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Extended display identification data

Extended display identification data (EDID) is a data structure provided by a computer display to describe its capabilities to a graphics card. It is what enables a modern personal computer to know what kind of monitor is connected. EDID is defined by a standard published by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). The EDID includes manufacturer name, product type, phosphor or filter type, timings supported by the display, display size, luminance data and (for digital displays only) pixel mapping data.

EDID structure 1.0 was defined in 1994; version 1.1 followed in 1996, then 1.2, and 1.3 in 2000. All these define upwards compatible 128 byte structures. EDID structure 2.0 defines a new 256-byte structure.

The channel for transmitting the EDID from the display to the graphics card is usually the I²C bus. The combination of EDID and I²C is called the Display Data Channel version 2, or DDC2. The 2 distinguishes it from VESA's original DDC, which used a different serial format.

Before DDC and EDID were defined, there was no standard way for a graphics card to know what kind of display device it was connected to. Some VGA connectors in personal computers provided a basic form of identification by connecting one, two or three pins to ground, but this coding was not standardized.

The EDID is often stored in the monitor in a memory device called a serial PROM (programmable read-only memory) or EEPROM (electrically erasable PROM) that is compatible with the I²C bus.

Many software packages can read and display the EDID information, such as read-edid and Powerstrip for Microsoft Windows and XFree86 (which will output the EDID to the log if verbose logging is on (startx -- -logverbose 6)) for Linux and BSD unix. Mac OS X natively reads EDID information (see /var/log/system.log or hold down Cmd-V on startup) and programs such as SwitchResX or DisplayConfigX can display the information as well as use it to define custom resolutions.

Enhanced EDID (E-EDID)

Enhanced EDID is based on the EDID version 1.3, but offers support of extensions, which enable EDID 2.0 to be supported as an extension. Data fields for preferred timing, range limits, monitor name are required in E-EDID. E-EDID also supports dual GTF, standard timings aspect ratio change.

With the use of extensions, E-EDID string can be lengthened up to 32KiBytes.

EDID Extensions assigned by VESA

Timing Extension (00h)
Additional Timing Data Block (CEA EDID Timing Extension) (02h)
Video Timing Block Extension (VTB-EXT) (10h)
EDID 2.0 Extension (20h)
Display Information Extension (DI-EXT) (40h)
Localized String Extension (LS-EXT) (50h)
Microdisplay Interface Extension (MI-EXT) (60h)
Display Transfer Characteristics Data Block (DTCDB) (A7h, AFh, BFh)
Block Map (F0h)
Display Device Data Block (DDDB) (FFh)
Extension defined by monitor manufacturer (FFh): According to LS-EXT, actual contents varies from manufacturer. However, the value is later used by DDDB.

Limitations

Some graphics card drivers have historically coped poorly with the EDID, using only its standard timing descriptors rather than its Detailed Timing Descriptors (DTDs). Even in cases where the DTDs were read, the drivers are/were still often limited by the standard timing descriptor limitation that the horizontal/vertical resolutions must be evenly divisible by 8. This means that many graphics cards cannot express the native resolutions of the most common wide screen flat panel displays and liquid crystal display televisions. The number of vertical pixels is calculated from the horizontal resolution and the selected aspect ratio. To be fully expressible, the size of wide screen display must thus be a multiple of 16×9 pixels. For 1366×768 pixel Wide XGA panels the nearest resolution expressible in the EDID standard timing descriptor syntax is 1360×765 pixels. Specifying 1368 pixels as the screen width would yield an unnatural screen height of 769.5 pixels.

Many Wide XGA panels do not advertise their native resolution in the standard timing descriptors, instead offering only a resolution of 1280×768. Some panels advertise a resolution only slightly smaller than the native, such as 1360×765. For these panels to be able to show a pixel perfect image, the EDID data must be ignored by the display driver or the driver must correctly interpret the DTD and be able to resolve resolutions whose size is not divisible by 8. Special programs are available to override the standard timing descriptors from EDID data; PowerStrip for Microsoft Windows and SwitchResX for Mac OS X.

