HD 530 4k@60Hz deep color issue!

[jlant1]

I have a complex problem where I do not know if the issue are related to the Intel display manager driver for Skylake HD 530 GPU or the firmware on a LG UHD TV. The specification on both ends supports 4k@60Hz with deep color (4:4:4). I use the latest software for all ends including BIOS, Intel drivers, HDMI chip and TV firmware. I also use a 18Gb/s HDMI v2.0 cable (length : 2m) between Intel platform and UHD TV.

If I configure the system in dual display mode (one on hdmi1 v1.4 and one on hdmi2 v2.0) I will in some case be able to set 4k@60Hz 4:4:4 on HDMI2 (v2.0) port. All of the configuration are done on HDMI1 at 4k@30Hz 4:4:4 (v1.4) side and this settings are always working on both ports. When I have HDMI2 at 60Hz in a working state and restart the system it then fails again and also get sporadic new setting on both hdmi port. It seems that the Intel display manager are change the setting all the time after reset and it never configure the setting correctly when it operates automatically. In normal use I will only use one hdmi port and not any dual display mode. I only use dual display to be able to configure 60Hz mode.

One note is that if I use hdmi2 at 4k@30Hz 4:4:4 it always works and after restart it ends up in this configuration and everything works.

So I cannot know if the LG TV are sending strange settings to the Skylake platform or the Skylake platform fail on bad software implementation.

I'm Pretty stuck here and any help in the correct direction are appreciated.

The setup:

Motherboard: ASRock z170 Gaming-ITX/ac

CPU I3 6100T (HD 530 GPU)

HDMI2.0 Chip: MC2800 (LS-Pcon) (firmware v1.24)

UHD TV: LG 65UF675V

[jlant1]

Additional information regarding the issue:

Just to isolate the problem and get closer to a solution I tested the LG UHD TV with my gaming rig. So the same TV with an NVidia GTX 970 HDMI 2.0 with 4k@60Hz deep color (8bpc RGB4:4:4) setting and it work flawless without any issue. I also tested the Intel system with a Sony UHD TV (X85C) and it also failed as the LG. I did get different failure on Sony compared with LG but both failed. The LG works at 60Hz but when using deep color the signal was lost. For Sony 60Hz works but deep color was never enabled so there was a signal but without RGB4:4:4. It could be that I missed on an advanced setting for the Sony TV that enabled this but it was not to be found when I tried this.

The bottom line is that the LG TV (65UF675V) that I have works with NVidia But not with Intel.

So there could only be two things wrong; Ether it is the Intel driver that fails or it is the ASRock motherboard (ASRock Z170 Gaming-ITX/ac) with the HDMI 2.0 chip firmware. I have posted the same to ASRock so if there is a known issue I could get some help but still Intel need to address this as a potential issue with the graphic driver for the Skylake HD 530 platform.

The bottom line is that I only get HDMI 1.4 from the ASRock motherboard with Intel Skylake HD 530 but both ASRock and Intel is selling these platforms as HDMI 2.0! Should you buy this for your HDMI 2.0 system or go for NVidia that works!?

Below is the specification on the display that the system is connected to if this would give any guide on the issue:

LG UHD Specification Using HDMI ULTRA HD Deep Color:

• On Supports 4K @ 50/60 Hz (4:4:4, 4:2:2, and 4:2:0).
• Off Supports 4K @ 50/60 Hz (4:2:0).
• All HDMI ports support the HDCP2.2.

Resolution

Frame rate (Hz)

Colour Depth/Chroma Sampling

8 bit

10 bit

12 bit

3840 x 2160p

4096 x 2160p

1. 50.00 59.94 60.00

YCbCr 4:2:0

YCbCr 4:2:01)

YCbCr 4:2:21)

YCbCr 4:4:41)

-

-

RGB 4:4:41)

-

-

1. Supported when HDMI ULTRA HD Deep Colour is set to On.

[Allan_J_Intel1]

If you have an observation to report, please be sure to fill out this information as complete as possible:

Allan.

