Which Windows 8.1 Tablet to output 4K to external TV?

[neonplanet40]

Hi Folks,

Currently I am involved with my school and local council regarding new hardware for the classroom. We are lucky to be getting a brand new school next year and are currently looking for hardware to use in the classroom. Management already have ideas but they aren't very technical minded and as such, I am trying to save money and help make correct decisions.

Currently we have 2 different systems to trial which are already installed.

1. A low res (HD Ready) short throw projector which looks terrible. It is installed in my room and I am not impressed. The council wish to stick with Epson and they do not offer a high definition alternative.

2. A 4K fully interactive Smart tv which I think is 70-75 inches. However, no-one in the school even knew it was 4K (both management/technicians and the council) and it is currently being fed by a vga/hdmi adaptor - hdmi switch - 12m HDMI cable and then the tv. It doesn't look great to say the least!

The school has provided me with a Windows 8.1 Tablet (Toshiba WT310-108) to use in the classroom. It has HDMi so I hooked it up to the tv directly and the picture was excellent but still 'only' HD 1080p. Turns out this ultrabook can't output anything above 1080p. So, my question:

What ultrabook/tablet etc using full on windows can output a 4K signal to an external TV? It won't be used for gaming etc, just multimedia, word, internet etc etc.

Thanks for your help!

Mark

[EndlessWaves]

If you want to run it optimally you'll need HDMI 2.0 (HDMI 1.3 and 1.4 are limited to 30hz). This was only released in late 2013 so most of the GPUs out now were too late in their development cycle to support it. nVidia's GM2__ chips support it but you're unlikely to find a 965M, 970M or 980M in an ultrabook or tablet, although there are one or two slim gaming machines that might qualify (but expect prices to be £1000 or more).

I'm not sure about android tablets or which tablets/ultrabooks would support 3840x2160@30hz if you were willing to settle for that.

Intel's GPUs are likely to support it with the release of Skylake at the end of this year.

If the interactive screen has a DisplayPort input then that's a better bet than HDMI as it's supported 3840x2160@60hz for several years longer. Support among hardware isn't ubiquitous and you might have to opt for a more powerful laptop than an ultrabook but it should be cheaper than a high end gaming machine.

It's difficult to find concrete information, but it seems like Intel's U series processors (at least the Haswell ones) don't support 3840x2160 over DisplayPort directly but do work with displays using MST capability which pretend to be two 1920x2160 screens side by side (SST being the normal method).

[Rob_B]

Looking to output at 4k doesn't sound like it would go hand in hand with saving money? Is outputting 'only' at 1080p that bad? Sounds like you're speccing for what you'd want not what meets the requirements i.e. Word docs