Sony 1080p horizontal flicker

[Weidass]

hey guys. I bought a KDL40D3500 a couple of weeks ago, and have been having a slight problem with it.

Basically, when i hook up my pc, via dvi>hdmi, whenever there is movement on the screen, any horizontal lines displayed on the screen, flicker. Vertical lines arent affected.

the refresh rate is set to 60Hz, but the flickering doesnt go away when i lower the refresh rate. The only way to get rid of it, is to lower the resolution from 1920x1080, to 1366x768.

I know that its not my TV or my graphics card, so i can only assume its something to do with the timing from the gfx card.

I have tested 3 different sony screens. My one, another KDL40d3500, and a KDL40V3000. They all suffer from this horizontal flicker.

Because I work in the shop, I also had the oppertunity to test a Sony Vaio on the three screens, with the same result.

However, i also tested on a samsung LE46N87, and whilst the flickering was gone, the image quality was not the same as any of the sonys.

I have tried fiddling with the timings such as front porch and all that malarky, but tbh, i aint got a clue what im fiddling with.

I was hoping that someone on here may have a clue before i go to sony (who i know wont have a clue)
ta muchly.

 

[Kuntsi]

I have exactly the same problem.
It seems it does not do this with interlaced resolutions (1080i/xxhz). But every progressive resolution resolution is affected (down to 480p).

Also, there is some problem with text and subpixels (windows cleartype). The subpixel antialiasing shows clearly r-g-b colors in the antialias pixels. This does not happen with interlaced modes.
Here is an image resembling what it looks like:

(Made with PS, the effect is a bit provoked. The colors are based on the what character is in question and position on the screen)

When watching movies all this is unnoticable BUT every time flicker hits it makes doubleframes or skips one frame (like pc wasn't fast enough to handle the video) -> really horrible for 1080p/24hz enjoyment.

What operating system and gfx card are you using?
Vista 64bit + 8800gt (latest WHQL drivers) + kdl40v3000 here, tv bought few days ago.

Any help would be much appreciated!

 

[Kuntsi]

I just called sony customer support and they said it is because my PC does not support HDCP. Can this be true?!
Do sony's LCDs only accept HDCP signal?

The picture is otherwise perfect, i thought hdcp messed up the picture much worse.

 

[StriderX7]

All 8800GT's have HDCP Compliant GPU's, but it depends on the manufacturer as to whether they have the actual HDCP chip on the card. By manufacturer I mean companies like EVGA, Sapphire, BFG etc.

A friend has this card - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139408/show_product_reviews with pretty much the same TV I think, and it works fine.

I have a question though. I still have an old Radeon 9250 card connected to a new Samsung 22" widescreen monitor via DVI>DVI.

The screen has a sticker on it clearly stating "HDCP". Surely my old Radeon 9250 doesn't have HDCP?

Or does it only apply to HDMI connections?

 

[Kuntsi]

I checked, my gfx card should support hdcp and cyberlink advisor says hdcp is ok.

So this has to do something with my computer, tv, dvi-hdmi cable or just some settings. At its current state, 24hz mode is horrible
Any ideas?

 

[dibdab]

I just called sony customer support and they said it is because my PC does not support HDCP. Can this be true?!
Do sony's LCDs only accept HDCP signal?

The picture is otherwise perfect, i thought hdcp messed up the picture much worse.

I was using a card that wasn't HDCP compliant on my V3000 and i didn't have the problems your having. It was perfect.

 

[Kuntsi]

Now that i look really close, the flickering is actually darker line bleeding to its upper and lower whiter line. And better picture is seen when something is moving.

So: when something is moving across the screen the pixel perfect (what it should look like) is achieved:
(if we have 5 lines of pixels it would be like this)

whitewhitewhitewhitewhitewhitewhitewhitewhit...
whitewhitewhitewhitewhitewhitewhitewhitewhit...
blackblackblackblackblackblackblackblackblackbl...
whitewhitewhitewhitewhitewhitewhitewhitewhit...
whitewhitewhitewhitewhitewhitewhitewhitewhit...