[jlant1]

I did create a case for this some weeks back but I did not get any good answers or help on the issue so I posted to a open forum for more feedback. Is there anything that you need specific in this thread I could post it if you let me know what you need?

For Intel driver I use this https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25484/Intel-Graphics-Driver-for-Windows-7-8-1-10-15-40- Download Intel® Graphics Driver for Windows® 7/8.1/10* [15.40] for Windows 10 Pro. I also tried with the same base driver (20.19.15.4300) from ASRock and I use BIOS v1.30. I do not have any other onboard graphics and I use a single display setup via HDMI 2.0 port and I have 2x4GB DDR4-2133Mz memory. The rest of the information should be covered in the previous post.

[Allan_J_Intel1]

Thanks for the information, I am escalating this matter to our engineering team. I will update this thread as soon as I get new information.

Allan.

[jlant1]

Good!

For your information that would help you in your search is that the MegaChip MC2800 (DP1.2 to HDMI2.0 converter chip) supports the following settings:

Max video resolution and color depth

– 4Kp60Hz, RGB/YCbCr444, 8bpc

– 4Kp60Hz, YCbCr422 up to 12bpc

– 4Kp60Hz, YCbCr420, up to 16bpc

– 4Kp30Hz, RGB/YCbCr444, up to 16bpc

And I need the settings marked in red (RGB444 8bpc) and also this is the settings that the LG TV wants for best performance. You should also consider that up to day there is only one MB mini-itx (the one I have) on the market that supports this so this should narrow done the amount of cards you need to test. Soon there will be a lot more and then I guess that the pressure for a working driver will be intense.

[Allan_J_Intel1]

Thanks for sharing this information.

Allan.

[jlant1]

New development:

I just received a new firmware (v1.36) for the HDMI2.0 chip from ASRock and I now have a working picture at 4k@60Hz deep color. I can even see a full movie without any issue BUT... It's not fully stable and I sometime I get a HDMI crash where I lose the picture for good until a restart. I managed to trigger the issue more often if I quick jump in video stream in a more rapped pace. This could happen via web stream or a local playback. I also get disturbance when the picture do small adjustment (small jump from top to bottom) when web-browsing and or jump from one program to another that run in full screen. I also have issue and this I had from the first try weeks back that the Intel driver crashes on some web-pages and then recover and can restore the page. Even so it's quite annoying that this happens.

The picture issue I now have is not acceptable but much better and it's not confirmed that the issue are related to Intel driver or the HDMI chip. But it's confirmed that it's only happen on the HDMI2.0 port at 60Hz and not on 30Hz or HDMI1.4.

[Allan_J_Intel1]

Ok, thanks for the sharing this information.

Allan.

[jlant1]

Just a update on the case and also a solution to the issue. The problem was a faulty hdmi chip on the ASRock MB. I got it replaced and now everything works as it should.

[Allan_J_Intel1]

Great news, I am glad your computer is working now. Thank you for reporting this matter.

Allan.

[MLanz3]

Changed my login, but still the same person .

So the good news about the video was short-lived when I now suffer a new problem with the same setup. Running 4k@60Hz DC works perfect but HD sound do not work. I do not know if I had tested HD audio (e.g. 5.1 DTS or 7.1 ATMOS) that much before so I do not know if this is something that happen lately but I'm not alone with this issue. HDMI v1.4 works perfect with HD sound and 4k but limited to 30Hz. I have contacted ASRock about this and after months of emails it ended-up that the MegaChip 2800 and the z170 MB has no issue with HDMI v2.0 and there is no update need to fix anything (according to ASRock support team). But ASRock told me that all of the issue are related to Intel driver and it has been reported by ASRock to Intel to address the issue.

So could Intel respond on this issue that HD sound do not work with Skylake platform via LS-Pcon bridge and the latest windows driver?

I now use the latest drivers for MC2800 (v1.48), BIOS (v7.10) and Intel drivers (15.45.10.4542).