EDID 1.1 data format

Byte sequence 00–07: Header information 08–17: Complete serial number

 08–09: Manufacturer ID

 10–11: Product ID Code (little-endian)

 12–15: Serial Number (little-endian)

 16: Week of Manufacture

 17: Year of Manufacture.  Add 1990 to the value for actual year.

18: EDID Version Number 19: EDID Revision Number 20-24: Basic Display Parameters

 20: VIDEO INPUT DEFINITION

   bit 7: 0=analog, 1=digital

   if bit 7 is digital:

     bit 0: 1=DFP 1.x compatible

   if bit 7 is analog:

     bit 6-5: video level

      00=0.7, 0.3, 01=0.714, 0.286, 10=1, .4 11=0.7, 0

     bit 4: blank-to-black setup

     bit 3: separate syncs

     bit 2: composite sync

     bit 1: sync on green

     bit 0: serration vsync

 21: Maximum Horizontal Image Size (in centimeters).

 22: Maximum Vertical Image Size (in centimetres).

 23: Display Gamma.  Divide by 100, then add 1 for actual value.

 24: Power Management and Supported Feature(s):

   bit 7: standby

   bit 6: suspend

   bit 5: active-off/low power

   bit 4-3: display type.

     00=monochrome, 01=RGB colour, 10=non RGB multicolour, 11=undefined

   bit 2: standard colour space

   bit 1: preferred timing mode

   bit 0: default GTF supported

25-34: CHROMA INFO

 25: low significant bits for Red X (bit 7-6), Red Y (bit 5-4), Green X (bit 3-2), Green Y (bit 1-0).

 26: low significant bits for Blue X (bit 7-6), Blue Y (bit 5-4), White X (bit 3-2), White Y (bit 1-0).

 27–34: high significant bits for Red X, Red Y, Green X, Green Y, Blue X, Blue Y, White X, White Y.

 To decode actual value, rearrange bits as follows:

 High significant bits 7-0 for (channel), low significant bits for (channel).

   Actual value is between 0.000 and 0.999, but encoded value is between 000h and 3FFh.

35: ESTABLISHED TIMING I

 bit 7-0: 720×400@70 Hz, 720×400@88 Hz, 640×480@60 Hz, 640×480@67 Hz,

          640×480@72 Hz, 640×480@75 Hz, 800×600@56 Hz, 800×600@60 Hz

36: ESTABLISHED TIMING II

 bit 7-0: 800×600@72 Hz, 800×600@75 Hz, 832×624@75 Hz, 1024×768@87 Hz (Interlaced),

          1024×768@60 Hz, 1024×768@70 Hz, 1024×768@75 Hz, 1280×1024@75 Hz

37: Manufacturer's Reserved Timing

 00h for none

 bit 7: 1152x870 @ 75 Hz (Mac II, Apple)

38–53: Standard Timing Identification. 2 bytes for each record.

 First byte

   Horizontal resolution.  Multiply by 8, then add 248 for actual value.

 Second byte

   bit 7-6: Aspect ratio.  Actual vertical resolution depends on horizontal resolution.

     00=16:10, 01=4:3, 10=5:4, 11=16:9

   bit 5-0: Vertical frequency.  Adds 60 to get actual value.

54–71: Descriptor Block 1

 54–55: Pixel Clock (in 10 kHz) or 0

 If Pixel Clock is non null:

   56: Horizontal Active (in pixels)

   57: Horizontal Blanking (in pixels)

   58: Horizontal Active high (4 upper bits)

       Horizontal Blanking high (4 lower bits)

   59: Vertical Active (in pixels)

   60: Vertical Blanking (in vertical pixels/lines)

   61: high significant bits for Vertical Active (4 upper bits)

       high significant bits for Vertical Blanking (4 lower bits)

   62: Horizontal Sync Offset (in pixels)

   63: Horizontal Sync Pulse Width (in pixels)

   64: Vertical Sync Offset (in lines) (4 upper bits)

       Vertical Sync Pulse Width (in lines) (4 lower bits)

   65: high significant bits for Horizontal Sync Offset (bit 7-6)

       high significant bits for Horizontal Sync Pulse Width (bit 5-4)

       high significant bits for Vertical Sync Offset (bit 3-2)

       high significant bits for Vertical Sync Pulse Width (bit 1-0)

   66: Horizontal Image Size (in mm)