But when nothing is moving the black line bleeds to white lines above and below it:

whitewhitewhitewhitewhitewhitewhitewhitewhit...
greygreygreygreygreygreygreygreygreygreygr...
blackblackblackblackblackblackblackblackblackbl...
greygreygreygreygreygreygreygreygreygreygr...
whitewhitewhitewhitewhitewhitewhitewhitewhit...

This happens on most of the progressive modes, but not with interlaced modes. To be more precise, 480p, 576p, 720p/50/60 and 1080p and many other non-hd-standard resolutions (1680x1050, 1440x900...) are affected.

However, some computer resolutions like 640x480, 800x600, 1280x768, 1360x768 (looks like the vga resolutions this telly takes minus 720p, these reslutions are also with 1:1 pixel mapping by default (whereas others are scaled)) as progressive don't have this problem.

What on earth can cause this? Computer? tv? cable?
Any help is much appreciated!

I'm gonna try my friends laptop some day to see what another gfx adapter is able to do.

 

[PleXuS]

Kuntsi: i got the same problem with a Philips 42PFL9632 LCD TV!
if you found the sollution let me known please.

i did recognize it when starting linux onto my PS3 and setting it to 1080P resolution.
Everytime i move the mouse/press keyboard key/and sometimes it happen without doing something..

i get horizontal flicker screen
this also happened with my Acer 5920 Laptop with HDMi (Nivida 8600M GT).

with 720P the flicker don't exist here.

you maybe also got HDMi version 1.3 ?


best regards,
PleXuS

 

[badbob]

HDCP support shouldn't matter. What refresh are you running at, and backlight setting?

 

[PleXuS]

badbob: i did test it on different modes the backlight.. with dynamic contrast and with static.. all give the same. i also disabled all the special stuff on the tv off.. still got the same!

but when testing with this page:
http://www.techmind.org/lcd/dotinv.html

i get noise when enabling the noise reduction i can get it allmost away.
but its weard hdmi is digital never seen noise with it.

someone said me it could be bad cable.
but the cable looks pretty decent and gold plated.


could it be the cable that gives this troubles???

badbob: are there maybe special hiden menu's to adjust backlight? where i am not aware of maybe?

best regards,
PleXuS

 

[PleXuS]

ok, my problem is fixed now.
i have different pressets to set for my hdmi port on the tv..
it seems when i set it to pc its solved.

but the cable isn't a good one also.. it gives noise on that page really weard.
But it only happens when connecting it to ps3.. on laptop it didn't happen.

best regards,
PleXuS

 

[malmgren]

I have same horizontal flicker problem with my pc and ps3 (1080p). Any solutions?

 

[malmgren]

Anybody?

 

[attloyden]

I was plagued with horrible white horizontal lines on the ground in skyrim on a Sony KDL-40XBR2. I Found the solution I am happy with. As Stated above, every single progressive scanning option produced these lines while interlaced did not.

What I did to fix the problem.. is those -working- computer resolutions

"However, some computer resolutions like 640x480, 800x600, 1280x768, 1360x768 (looks like the vga resolutions this telly takes minus 720p, these resolutions are also with 1:1 pixel mapping by default (whereas others are scaled)) as progressive don't have this problem."

I picked the largest one 1366x768 that was 1080p. Then I went into Nvidia geforce experience. I clicked on "Change desktop resolution and size." Then I clicked "Resize desktop" And the computer automatically picked the -largest- possible working 4:3 aspect ratio. Mind you this is with the GTX 970 gpu. I Ended up with a resolution of 1804x1026 with 1080p 60hz refresh rate. -all the lines are gone-. Both Skyrim and Fallout 4 now look pristine.

I would have never figured out how to get rid of those lines without this post, Thank you