IMS1000 outputs HDMI1080/60 as 1080/30

[Agnius Acus]

Last weekend I ran into a weird compatibility issue trying to connect my Xbox Series X game console to the projector with IMS1000 board. For some reason, it projects 1080/60 as 1080/30 even if I’m forcing 60 Hz through console settings. Tried enabling subsampling to 4:2:2 – same thing.

A couple of days later I did a similar experiment with my old Xbox 360. Again, the 1080/60 input is projected as 1080/30. Interestingly, as Xbox 360 supports interlaced output, I tried 1080i, and the image refreshes at what seems to be 60 Hz.

I would guess IMS1000 simply doesn’t support HDMI 1080/60 signal, at least with progressive scan, but it displays it perfectly fine when I’m using my laptop, both in RGB and YCbCr colour output formats.

Any insight into what’s happening here?

My IMS1000 is NEC branded one (NP-90MS01), if it does make any difference, and I’m using HDMI 2.1 cable.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Interesting cause the IMS1000 manual claims 1080p both 59.94 and 60 are supported on the HDMI input.
(Doremi version Appendix D pg 298 of v1.6 Installation and User Manual lists the supported formats).

Do you have a device that would confirm the HDMI signal, such as a decimator md-hx or other scaler with an LCD display?

My first hunch would be the Series X is not honoring your "force" and reverting to one of the EDID settings it is getting from the IMS. MD-HX or an EDID manager might solve that?

[Ryan Gallagher]

Also might be worth rebooting the xbox between those framerate settings changes if you did not try that already.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Also 4K support was supposedly later added to the IMS1000. Perhaps disable the "Allow 4K" in the Xbox... maybe it was auto-negotiating a 4K limit of 2160p30 and IMS was scaling it for output?
I can't find docs that say if IMS1000 ever supported 4k60 or not.

[Leo Enticknap]

Do you have a device that would confirm the HDMI signal, such as a decimator md-hx or other scaler with an LCD display?

An HD Fury Integral or Vertex would work for this, too: the Windows app that comes with it will show you what is coming in and what is going out, and allows you to override the EDID autonegotiation on either side.

[Marcel Birgelen]

The IMS1000 does not support any 4K resolution on HDMI. It should do 1080p60 though. Like Ryan already mentioned, I guess this is a classical EDID auto-negotiation issue. Like Leo just mentioned: HD Fury gear like Integral/Vertex/DR. HDMI is able to fix EDID handshake issues.

I suppose your NEC doesn't have an HDMI input, but have you tried the HDMI tot DVI route directly into your projector? In that case, you'll need to route your audio separately. (In this case, HD Fury is your friend too).

B.t.w., we just had a discussion about connecting gaming consoles to cinema projectors. Eliminating the IMS1000 could also potentially reduce latency between console and projector output.

[Agnius Acus]

Interesting cause the IMS1000 manual claims 1080p both 59.94 and 60 are supported on the HDMI input.
(Doremi version Appendix D pg 298 of v1.6 Installation and User Manual lists the supported formats).

Do you have a device that would confirm the HDMI signal, such as a decimator md-hx or other scaler with an LCD display?

My first hunch would be the Series X is not honoring your "force" and reverting to one of the EDID settings it is getting from the IMS. MD-HX or an EDID manager might solve that?

No, unfortunately, but I have Blackmagic Mini Converter (HDMI-SDI), which I haven’t tried yet. Maybe that way I could circumvent that EDID auto-negotiation issue that you and Marcel have mentioned. Obviously, it would add even more processing lag, but at this point, I just want to track down where the problem is.

[Agnius Acus]

The IMS1000 does not support any 4K resolution on HDMI. It should do 1080p60 though. Like Ryan already mentioned, I guess this is a classical EDID auto-negotiation issue. Like Leo just mentioned: HD Fury gear like Integral/Vertex/DR. HDMI is able to fix EDID handshake issues.

I suppose your NEC doesn't have an HDMI input, but have you tried the HDMI tot DVI route directly into your projector? In that case, you'll need to route your audio separately. (In this case, HD Fury is your friend too).

B.t.w., we just had a discussion about connecting gaming consoles to cinema projectors. Eliminating the IMS1000 could also potentially reduce latency between console and projector output.

That would be the best way, but the projector in question (NEC NC900C-A) has no input ports besides those in IMS, except legacy GP I/O, 3D and RS-232 ports at the top.

[Gordon McLeod]

Im not sure if the NEC version of the IMS1000 did everything the doremi version did. There were some issues in the begimning on firmware updates

[Ryan Gallagher]

No, unfortunately, but I have Blackmagic Mini Converter (HDMI-SDI), which I haven’t tried yet. Maybe that way I could circumvent that EDID auto-negotiation issue that you and Marcel have mentioned. Obviously, it would add even more processing lag, but at this point, I just want to track down where the problem is.

You can try that, but *most* SDI converters like that will not work with gear that expects an HDCP display... would depend on whether the xbox permits the display and turns off HDCP. Even if the video is good, sometimes HDCP enforcement meant bad audio too. I say most because there are some cheapo ones that broke the HDCP rules.

Now that I think about it, my suggestion of the MD-HX would have run into similar issues except that it has a HDMI->HDMI mode that is essentially a passthru... at least it could have displayed the incoming and outgoing framerate data even if the picture itself was no good due to HDCP.

HDFury is really the ideal probably. But there are also EDID tricks with HDMI splitters. Basically you train the splitter to forward an EDID of a display that the XBOX likes, and only after it's sending that desired signal do you plug in the 2nd output device (the projector). It's a bit of faffing about with plugging and power cycling though... very sequence dependent.

Solutions often depend on what is readily available in the moment in the live events world. At least you have the luxury of doing a little shopping and research.

[Ryan Gallagher]

There is also the niche market of "EDID Managers" and "EDID Force" devices to try... I don't have any personal recommendations among them though.
Cheaper than HDFury devices though if EDID is your only problem.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=EDID+manager