In the vast majority of cases, simply plugging your HDMI-equipped monitor into the Raspberry Pi using a standard HDMI cable will automatically lead to the Pi using the best resolution the monitor supports. On the Raspberry Pi 4 there are two micro HDMI ports, so you will need either one or two micro-HDMI-to-full-size-HDMI leads or adapters, depending on how many displays you wish to attach. You should connect any HDMI leads before turning on the Raspberry Pi.
The Raspberry Pi 4 can drive up to two displays, with a resolution up to 1080p at a 60Hz refresh rate. At 4K resolution, if you connect two displays then you are limited to a 30Hz refresh rate. You can also drive a single display at 4K with a 60Hz refresh rate: this requires that the display is attached to HDMI port 0. You must also enable 4Kp60 output by setting the hdmi_enable_4kp60=1 flag in config.txt. This flag can also be set using the 'Raspberry Pi Configuration' tool within the desktop environment.
If you are running the 3D graphics driver (also known as the FKMS driver), then in the Preferences menu you will find a graphical application for setting up standard displays, including multi-display setups. See instructions for using the tool here.
If you are using legacy graphics drivers, or find yourself in circumstances where the Raspberry Pi may not be able to determine the best mode, or you may specifically wish to set a non-default resolution, the rest of this page may be useful.
Note that all the commands on this page are documented fully in the config.txt Video documentation.
HDMI has two common groups: CEA (Consumer Electronics Association, the standard typically used by TVs) and DMT (Display Monitor Timings, the standard typically used by monitors). Each group advertises a particular set of modes, where a mode describes the resolution, frame rate, clock rate, and aspect ratio of the output.
You can use the tvservice application on the command line to determine which modes are supported by your device, along with other useful data:
tvservice -sdisplays the current HDMI status, including mode and resolutiontvservice -m CVTlists all supported CVT modestvservice -m DMTlists all supported DMT modes
If you are using a Pi 4 with more than one display attached, then tvservice needs to be told which device to ask for information. You can get display IDs for all attached devices by using:
tvservice -l
You can specify which display tvservice uses by adding -v <display id> to the tvservice command, e.g:
tvservice -v 7 -m CVT, lists all supported CVT modes for display ID 7
Setting a specific mode is done using the hdmi_group and hdmi_mode config.txt entries. The group entry selects between CEA or DMT, and the mode selects the resolution and frame rate. You can find tables of modes on the config.txt Video Configuration page, but you should use the tvservice command described above to find out exactly which modes your device supports.
On the Pi 4, to specify the HDMI port, add an index identifier to the hdmi_group or hdmi_mode entry in config.txt, e.g. hdmi_mode:0 or hdmi_group:1.
There are two options for setting a custom mode: hdmi_cvt and hdmi_timings.
hdmi_cvt sets a custom Coordinated Video Timing entry, which is described fully here: Video Configuration
In certain rare cases it may be necessary to define the exact clock requirements of the HDMI signal. This is a fully custom mode, and it is activated by setting hdmi_group=2 and hdmi_mode=87. You can then use the hdmi_timings config.txt command to set the specific parameters for your display.
hdmi_timings specifies all the timings that an HDMI signal needs to use. These timings are usually found in the datasheet of the display being used.
hdmi_timings=<h_active_pixels> <h_sync_polarity> <h_front_porch> <h_sync_pulse> <h_back_porch> <v_active_pixels> <h_sync_polarity> <h_front_porch> <h_sync_pulse> <h_back_porch> <v_active_lines> <v_sync_polarity> v_front_porch> <v_sync_pulse> <v_back_porch> <v_sync_offset_a> <v_sync_offset_b> <pixel_rep> <frame_rate> <interlaced> <pixel_freq> <aspect_ratio>
| Timing | Purpose |
|---|---|
h_active_pixels |
The horizontal resolution |
h_sync_polarity |
0 or 1 to define the horizontal sync polarity |
h_front_porch |
Number of horizontal front porch pixels |
h_sync_pulse |
Width of horizontal sync pulse |
h_back_porch |
Number of horizontal back porch pixels |
v_active_lines |
The vertical resolution |
v_sync_polarity |
0 or 1 to define the vertical sync polarity |
v_front_porch |
Number of vertical front porch pixels |
v_sync_pulse |
Width of vertical sync pulse |
v_back_porch |
Number of vertical back porch pixels |
v_sync_offset_a |
Leave at 0 |
v_sync_offset_b |
Leave at 0 |
pixel_rep |
Leave at 0 |
frame_rate |
Frame rate of mode |
interlaced |
0 for non-interlaced, 1 for interlaced |
pixel_freq |
The mode pixel frequency |
aspect_ratio |
The aspect ratio required |
aspect_ratio should be one of the following:
| Ratio | aspect_ratio ID |
|---|---|
4:3 |
1 |
14:9 |
2 |
16:9 |
3 |
5:4 |
4 |
16:10 |
5 |
15:9 |
6 |
21:9 |
7 |
64:27 |
8 |
For the Pi4, to specify the HDMI port, you can add an index identifier to the config.txt. e.g. hdmi_cvt:0=... or hdmi_timings:1=.... If no port identifier is specified, the settings are applied to port 0.
In some rare cases you may need to increase the HDMI drive strength, for example when there is speckling on the display or when you are using very long cables. There is a config.txt item to do this, config_hdmi_boost, which is documented on the config.txt video page.
The Raspberry Pi 4B does not yet support config_hdmi_boost, support for this option will be added in a future software update.