[solved] Steam Deck on TV resolution not supported

[kaossino]

I connected the Steam Deck via a usb-c hub and in Desktop mode I can use everything without problems, chrome, programs, etc.
however, when I enter Gaming mode I can see the Steam OS interface and the games, but when I start a game the image no longer arrives on the TV and the message "unsupported mode" appears, I believe that Deck sends 1280x800 and the TV does not support this format (what a brilliant idea to change format from the standard 16: 9).
How can I get a 16: 9 resolution out of the Deck in Gaming mode?

[kaossino]

I add:

in Desktop mode I tried to set the resolution 1280x800 and the TV works ...: \
in the Gaming mode I tried on the single game to set the resolution 1280x720 instead of the default one and even so the TV tells me unsupported mode and to change the resolution.

So I really don't know what to do

[karstux]

I have the exact same issue when connecting the Steam Deck to either a TV or a projector. Gaming Mode UI works, but as soon as I launch a game, the screen goes blank. I don't know what resolution it's outputting when entering a game, but it's not supported by either display. I think both the TV and the projector max out at 1280x720.
I tried using the new "force resolution" feature from the game's settings menu, but that didn't help.

[PopinFRESH]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1675200/view/3220648637499816986

External Display
Work continues on making more external USB-C docks compatible with Steam Deck, as well as making our Steam Deck interface play nice with monitors of various sizes. We just shipped an update that makes the interface now scaled to a virtual 1280x800 resolution when shown on an external display, and we’re continuing to do work to improve external display support.

Its a virtual resolution, meaning it is still outputting at the displays native resolution based on the EDID but the rendering is still being done at 1280x800. They did this because performance when connected to an external 4K display (such as a typical TV now) was terrible and the UI elements were tiny. If you're trying to use a display that is lower resolution, such as a 1080p or 720p TV, try setting the Game Resolution to "Native" instead of "Default" or one of the specific resolutions. This should cause it to output at the displays native resolution based on the EDID information.

That message on your display may also have to do with the refresh rate being unsupported. Check the Steam Deck settings in game mode to see if you've set the refresh rate to something lower than the default 60Hz (this is able to be done per-game now, so you might have set it differently for different games). You can choose to reset the display settings for a game which should revert it back to 60Hz.

[kaossino]

I tried to force the resolution to 1080p (that of the TV) but it didn't work, but I didn't try to make changes on the FPS that I set at 40 (the TV goes up to 60).

[PopinFRESH]

Also try to use the "Native" option like I noted rather than specifically selecting 1920x1080.

Interested to see if that resolves it for you. Either way I'd also recommend going to the pinned thread Links and Resources thread and going to the "I want to report a bug" to report the issue to Valve.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/0/3186864498792143401/

EDIT: Actually I guess that is just a link to the Bug Reports sub forum

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/1/

EDIT2:

It looks like there is another bug report of a similar issue that you could probably post to with your specific details and results.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/1/3410928883766127715/

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by kaossino:

I tried to force the resolution to 1080p (that of the TV) but it didn't work, but I didn't try to make changes on the FPS that I set at 40 (the TV goes up to 60).

Are you absolutely positively sure you're not talking about the screen refresh rate? Because limiting your screen refresh rate to 40 Hz is exactly the kind of stuff TVs can't deal with.

[PopinFRESH]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Originally posted by kaossino:

I tried to force the resolution to 1080p (that of the TV) but it didn't work, but I didn't try to make changes on the FPS that I set at 40 (the TV goes up to 60).

Are you absolutely positively sure you're not talking about the screen refresh rate? Because limiting your screen refresh rate to 40 Hz is exactly the kind of stuff TVs can't deal with.

The frame rate limiter is currently a function of the refresh rate. e.g. 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, and 4/4 of the refresh rate so in order to do 40fps on the frame rate limiter they'd need to have set the refresh rate to 40Hz and the limiter to full. It is still worth noting that those are different things and the actual potential issue is the refresh rate, not the frame rate.

And yeah, a lot of TVs will not support uncommon refresh rates like this and will often only support specific common TV refresh rates such as 23.96Hz/24Hz, 29.97Hz/30Hz, and 59.94Hz/60Hz. Very likely will be something that is addressed by Valve as they continue to improve SteamOS and they will probably introduce a global override for external displays as a further improvement on the changes in 3.2 that added the virtual resolution and configurations for external displays.

[kaossino]

Ok I tried to remove the FPS limit (which constrained the Hz) and now the TV also works in gaming mode, I noticed that the color is very contrasted and I don't know if this can be changed, but it's another problem.

[karstux]

The 40Hz setting was exactly what was causing the issue. Once I set it back up to 60, my TV and projector were showing the game! Thanks @PopInFresh and @ReBoot for the hints.

Of course, with per-game profiles this is going to be a bit difficult if I launch a game where I have set this up. I hope Valve will add a global override, or multiple per-game settings for docked and mobile use cases.

[ReBoot]

You could try 50Hz in the meantime. This is more likely to be supported by TVs/monitors.

[mrbalta]

Just want to say that I had disabled the WiFi power management and that made me lose the connection to TV.

Once I turned it back on, I was good to go again.

[broken_and_bad]

Originally posted by mrbalta:

Just want to say that I had disabled the WiFi power management and that made me lose the connection to TV.

Once I turned it back on, I was good to go again.

In fact I turned it off and everything worked😅🤷‍♂️