   67: Vertical Image Size (in mm)

   68: high significant bits for Horizontal Image Size (4 upper bits)

       high significant bits for Vertical Image Size (4 lower bits)

   69: Horizontal Border

   70: Vertical Border

   71: Interlaced or not (bit 7)

       Stereo or not (bit 6-5) ("00" means not)

       Separate Sync or not (bit 4-3)

       Vertical Sync positive or not (bit 2)

       Horizontal Sync positive or not (bit 1)

       Stereo Mode (bit 0) (unused if 6-5 are 00)

 If Pixel Clock is null:

   56: 0

   57: Block type

     FFh=Monitor Serial Number, FEh=ASCII string, FDh=Monitor Range Limits, FCh=Monitor name,

     FBh=Colour Point Data, FAh, Standard Timing Data, F9h=Currently undefined, F8h=defined by manufacturer

   58: Unknown

   59–71: Descriptor block contents.

     If block type is FFh, FEh, or FCh, the entire area is a text string.

     If block type is FDh:

       59–63:

         Min Vertical frequency, Max Vertical frequency,

         Min Horizontal frequency (in kHz), Max Horizontal frequency (in kHz), pixel clock (in MHz (multiply by 10 for actual value))

       64–65: Secondary GTF toggle

         If encoded value is 000A, bytes 59-63 are used.  If encoded value is 0200, bytes 67–71 are used.

       66: Start horizontal frequency (in kHz).  Multiply by 2 for actual value.

       67: C. Divide by 2 for actual value.

       68-69: M (little endian).

       70: K

       71: J. Divide by 2 for actual value.

     If block type is FBh:

       59: W Index 0.  If set to 0, bytes 60-63 are not used.  If set to 1, 61–63 are assigned to white point index #1

       64: W Index 1.  If set to 0, bytes 65-68 are not used.  If set to 2, 65–68 are assigned to white point index #2

       White point index structure:

         First byte

           bit 3-2: low significant bits for White X (bit 3-2), White Y (bit 1-0)

         Second to third byte: high significant bits for White X, White Y.

         Fourth byte: Gamma.  Divide by 100, then add 1 for actual value.

         To decode White X and White Y, see bytes 25-34.

     If block type is FAh:

       59–70: Standard Timing Identification.  2 bytes for each record.

         For structure details, see bytes 38-53.

72–89: Descriptor Block 2 90–107: Descriptor Block 3 108–125: Descriptor Block 4 126: Extension EDID Block(s). In EDID 1.1, it is ignored, and should be set to 0. In EDID 1.3, this is the number of

     extension blocks which follow the first.

127: Checksum.

For example, here is a summary of the data reported by an Envision EN-775e monitor:

 Monitor Name                 EPI EnVision EN-775e

 Monitor ID                   EPID775

 Model                        EN-775e

 Manufacture Date             Week 26 / 2002

 Serial Number                1226764172

 Max. Visible Display Size    32 cm × 24 cm (15.7 in)

 Picture Aspect Ratio         4:3

 Horizontal Frequency         30–72 kHz

 Vertical Frequency           50–160 Hz

 Maximum Resolution           1280×1024

 Gamma                        2.20

 DPMS Mode Support            Active-Off

Supported Video Modes:

 640×480                    140 Hz

 800×600                    110 Hz

 1024×768                   85 Hz

 1152×864                   75 Hz

 1280×1024                  65 Hz

Monitor Manufacturer:

 Company Name                 Envision, Inc.

Extension Block Details

The CEA EDID Timing Extension was first introduced in EIA/CEA-861, and has since been updated several times, most notably with the -861B revision (which was version 3 of the extension, adding Short Video Descriptors and advanced audio capability/configuration information) and -861D (which is the most recent and contains updates to the audio segments).

Version 1 (as defined in -861) allowed the specification of video timings only through the used of 18-byte Detailed Timing Descriptors (as detailed in EDID 1.1 data format above). In all cases, the "preferred" timing should be the first DTD listed in a CEA EDID Timing Extension.

Version 2 (as defined in -861A) added the capability to designate a number of DTDs as "native" and also included some "basic discovery" functionality for whether the display device contains support for "basic audio", YCbCr pixel formats, and underscan.

