p-7811fx and Dual-Link DVI?

I recently bought a p-7811fx, and was disappointed to find that the hdmi port is not, in fact, an HDMI 1.3 port [ UPDATE: Turns out that the port is indeed a HDMI 1.3 type A connector according to Gateway's internal documents. I myself have no way of verifying if the port is 1.3 or 1.2, as it turns out that type A connectors are not electrically compatible with Dual-Link DVI, and so cannot drive a Dual-Link DVI based external display at its maximum resolution even with an HDMI->Dual-Link DVI converter. They can, however, drive the display at 1920x1200, provided that the display has a built-in upscaler], and therefore does not have the bandwidth to drive a 2560x1600 display. Does anyone know if there is any way to drive 2560x1600 through this laptop? I know that the 9800GTS graphics card is capable of 2560x1600 output over dual-link DVI, but gateway decided not to include this port for some reason. If I can't use the laptop at 2560x1600, it's no big deal, I'm still quite happy with the machine, but being able to use it with my XHD3000 at max resolution would take the cake.

Far-fetched ideas include waiting for ASUS's XG station and attempting to manually add a DVI port. I have no idea how practical either of these would be, however (the included ASUS graphics card would probably be too slow, and more expensive than it's worth, and I've never attempted to mod a graphics card, let alone a laptop graphics card, so I have no clue what is possible).

 

modding the card would be fairly crazy, unless you happen to gifted with either outlandish soldering skills or high-tech equipment.

how about an external laptop docking station? you connect to it over expresscard, and they usually have a host of ports. i'm sure you could find one with one or two DVI ports.

 

That sounds like it should work. Do you know what I should look for in the docking station to ensure that it can properly connect to the graphics card and drive the display? I would hate to drop $150 on a docking station and have it not work.

Thanks for the quick reply!

 

lol. i wouldn't put my money on this.

 

Ok, here's another crazy thought. The P-7811fx's connection to the internal display is dual-link over LVDS. DVI and HDMI both use a TMDS connection, but there appear to be LVDS to DVI converters available online for ~$50. Does anyone know if I could redirect the output normally going to the internal display to the external 30-inch, while redirecting the normally external DVI connection to go to the internal display? Also, does anyone know if the Dual-Link LVDS has the same bandwidth as the Dual-Link TDMS (DVI) connection would have? I personally have no clue if TDMS and LVDS are electrically compatible, so I figure that I should post this here in case anyone knows off-hand about if this is possible or not.

I'm excited about this mod, but I'm not insane. Before taking apart my 7811, I would definitely try this on old iBook G4 I've got lying around (though I should check if the iBook also has the LVDS connection). If nothing else, it would give me a shot at putting the iBook's display to use!

 

Only a few notebooks have Dual Link DVI capability....
- Apple Macbook Pro's
- Clevo's high-end notebooks (D901C, M570RU/TU, M860TU)
- Dell M1730
- Lenovo T61 with DVI docking station, I believe.

 

can you not use a matrox adapter? google that, and I think there are adapters that will allow this.

 

How about you get Gateway to upgrade it for you since they falsely advertised their product:

http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/2008/GodzillaFX/1015641R/1015641Rsp2.shtml

or have them pay for an adapter. use the number in my signature, and tell them how important this is to your professional work

 

Does the HDMI port support audio?

Are you sure 1.3 supports the resolution you are looking for and not 1.3x? I know nothing so just shooting in the dark.

 

its the fact that it isnt 1.3 that is the problem. it is 1.2, that is why it is only 2.1 at most. 1.3 supports 5.1 and 7.1

 

I don't think that the matrox adapters (dualhead2go or triplehead2go) would work -- they split output across multiple displays. Are you talking about a different adapter?

I'll probably try the support line sometime after thanksgiving. I should probably confirm that the port actually _is_ HDMI 1.2. I assumed this to be the case when I couldn't output to the full 2560x1600. Perhaps my HDMI->DVI-Dual Link converter is faulty, or maybe HDMI 1.3 simply doesn't have the bandwidth to drive a 30-inch display (grrr@the audio channel)?

Thanks for all of the suggestions! You guys rock!

 

no your right, the matrox is for like three displays, NEVVVAMIND

 

Just a quick note about this, just about any current generation HD DVD player will have a TrueHD decoder and can output lossless audio via multi-channel PCM over HDMI (MPCM). Utilizing that requires a receiver with HDMI and the ability to handle at least 5.1 MPCM over HDMI. Many Blu-ray movies have PCM soundtracks, which also won't require any receiver side decoding. In short, output from you HDMI 1.2 port to an HD ready receiver and you'll still be able to get true lossless 5.1, even 7.1.

btw, Gateway rep from escalated problem support just told me that the internal documents for the 7811 confirm that it is actually HDMI 1.3...

 

eyefragment, you ARE using an hdmi 1.3 complient cable right? all previous versions used the same cable, but 1.3 requires a cable that can support the higher bandwidths

 

Ok, I think I understand what's going on now, and I will edit my original post to reflect this. The p-7811FX may well have an HDMI v1.3 type A connector. Such a connection _is_ capable of driving 2560x1600 and transmitting audio at the same time. The connector, however, is not electrically compatible with Dual-Link DVI, and so cannot drive my display using an HDMI->Dual Link DVI converter. Furthermore, the HDMI port in the XHD3000 is (and is advertised as) a 1.2 port, and therefore cannot receive the full signal.

I originally believed that the HDMI type B connectors were the same as HDMI v1.3, hence my claim in my first post. It turns out that both type A and type B connectors can be HDMI v1.3 compliant, but only type B Connectors can be converted into Dual-Link DVI.

Thanks a bunch for all of the help, and deepest apologies for making you make a somewhat embarrassing call to Gateway's elevated support line on account of my misunderstanding.

So... it looks like my best bet is wait until displays with HDMI v1.3 drop in price somewhat, and then sell the HXD and buy such a display (after testing it in advance, of course). It's a shame, since I do like the XHD quite a bit, but since my lappy is indeed capable of powering such a display, there's no need to attempt any crazy hacking. Woo hoo!

That said, since gateway's own documents seem to be inconsistent about if this port is 1.3 or 1.2, I still have no clue which one it actually is.

Thanks again!