot although you have gone this far so why not go a wee bit farther imo.
 
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poorguy was just posting that i had Googled the phrase and it seems that was a Windows link and not supported on Linux. good try and thanks anyway.
 
keith 1955 hasn't posted any specs / model type of laptop being used and without knowing what type of laptop is being used it's hard to determine if a proprietary graphics driver or any additional drivers are available imo.
While I agree, without the specs we can't say what he should or should not choose, I disagree in that the tool should show what the options are regardless of what we are aware of. Even my VM has info in Additional Drivers.
4304
 
If your HDMI lead is plugged in and you've switched your TV to whatever input your laptop is plugged into, it should just be a case of opening the settings for your desktop environment. And then in the monitor/display settings section you should be able to enable the TV display and set it's resolution and orientation (relative to your laptop screen).

Or if you know the resolutions that are supported on your TV, you could just write a script that uses xrandr to set up your TV.
That saves you having to go into the settings to enable the display each time. Instead you can just run your script.

To quickly enable my TV as a second monitor - I use this script:
hdmiscript:
Code:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
xrandr --output HDMI1 --auto --right-of LVDS1 --mode 1920x1080
Where HDMI1 refers to the HDMI port on my PC and LVDS1 refers to my laptop screen.

So the above script tells xrandr to enable the display attached to HDMI1 and place it to the right of my laptop screen (LVDS1) and sets the TV's resolution to 1920x1080 - which is it's max resolution.... No 4K TV for me yet!.
The --auto setting will cause xrandr to automatically enable the screen if it is plugged in. So I could run my script before or after I've plugged it in, to allow me to use the TV.

the man pages for xrandr will explain the various options you have available to you. To view xrandr's documentation - open a terminal and run the command man xrandr.

I could have put my hdmiscript in my startup, but I don't connect to my TV very often. So I prefer to manually enable it when I need to use it. And as it's only one line - I could even have used a one-word bash alias for it. But I chose to put the command into a script in my personal bin directory ~/bin/ - which is a really handy thing to have set up!

Also - you might want to consider routing your audio through the HDMI port too - Routing audio through HDMI can be set up via the audio settings section of your desktops settings. Or if your system uses pulseaudio - you can use the configuration tab of pavucontrol to quickly switch to HDMI output.

Sadly - I haven't actually found a way of doing this in the terminal yet, but if I ever do - I'll make a post about it!
 
Hey keith 1955,

Yeah it appears that Intel has dropped support for Linux so the open source driver appears to be the only driver. :(


I'm really hating Intel more and more these days. :mad:


FWIW you might go to HP forum or website and enter in the exact model and or serial number and see if an Intel graphics driver for Linux may be available from HP support.

Yeah it's a long shot although you have gone this far so why not go a wee bit farther imo.
Looked on HP site / Forum. seems they do not support Linux, just mention using open source driver.
Big companies do not seem to be helping you guys out much!! (probably following the money)
 
If your HDMI lead is plugged in and you've switched your TV to whatever input your laptop is plugged into, it should just be a case of opening the settings for your desktop environment. And then in the monitor/display settings section you should be able to enable the TV display and set it's resolution and orientation (relative to your laptop screen).

Or if you know the resolutions that are supported on your TV, you could just write a script that uses xrandr to set up your TV.
That saves you having to go into the settings to enable the display each time. Instead you can just run your script.

To quickly enable my TV as a second monitor - I use this script:
hdmiscript:
Code:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
xrandr --output HDMI1 --auto --right-of LVDS1 --mode 1920x1080
Where HDMI1 refers to the HDMI port on my PC and LVDS1 refers to my laptop screen.

So the above script tells xrandr to enable the display attached to HDMI1 and place it to the right of my laptop screen (LVDS1) and sets the TV's resolution to 1920x1080 - which is it's max resolution.... No 4K TV for me yet!.
The --auto setting will cause xrandr to automatically enable the screen if it is plugged in. So I could run my script before or after I've plugged it in, to allow me to use the TV.

the man pages for xrandr will explain the various options you have available to you. To view xrandr's documentation - open a terminal and run the command man xrandr.

I could have put my hdmiscript in my startup, but I don't connect to my TV very often. So I prefer to manually enable it when I need to use it. And as it's only one line - I could even have used a one-word bash alias for it. But I chose to put the command into a script in my personal bin directory ~/bin/ - which is a really handy thing to have set up!

Also - you might want to consider routing your audio through the HDMI port too - Routing audio through HDMI can be set up via the audio settings section of your desktops settings. Or if your system uses pulseaudio - you can use the configuration tab of pavucontrol to quickly switch to HDMI output.

Sadly - I haven't actually found a way of doing this in the terminal yet, but if I ever do - I'll make a post about it!
Thank you for all of this information. I will try it and get back.
 

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