Per Version 3 (from the -861B spec), there are two different ways to specify the timings of available DTV formats: via the use of 18-byte Detailed Timing Descriptors as in Version 1 & 2, and via the use of the Short Video Descriptor (see below).

Included in Version 3 are four new optional types of data blocks: Video Data Blocks (containing the aforementioned Short Video Descriptors), Audio Data Blocks (containing Short Audio Descriptors), Speaker Allocation Data Blocks (containing information about the speaker configuration of the display device), and Vendor Specific Data Blocks (which can contain information specific to a given vendor's use).

CEA EDID Timing Extension Version 3 data format

Byte sequence 00: Extension tag (which kind of extension block this is); 02h for CEA EDID 01: Revision number (Version number); 03h for Version 3 02: Byte number "d" within this block where the 18-byte DTDs begin. If no non-DTD data is present in this extension block, the value

    should be set to 04h (the byte after next).  If set to 00h, there are no DTDs present in this block and no non-DTD data.

03: Number of DTDs present, other Version 2+ information

    bit 7: 1 if display supports underscan, 0 if not

    bit 6: 1 if display supports basic audio, 0 if not

    bit 5: 1 if display supports YCbCr 4:4:4, 0 if not

    bit 4: 1 if display supports YCbCr 4:2:2, 0 if not

    bit 3..0: total number of native formats in the DTDs included in this block

04: Start of Data Block Collection. If byte 02 is set to 04h, this is where the DTD collection begins. If byte 02 is set to another

    value, byte 04 is where the Data Block Collection begins, and the DTD collection follows immediately thereafter.

The Data Block Collection contains one or more data blocks detailing video, audio, and speaker placement information about the display. The blocks can be placed in any order, and the initial byte of each block defines both its type and its length:

    bit 7..5: Block Type Tag (1 is audio, 2 is video, 3 is vendor specific, 4 is speaker allocation, all other values Reserved)

    bit 4..0: Total number of bytes in this block following this byte

  Once one data block has ended, the next byte is assumed to be the beginning of the next data block.  This is the case until the byte

      (designated in Byte 02, above) where the DTDs are known to begin.

  Any Audio Data Block contains one or more 3-byte Short Audio Descriptors (SADs).  Each SAD details audio format, channel number, and

      bitrate/resolution capabilities of the display as follows:

   SAD Byte 1 (format and number of channels):

      bit 7: Reserved (0)

      bit 6..3: Audio format code

        1 = Linear Pulse Code Modulation (LPCM)

        2 = AC-3

        3 = MPEG1 (Layers 1 and 2)

        4 = MP3

        5 = MPEG2

        6 = AAC

        7 = DTS

        8 = ATRAC

        0, 15: Reserved

        9 = One-bit audio aka SACD

       10 = DD+

       11 = DTS-HD

       12 = MLP/Dolby TrueHD

       13 = DST Audio

       14 = Microsoft WMA Pro

      bit 2..0: number of channels minus 1  (i.e. 000 = 1 channel; 001 = 2 channels; 111 = 8 channels)

   SAD Byte 2 (sampling frequencies supported):

      bit 7: Reserved (0)

      bit 6: 192kHz

      bit 5: 176kHz

      bit 4: 96kHz

      bit 3: 88kHz

      bit 2: 48kHz

      bit 1: 44kHz

      bit 0: 32kHz

   SAD Byte 3 (bitrate):

     For LPCM, bits 7:3 are reserved and the remaining bits define bit depth

      bit 2: 24 bit

      bit 1: 20 bit

      bit 0: 16 bit

     For all other sound formats, bits 7..0 designate the maximium supported bitrate divided by 8kHz.

