Can't get Pi to work with a Sony SDM-S74 DVI-D monitor

Question

I have just bought a new RaspberryPi that I'm trying to get working with a Sony DVI monitor. I'm hoping someone can help me.

I installed Raspbian on a 8GB card, connected the Pi to a Sony SDM-S74 monitor using a HDMI-to-DVI cable. When I power-up the PI I get nothing displayed on the monitor. The status light on the monitor is amber, indicating no signal.

Three things that I know:

1. The same monitor and hdmi->dvi cable work with my windows 7 laptop's hdmi output, giving me 1280x1024, so I'm confident that cable and monitor are not faulty. 2 If I plug the Pi into my tv (a Sharp Aquos) using a different hdmi cable then I get a good HD display, so I know that the Pi is generating an hdmi signal.
2. If I edit config.txt and add hdmi_safe=1 then I get 640x480 vga on the Sony monitor. This is the only way I can get anything to display on the monitor.
3. According to the monitor's documentation, it supports DVI-D. The connector on the monitor is identical to the one labelled "DVI-D single link" here.

I tried the following commands from the elinux.org configuration wiki:

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ /opt/vc/bin/tvservice -m CEA
Group CEA has 0 modes:
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ /opt/vc/bin/tvservice -m DMT
Group DMT has 0 modes:
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ /opt/vc/bin/tvservice -d edid.dat
Written 128 bytes to edid.dat
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ /opt/vc/bin/edidparser edid.dat
Parsing edid.dat...
HDMI:EDID version 1.3, 0 extensions, screen size 34x27 cm
HDMI:EDID features - videodef 0x80 standby suspend active off; colour encoding:RGB444|YCbCr422; sRGB is not default colourspace; preferred format is native; does not support GTF
HDMI:EDID found monitor range descriptor tag 0xfd
HDMI:EDID monitor range offsets: V min=0, V max=0, H min=0, H max=0
HDMI:EDID monitor range: vertical is 57-63 Hz, horizontal is 28-65 kHz, max pixel clock is 110 MHz
HDMI:EDID monitor range does not support GTF
HDMI:EDID found monitor name descriptor tag 0xfc
HDMI:EDID monitor name is SDM-S74
HDMI:EDID found monitor S/N descriptor tag 0xff
HDMI:EDID found preferred DMT detail timing format: 1280x1024p @ 60 Hz (35)
HDMI:EDID established timing I/II bytes are A1 08 00
HDMI:EDID found DMT format: code 4, 640x480p @ 60 Hz in established timing I/II
HDMI:EDID found DMT format: code 9, 800x600p @ 60 Hz in established timing I/II
HDMI:EDID found DMT format: code 16, 1024x768p @ 60 Hz in established timing I/II
HDMI:EDID standard timings block x 8: 0x8180 8140 0101 0101 0101 0101 0101 0101
HDMI:EDID found DMT format: code 35, 1280x1024p @ 60 Hz (5:4) in standard timing 0
HDMI:EDID found DMT format: code 32, 1280x960p @ 60 Hz (4:3) in standard timing 1
HDMI:EDID filtering formats with pixel clock > 162 MHz or h. blanking > 1023
HDMI:EDID best score mode initialised to DMT (4) 640x480p @ 60 Hz with pixel clock 25 MHz (score 18432)
HDMI:EDID best score mode is now DMT (4) 640x480 @ 60 MHz with pixel clock 25 Hz (score 36864)
HDMI:EDID best score mode is now DMT (9) 800x600 @ 60 MHz with pixel clock 40 Hz (score 57600)
HDMI:EDID best score mode is now DMT (16) 1024x768 @ 60 MHz with pixel clock 65 Hz (score 94370)
HDMI:EDID best score mode is now DMT (32) 1280x960 @ 60 MHz with pixel clock 108 Hz (score 172456)
HDMI:EDID best score mode is now DMT (35) 1280x1024 @ 60 MHz with pixel clock 108 Hz (score 5182286)
HDMI:EDID preferred mode remained as DMT (35) 1280x1024p @ 60 Hz with pixel clock 108 MHz
HDMI:EDID has only DVI support and no audio support

This seems to confirm that I should be using hdmi_group=2 and hdmi_mode=35, but when I add that to config.txt I still get no display.

I've tried probably every combination of hdmi_drive, hdmi_group, hdmi_mode, hdmi_force_hotplug, hdmi_ignore_edid, config_hdmi_boost, and others with no success. The only way I can get anything displayed is with hdmi_safe set. What am I doing wrong? Am I wasting my time with this monitor, even though it works with my laptop?

Is there a wiki somewhere with known good config.txt settings for different monitors. Should there be?

Any help would be very much appreciated.

EDIT: Added config_hdmi_boost to list of commands tried

Answer 1

I now have the Pi working with my Sony monitor.

The problem was that the monitor has a DVI-D single link input connector, but I was using a dual link cable. When I replaced the cable with a single link cable, the monitor started working without requiring any configuration settings.

More information on the difference between single and dual link DVI here.

My thanks to those who responded with helpful suggestions.

Answer 2

I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to Andy Johnson and his Single/Dual link DVI-D suggestion.

My PI4 would never connect to a Sony SDM monitor despite all config files changes I could find on forums. After ordering a new HDMI/DVI cable SINGLE LINK, it worked immediately like a charm.