Thinkpad (T510) Display Port to HDMI TV

Question

I'd like to connect my laptop via a displayport2HDMI adapter to a TV. I tried simply connecting everything, but unfortunately that didn't work. I also didn't see any option in nvidia-settings to configure any output via the displayport. Has anybody such a setup working, or the displayport at all?

I'm running Ubuntu 10.10. My machine is a Lenovo Thinkpad T510 with a NVS 3100M graphics card.

Answer 1

Update, it works. I retried connecting my laptop to the TV after verifying everything with a second laptop running Windows 7. This time in nvidia-settings a second monitor appeared and I could extend my desktop to the TV. But sound does not work. There is a HDMI audio device in the mixer, but I can't get sound via the TV (worked in my test with the other laptop, so connection-wise it is OK).

Update: I have a HDMI device in system-settings->multimedia->phonon. And when I click the test button the TV actually plays something which sounds like the test-melody with a lot of noise. Standard application sound is only audible on laptop speakers. Any ideas on how to fix this?

Update2:
Video: Seems the TV has to be set to the input connected to the laptop. Then nvidia-settings detects the external screen and twinview can be configured.
Audio: No full solution yet, but for me following commandline worked to get audio and video via the TV set:

mplayer -ao alsa:noblock:device=hw=1.7 <videoFile>

Had to experiment with the 1.7 argument a little. First 1.3 worked, after suspending the machine and waking up again 1.7 did. (found the command here: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/DisplayPort)

Answer 2

I had to use pavucontrol.

Configuration tab -> High Definition Audio controller -> Profile: Digital Stereo (HDMI) nr 2 Output

I also did this, to switch the audio output:

Playback tab -> "ALSA plug-in [firefox-trunk]: ALSA Playback on -> "High Definition Audio Cogtnroller Digital Stereo (HDMI) nr2)"

IMHO, pavucontrol is a better interface.

Answer 3

I found a fix: just enable from BIOS to boot in the monitor where you want the hdmi/displayport sound from, it will activate the HDMI or Displayport sound of the monitor. And then you always can switch back and forward during the playback to hdmi and laptop sound, from the Ubuntu sound settings.