  Any Video Data Block will contain one or more 1-byte Short Video Descriptors (SVDs).  They are

decoded as follows:

      bit 7: 1 to designate that this should be considered a "native" resolution, 0 for non-native

      bit 6..0: index value to a table of standard resolutions/timings from CEA/EIA-861B:

         1     640x480p @ 59.94/60Hz 4:3

         2     720x480p @ 59.94/60Hz 4:3

         3     720x480p @ 59.94/60Hz 16:9

         4    1280x720p @ 59.94/60Hz 16:9

         5   1920x1080i @ 59.94/60Hz 16:9

         6     720x480i @ 59.94/60Hz 4:3

         7     720x480i @ 59.94/60Hz 16:9

         8     720x240p @ 59.94/60Hz 4:3

         9     720x240p @ 59.94/60Hz 16:9

        10    2880x480i @ 59.94/60Hz 4:3

        11    2880x480i @ 59.94/60Hz 16:9

        12    2880x240p @ 59.94/60Hz 4:3

        13    2880x240p @ 59.94/60Hz 16:9

        14    1440x480p @ 59.94/60Hz 4:3

        15    1440x480p @ 59.94/60Hz 16:9

        16   1920x1080p @ 59.94/60Hz 16:9

        17     720x576p @ 50Hz 4:3

        18     720x576p @ 50Hz 16:9

        19    1280x720p @ 50Hz 16:9

        20   1920x1080i @ 50Hz 16:9

        21     720x576i @ 50Hz 4:3

        22     720x576i @ 50Hz 16:9

        23     720x288p @ 50Hz 4:3

        24     720x288p @ 50Hz 16:9

        25    2880x576i @ 50Hz 4:3

        26    2880x576i @ 50Hz 16:9

        27    2880x288p @ 50Hz 4:3

        28    2880x288p @ 50Hz 16:9

        29    1440x576p @ 50Hz 4:3

        30    1440x576p @ 50Hz 16:9

        31   1920x1080p @ 50Hz 16:9

        32   1920x1080p @ 23.97/24Hz 16:9

        33   1920x1080p @ 25Hz 16:9

        34   1920x1080p @ 29.97/30Hz 16:9

        0, 35 - 127   Reserved

  A Vendor Specific Data Block (if any) contains as its first three bytes the vendor's IEEE

24-bit registration number, LSB first. It is usually followed by a three byte source physical address, LSB first. The source physical address provides the CEC physical address for upstream CEC devices. The remainder of the Vendor Specific Data Block is the "data payload",which can be anything the vendor considers worthy of inclusion in this EDID extension block.

  If a Speaker Allocation Data Block is present, it will consist of three bytes.  The second and

third are Reserved (all 0), but the first contains information about which speakers are present in the display device:

        bit 7: Reserved (0)

        bit 6: Rear Left Center / Rear Right Center present for 1, absent for 0

        bit 5: Front Left Center / Front Right Center present for 1, absent for 0

        bit 4: Rear Center present for 1, absent for 0

        bit 3: Rear Left / Rear Right present for 1, absent for 0

        bit 2: Front Center present for 1, absent for 0

        bit 1: LFE present for 1, absent for 0

        bit 0: Front Left / Front Right present for 1, absent for 0

   Note that for speakers with right and left polarity, it is assumed that both

   left and right are present.

"d": byte (designated in byte 02) where DTDs begin. 18-byte DTD strings continue for an unspecified length (modulo 18) until a "00 00" is as the first bytes of a prospective DTD. At this point, the DTDs are known to be complete, and the start address of the "00 00" can be considered to be "XX" (see below) "XX"-126: Post-DTD padding. Should be populated with 00h 127: Checksum.

Disabling DDI/CI and EDID detection

On Microsoft Windows (Versions XP and above), there is no software provided option to disable plug and play monitor detection. This causes problems with computer/monitor switching applications and causes computer games to select display resolutions higher than the monitor is physically capable of displaying resulting in a garbled display.

In these circumstances, it may be necessary to remove pin 12 from the monitor VGA cable, to disable plug and play monitor detection. This allows display resolution to be selected manually and not overridden when the display adapter is removed and reinserted or the KVM switch is operated.

On Mac OS X, there is no option to disable EDID detection. This makes using a Mac connected to a DVI/HDMI video switcher very difficult (common scenario would be to use a Mac Mini as HTPC, hooked up to a HDTV through an AV receiver with HDMI switcher built in), as when the video is switched to a different source, the EDID information is not being relayed from the TV to the computer, therefore the operating system shuts down the video, the computer must be restarted to recover. There are hardware based solutions to this problem (like Gefen's DVI Detective unit, which can be programmed to broadcast the display's EDID to the computer even when the switcher is on a different source, or the TV is disconnected altogether).