Mac Mini randomly doesn't detect Smart TV display
I just purchased a 2018 Mac Mini after my 2011 Mini was starting to show its age (Chrome would send resources into overdrive and was unusable). The new machine came pre-loaded with Big Sur. I used the Mac Migration Assistant to move everything to the new machine. I have been using this Samsung smart TV as a display for a few years now with no problems - in fact I remember when I first connected it to the 2011 Mini it recognized it right away as a computer. The TV does not recognize the 2018 as a computer - no big deal.
What is a big deal is that every once in a while when I come back to the computer after the TV has been turned off, the TV does not see any signal from my computer. I have found many others complaining about this effecting their 2018 models as well as the newer M1 models. I have Chrome Remote Desktop installed and connected to my phone, so I opened that on my phone to see if the computer was indeed running and it was, so I went into System Preferences>Display to see if it said "SAMSUNG" like it does when it's working properly (remember, this is looking at my Mac through Remote Desktop) and in display it said "Built-In Retina Display". Here's a screenshot from my phone:
Obviously my Mac Mini does not have a built in Retina display. It also seems to be disconnecting from my external hard drive connected via USB because I'll see a "disk improperly ejected" pop-up in the upper corner. The only way to get the TV and Mac to see each other again is a full restart, either through a hard power-cycle, or in this case I was able to navigate to the shut down option. I tried unplugging and plugging back in the HDMI cable as others have suggested and that doesn't work. A soft reset through the menu doesn't work. It has to fully shut down. It doesn't do this every time - I left it alone all night and it was working fine this morning, but then just now I left the house for maybe half and hour and came back to a dead connection.
Obviously this is unsustainable. I don't want to have to return this computer and go back to my 2011 but I've had it less than a week and that might have to be an option to consider. What are my other options that would fix this?
Mac mini, macOS 11.6
