Sony Vaio S13A HDMI with an external EIZO DisplayPort or DVI monitor

Hi everyone,

I have the project to buy the new Sony Vaio S13A.
Beyond the usual MS Office stuff I want to use it to do photo editing.
For that I wanted to plug an Eizo ColorEdge CG223W on it. This one doesn't have an HDMI input, but "just" DVI, DisplayPort and VGA inputs.

So, I planned to use an HDMI out / DVI in cable or an HDMI out / DisplayPort in cable.
(The VGA is another possibility but the display will be less qualitative as it will be in analogic.)

But my Eizo vendor warned me on possible incompatibility that exists between some HDMI ports optimized for video and external monitor when these are plugged using their DVI port or DisplayPort.

He says that sometime it's not possible to display anything.

Has anyone here already heard such information ?
Better is there an Vaio S13A user using an external monitor in the same conditions (plugged via the HDMI output on the vaio and the DVI port or DisplayPort on the monitor) that has encounter suche problem or, at the opposite, that confirm me that there is no problem ?

Many thanks for your help

 

Recently I bought Dell U2412m that had only DVI, DisplayPort and VGA connectors. I connected my SA with HDMI to DVI cable and everything works perfectly.

I read about the issues related to HDMI to Displayport, apparently it works only Displayport --> HDMI, not the other way around.

Honestly I think you will be just fine.

 

Thanks for your message Niebyl

I think it will be ok too, at least with an HDMI to DVI cable.

Just a question : did you use a standard HDMI to DVI cable or one with special specification or quality ?

 

I used a standard 24+1 pin dual link cable, that I used previously on my TV. I just ordered a new cable only because I needed a different color (my current one is silver and it really annoys me)

As far as quality: old cable was Belkin, new cable is noname and it performs as good as Belkin.

Make sure that on HDMI cable-connector where the flat piece is, there is no four extra pins/prongs around it.

Read below and let me know if you have any questions.

DVI Connector Information 1

DVI Connector Information 2

 

Thanks for this information. But is it necessary to have a dual link cable ? What's the interest and difference with a single link ??

 

dual link DVI provides sufficient bandwidth for resolutions above 1920x1200 and/or for 120hz screens

 

Hi niebyl, a question again.
I read everywhere that HDMI is limited to 1900x1080.
Can you confirm that you had no problem to plug a screen with a 1900x1200 resolution on your vaio S ?
Because that's precisely the resolution of the external screen I want to buy...

 

1920x1200 (WUXGA) over HDMI should work without a problem. Reduced blanking is the keyword.

 

what do you mean by "reducing blanking" ?
Sorry I'm not a specialist

 

Sometimes HDMI -> HDMI doesn't work properly with computer displays.

A few years ago I tried to connect a VAIO with an ATI card to a Dell display and I never managed to get the image displayed 1:1 in its native resolution 1920x1200, it was scaled in a weird way. Then I attached it using the HDMI -> DVI cable and picture got perfect. Apparently HDMI sends some additional information (wrongful?) that the display cannot comprehend or something. DVI seems to strip off extra information/commands.

Btw, then I attached a different Vaio (nVidia-based) to the same display using the same HDMI -> HDMI cable and the picture was correct right away.

So I would say yes, there are definitely issues now and then, but they are related to HDMI (quite a troublesome interface in general). But I doubt DVI would be a problem.

Make sure thought that your display supports HDCP via DVI, otherwise you risk seeing a blank screen.

One other remark is that 1920x1200 is a practical limit for DVI (and for your Vaio, see the specs). Don't try to connect it to a 2560x1440 display - most likely it won't work.

 

Thanks for theses informations.

My purpose is to plug the computer through a HDMI to DVI cable as the monitor doesn't have an HDMI input.
The monitor max resolution is 1920x1200@60Hz

I've verfied, both Eizo or Nec monitor I target are HDCP compatible.

But their documentation don't mention especially it is through DVI, I don't know if it should be mentionned or not or if the HDCP compatibility is global

 

Actually resolution depends on what version of HDMI Sony followed,
If sony followed v1.0-1.2a then the max resolution will be 1920×1200 if it was v1.3 then max resolution will be 2560×1600 if it was v1.4 then the max resolution will be 4096×2160. This is due to the fact that the newer versions have a higher bandwidth. But Sony Japan says that the s13p supports 3D over HDMI which is a 1.4 specification point.

However the HDMI Licencing LLC group states that products starting on January 1, 2012 will no longer be allowed to reference the HDMI number and will be required to state which features of the HDMI specification the product supports.
So the S13p may not support all the features of v1.4, Infact sony can chose what to implement, so obviosly they're not going to implement ethernet over HDMI, they don't even have to put support in for quad HD resolutions.

 

I would say it is global with application to digital interfaces. If there is no HDMI, then it's about DVI.

Btw, I too use a NEC display which only has a DVI input (no HDMI), I too use a HDMI->DVI cable and everything works smoothly. nVidia Control Panel says the display supports HDCP.