I feel a bit sheepish having to ask this, but has anyone successfully gotten their deck to display on a LG TV (C2 to be precise)? I have the official dock and that works for other devices like my laptop or surface pro but no dice with the deck itself.
I've tried various things like resetting the device, resetting the dock, changing the order of connection them all up but not managed to get anything to show it. I also checked that the HDMI cable I'm using works for up to 8k. A bit frustrating as one of the reasons I got the device was to be the living room PC/link to my gaming PC!
I had this same issue with an LG OLED monitor. I'm not 100% sure this was the solution as it was long ago, but you need to NOT have the USB-C power cable connected to the dock, just the HDMI. Connect the Deck to the dock and you'll get image. After this you can plug the dock back to the power cable.
Annecdotaly, a recent patch had notes that implied it fixes this issue. I got so tired of the dock being unreliable that I haven't confirmed it, though.
In steam deck settings, there's an option for external monitor safe made. This limits resolution/refresh rate/hdr to improve compatibility. You can also try manually limiting external monitor resolution.
I know I had an issue where an slightly older TV I had started rejecting signal inputs if the resolution was too high or hdr was on. Originally I thought my deck's video output was broken, but I tried a 4k chromecast and the TV couldn't display it either (despite being a TV that had previously supported 4k and HDR). Limiting to 1080p with HDR off made everything work again.
Wait, just so I’m understanding, the dock works with the LG TV if you connect your laptop or Surface Pro, but not your Steam Deck? If so, it sounds like there’s either a setting on your Steam Deck that needs to be changed or the Deck itself is faulty.
I was just going to say. I have 2 LG TVs at home, not the official SD dock, but a couple of aftermarket ones, and they both work perfectly fine.
Also, LG TVs are notoriously slow to display after a change of HDMI (1 to 2 for example), so make sure you give it a few seconds (both my TVs can take up to 10 seconds to display).
That is weird, so you've tried the exact same setup with a different TV and it worked?
I wonder if it's the resolution, or maybe HDR settings? What is different about the other TV if it works there? 1080p only? I'm just spitballing trying to get gears moving
I don't have another TV however I tried to connect the deck to my main gaming monitor through the dock and was still unsuccessful... Yet it works perfectly with the surface pro.
I'm definitely thinking there's a setting in the deck that needs to be tweaked?
Not a dumb question, I have seen my Deck carry some weird bugs across a reboot. I don't even bother with the reboot command anymore, it takes about the same time to shut down and turn back on.
Although some months ago and a few times it wasn't showing anything on the tv. A full shutdown of the deck, and only after booting fully then plugging the USB C cable seemed to have fixed it.
Upon checking the Steam Display settings..... You could try toggling the External display safe mode button to on.
I know on Desktop mode when it is docked, under KDE Plasmas' System Settings > Display Configuration when docked, should have more resolution and refresh rate options. For the TV display
So I just noticed on my OLED solo on the screen it only allowed 90hz. Brb after more science. But there's probably a way to keep the external at 60hz and the deck display separate.
So I have my TV fed through my sound bar, but it does let me make sure it's 60hz and 4k ✅
For context having them the same refresh rate only matters if you were playing on a PC and streaming to the Deck TV set-up over Steam Play.
Everytime I run my steamdeck on my tv i have to do this precisely in this order
0. Turn off steamdeck
1.unplug steamdeck and disconnect video cable (hdmi)
2.turn on tv and choose hdmi 1 for input
3. Turn on steamdeck
4. Once turned on plug in hdmi cable
5. Video should turn off on steamdeck and turn on on tv
6. Now plug in power to steamdeck
I found this solution online in a forum after much searching. Its like witchcraft but must be done exactly in this order. Gerd lerk, lemme know if it works.
The dock has 2 cords. The power cord and the hdmi that plugs into the top of steam deck. In my instructions im calling the plug that goes into the top the hdmi. The power cord for the dock i just unplug at the wall