S2721DGF, 4K downscale support, PS5 solution

Question

Hi everyone, I signed into this forum to spread some awareness (future google searches etc). Last year I bought a Dell S2721DGF, a cheaper GL/GN850 so a fantastic monitor. One annoyance I had is that the PS5 (Sony) does not support 1440p, and the Dell does not accept a 4K signal and downscale (through the PS5) like some other monitors can do. However, I have found a way to mimic/ emulate this feature.Yesterday, while looking into some other issue I came across a passing comment on the internet that mentioned something called an EDID emulator. I bought one off Amazon for about £20 (Brand: Evanlak, the 4K one). My item arrived today. I plugged the device into the back of my monitor and connected the PS5 (I turned off HDCP beforehand). My PS5 now outputs 4K and the Dell picks it up and downscales for a much sharper image. The color format is YUV420 (I don't know if this is a bad thing or not but games looked good to me). HDR is not supported (I personally don't use HDR on this monitor).Initial round of testing (playing one match in cold war), I did not notice any input lag. If/ when I manage to get some more gaming done and if I notice that something is off I'll update, or if someone else notices please do let us know. Ultimately, I am pretty happy with this simple device as it lets me use the Dell to its fullest in terms of resolution sharpness. It's a solution that works for me until sony patches in 1440p support or better more feature rich (HDR, HDMI 2.1 etc) monitors become readily available. Hope this helps someone.

Archibaldish · Answer

Thank you mate

jphughan · Answer

I don't understand how an EDID emulator is coming into play here. I'm familiar with what an EDID emulator does, but I don't understand how that achieves the advertised end result here. If you have a display that doesn't support receiving a 4K signal, you can use an EDID emulator in-line to tell the source device that the display DOES support 4K. But while that should allow the source device to be configured to transmit a 4K signal, it wouldn't do anything about the display's ability to accept that signal. An EDID emulator isn't a video scaler, so it wouldn't take a 4K signal and downscale it to 1440p internally. And if the display won't handle a 4K signal, then adding an EDID emulator in-line to force a source device to send that signal won't magically make the display capable of handling it.

But if this does in fact work as advertised by the OP, then that to me suggests that the Dell display in question doesn't "advertise" support for a 4K signal in its EDID, even though its firmware will apparently accept and downscale a 4K signal if it receives one anyway. If that's true, that's good info to have, although that does NOT mean that this EDID emulator will deliver this end result with all 1440p displays. (Although if this does work with this display, it does make me wonder why Dell didn't design the display to advertise 4K support in its own EDID.)

SN4K3-AK-47 · Answer

This here is a video on the exact EDID emulator I purchased.

This friendly youtuber created a video on it, after reading a comment I made on one of his videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAJEMLpRALc

SN4K3-AK-47 · Answer

@jphughan wrote:

I don't understand how an EDID emulator is coming into play here. I'm familiar with what an EDID emulator does, but I don't understand how that achieves the advertised end result here. If you have a display that doesn't support receiving a 4K signal, you can use an EDID emulator in-line to tell the source device that the display DOES support 4K. But while that should allow the source device to be configured to transmit a 4K signal, it wouldn't do anything about the display's ability to accept that signal. An EDID emulator isn't a video scaler, so it wouldn't take a 4K signal and downscale it to 1440p internally. And if the display won't handle a 4K signal, then adding an EDID emulator in-line to force a source device to send that signal won't magically make the display capable of handling it.

But if this does in fact work as advertised by the OP, then that to me suggests that the Dell display in question doesn't "advertise" support for a 4K signal in its EDID, even though its firmware will apparently accept and downscale a 4K signal if it receives one anyway. If that's true, that's good info to have, although that does NOT mean that this EDID emulator will deliver this end result with all 1440p displays. (Although if this does work with this display, it does make me wonder why Dell didn't design the display to advertise 4K support in its own EDID.)

So this EDID emulator simply tells the source (PS5) to transmit a 4K signal. It's not doing the downscaling.

It is the display that is downscaling to 1440p from 4K. I don't know enough to comment much on this but the LG 1440p displays do this scaling automatically (as in they accept a 4K signal without an emulator and downscale). I believe the Dell S2721DGF uses LG panels, so that might explain it's ability to accept and downscale the 4K signal (but with the emulator).

Not sure why the dell doesn't accept the signal on it's own (something to do with EDID tables and handshakes in the firmware, I forgot my research on this as it has been a while).

There are other 1440p monitors out there that can accept and downscale automatically like the LGs.

Yes to your final statement, that is true. This is not a solution that would work on all monitors (as the monitor needs to have that downscale capability), it's just my experience with the Dell.

I ordered the emulator from Amazon, so if it did not work I would have returned it. It was worth the experiment for me.

Monitors

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