Win-10 Pro USB-C video output to desktop monitor

wintenprouser · 11 Feb 2021

I have a notebook computer with Win-10 Pro OEM on since late 2019 and recently updated to the 2020 October OS update. I have a desktop monitor with USB-C video input, but am unsure how to direct Win-10 to output video to the USB-C port. The only thing I could find is that the computer's motherboard BIOS / UEFI set up allows the user to choose the on-board LCD or external display, or both / automatic mode. From what I understand all audio / video streams will be carried through USB-C connection but have never tried this before and unsure how to do it. The desktop monitor has much higher native resolution than that on the computer, which is full HD 1920 x 1080 native resolution. Thanks for any starter tips / steps advice.

hsehestedt · 11 Feb 2021

Not all USB-C ports can carry video natively. Your USB-C port will need to have support for "Alternative Mode", often simply referred to as "Alt Mode".

See this article for details:

Everything You Need to Know About USB-C Video

Another good reference:

Definitive Guide to USB-C Alternate Modes - Cable Chick Blog

It's important to note too that the cable needs to be of the proper type. For example, it's entirely possible to have a cable that has USB-C connectors on both ends but won't do anything more than USB 2 speeds and that will not support any Alt Modes.

BTW, you may want to update your computer specs in your profile. From that, we might be able to look up the specs to see if your particular system supports Alt Modes, and if so, which ones.

wintenprouser · 11 Feb 2021

Thanks for the resources. I'm getting a feeling that this particular unit's USB-C port may not have Alt-mode and so might not support video output. But I'll review all the resources and look into it further.

<Hours later>
I've looked into the notebook computer some more and realized that I had forgotten it has HDMI output since I don't actually handle the unit directly much due to most of the time running a local Windows remote assistance window to the notebook so that the notebook is mostly used as a CPU box while its contents are displayed within a Windows remote window on the external Q-HD desktop display on another Windows desktop computer, and the notebook's display is closed most of the time during operation.

Since it would be quite simple to connect HDMI output to the HDMI input of the desktop high resolution Q-HD display, and the fact that the notebook's Intel UHD Graphics 620 chipset and its control panel under Win-10 has a section which allows initiating multiple monitor detection, my guess is that when connected, the external monitor should be detected and at that point the video output could be selected to output to an external destination via settings in the Intel video control panel on the notebook. This should look promising for playback of HD signals such as commercial BDs, if required, from the notebook.