Plugable USB2 to HDMI doesn't support HDelight (HD1080 over the air)

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Plugable USB2 to HDMI doesn’t support brite-view HDelight which is an HDMI over the air… Any input on this?

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Hi Kenneth,

Thanks for posting! I hadn’t seen that product before, interesting: http://www.brite-view.com/hdelight.php

These kind of repeaters, especially wireless, introduce a lot of ways things can go south, unfortunately. The most common is that the TV/monitor’s EDID isn’t conveyed. PCs make use of EDID (and DisplayLink’s technology relies on it) to set a mode the TV/monitor is compatible with.

Does the HDelight transmit the EDID from its receiver (that’s connected to the TV), back to the transmitter (that’s connected to the HDMI from the PC)? I couldn’t find any evidence of that in their docs, but I may have missed it. If not, that could be the issue.

Keeping these two different devices hooked up in series makes me nervous that other problems could crop up. Two possible solutions I’d recommend:

  1. Dump the HDelight and use a simple, long USB 2.0 cable instead. For example, our 10 meter USB 2.0 cable http://plugable.com/products/usb2-10m/ is 1/10th the price ($13.10), gets you probably as far as the wireless does, with no compromises in performance. I use a simple 5 meter USB cable in my own house setup and avoid the wireless troubles.

  2. Dump both our adapter and the HDelight and go with an integrated USB to wireless HDMI solution (rather than the 2-hop, 2 different devices). We don’t sell one, but one of our competitors does which seems to get good reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Imation-Wireles…

To protect our customers (because complexity happens), we try make sure returns are easy through Amazon, if you need to go that route. Just visit http://www.amazon.com/gp/css/returns/…

Hope that background helps. If you do take path #1, let us know how it goes. And if there is any way we can help, please just let us know. We’d love to know the path you eventually take, and how it works out.

Thanks!
Bernie

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Thanks Bernie…

The HDelight actually does 1080p… Its just so cool! I hook up my cell phone via HDMI to their emitter box and the tv comes up with the video from my cell…

Tell me that isn’t cool. I mean if you look at it, it performs better than intel widi’s that are coming out…

To your response, I can plug in my cell phone which is a mini usb to HDMI out to their emitter box and play a movie no problems. Hard to believe the display link stuff won’t work. My cell is a ATT Infuse 4G…

Right now, in my “Screen resolution” menu, it displays ZWD as the EDID. WHen I hook plugable directly to my TV, it says Panasonic TV EDID. So the problem might be all EDID problems.

I did the DisplayLink Support Tool dump log. Will that help you?

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That mismatched name (ZWD vs. Panasonic) does make it likely that the HDelight is reporting its own EDID (ZWD) instead of that of the actual TV (Panasonic). And they don’t seem to be in perfect sync (or the image would display fine).

This is a common enough thing that there are products out there (search for “EDID doctor” or “EDID detective”) that will take a snapshot of an EDID when connected directly to the TV/monitor, then when a switch (or wireless repeater) is inserted in-between that looses the real EDID, it will repeat the correct EDID.

Feel free to email over the logs (just sent to support@plugable.com), but unfortunately, I’m not hopeful they’ll point in a different direction.

I’d still encourage you to head in the direction of a single solution (all USB, or integrated wireless solution), rather than a 2 technology solution, if possible.

Sorry again that I don’t have better news. Let me know if there’s any way we can help!
Bernie

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Just sent the logs to the support email. Crossing my fingers…

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Anyways, looking like I am going to have to return the plugable. Its not compatible… Got a vga to hdmi converter from central computers. Worked like a charm after I scaled it down to 480i. Looks good though…

Thanks for your awesome support!

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Hi Kenneth,

From the logs, the EDID issue was definitely it. The return is no problem - Amazon is quick about refunds. We understand.

Glad you found a solution that works for you!
Bernie

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Hey Bernie,

I tried something although it didn’t work, but there is a way to override the EDID. Basically I took the EDID (Panasonic TV) that is in my registry, used a program called moninfo, and created an .inf from the EDID (Panasonic TV). Then I overrode the driver for the USB. It didn’t work though.

With that said, is it a hardware or is it a combination of hardware software for the EDID to work?

Just for my knowledge. Great customer service and I will direct people to this product for its great support!

-Ken

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Hi Ken,

Unfortunately, the monitor .inf info never makes it to the DisplayLink driver. The DisplayLink driver relies on what it gets over the wire for real (no software overrides).

So you’d really need a product like the Gefen HDMI detective plus http://www.amazon.com/Gefen-EXT-HDMI-… to capture the real EDID when directly connected to the real output device, and then re-connect it between the HDelight (which is losing the real EDID) and the PC, so it will parrot back the correct EDID.

Unfortunately, this kind of solution is expensive ($92.95). But you can see from the reviews on that product, that it’s often the only way to do things, when some component is dropping EDID information.

Thanks for the kind words!
Bernie

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Thank you so much for that knowledge! Sometimes that is more interesting than the answer!

Take care and best of luck… Maybe you guys can create something like a Gefen HDMI detective, but I think with WiDi coming out and HDMI built into a laptop, its a dying market!

Cheers!