Another Video Problem...Please Help?

L

Level Jumper

CAGiversary!
Alright, I finally broke down and bought a PS3 today (mainly to use as a Blu-ray player, but there will be games I want to play eventually and I do want to play Virtua Fighter 5 now) and I got it home and started to hook it up and encountered a bit of a problem. Right off the bat, it had some flickering when I booted the system up, but after a few seconds, everything went to the dashboard fine. I thought it was odd, but as long as it was only a deal as it was loading information, I wasn't going to complain. I got it hooked up to the wireless network alright after a bit of tinkering and then downloaded the latest firmware. I popped in a movie and the menu for the movie worked alright and everything.

After doing this, I decided I would rather watch the movie later and that I wanted to play some VF5. I took out the movie, put in VF5, and as soon as I did this, the flickering started again and wouldn't stop. I've got my system hooked up through a Harman Kardon receiver with 2 HDMI cables (one running from my TV to the receiver then from the receiver to the PS3) and I am not sure what the problem is. I tried Motorstorm as well, and that does the same thing. The main dashboard loads fine after the initial flicker, DVDs seem to be alright (though I didn't get past the menu screen) but it seems like the games are messing up somehow.

I tried unplugging the receiver and running the HDMI cables directly from the TV input to the PS3, I tried with both of the different cables I owned and neither of them worked. I tried unplugging and replugging the cables in. I also tried the video reset thing where you turn off the power and hold the power button as you start it back up. If anyone else has any suggestions what I can do to try to fix this, I would appreciate it. Here's what I'm working with.

TV is a 32" Sharp Aquous LCD HDTV model # LC-32D43U
PS3 is, obviously, a PS3
Receiver is a Harman Kardon AVR146 (though I really don't think it's the problem since I took it out of the equation when I unplugged the cables and went direct PS3 to TV)

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
Yes, I updated the firmware first thing. I also don't want to move down to component, as I want to be able to upconvert DVDs as well.
 
It sounds like the very thing I experienced with my Samsung LCD TV 32" when I first got my PS3. It had handshake issues that I seem to blame on the TV itself (because sometimes I'd get green nastiness on my upconverting DVD player...) but when I upgraded the firmware the first time (from launch to the first "patch" as it were) the issue went away... (there still exist dvd issues, but the frequency of them has decreased for some reason... go figure... modern electronics... gotta love 'em!)

Have you tried redirecting (temporarily) the audio to regular analog and just do the HDMI video? Maybe it's a weird combo of sorts...

of course my TV is 720p... so if this happens to be a 1080p -> 720p thing, it's beyond my experience... :)

Sorry I can't be more of a help... most of what I've done to get my setup "perfect" (for me) has been a series of tragically comic trial and error....
 
My TV is 720p as well. The only reason I really am even messing with the HDMI is so that I can upconvert my DVDs to 720p also. The component signal would be comparable on a 32" 720p TV, I know, but I've heard that component won't upconvert. I haven't tried messing with the audio, I'm doing optical right now. I will try that later on today after I get home from work. Stupid going in at 6 AM. If anyone else has any other suggestions on what they think could be going on and how to fix it, advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

EDIT: By the way, I did break down and try the component video cables that I had for my PS2 last night after a while, and they work fine. There's no problem with flickering or anything like that.
 
I called Sony support earlier and from what the guy told me, he thinks it's the PS3. He did say it could be my cables as well though, because they may not be the type of HDMI cables the PS3 needs...I guess that being the most recent type. I work at Best Buy and I didn't get them out of our PS3 section, I got them out of the Home Theater section, because they were cheaper for me, so I think I'm going to go today and get an HDMI from the PS3 section and see if that works any better. If not, I'm returning the system to Sony and getting a new one, I got the return stuff all set up today.
 
[quote name='Level Jumper']I called Sony support earlier and from what the guy told me, he thinks it's the PS3. He did say it could be my cables as well though, because they may not be the type of HDMI cables the PS3 needs...I guess that being the most recent type. I work at Best Buy and I didn't get them out of our PS3 section, I got them out of the Home Theater section, because they were cheaper for me, so I think I'm going to go today and get an HDMI from the PS3 section and see if that works any better. If not, I'm returning the system to Sony and getting a new one, I got the return stuff all set up today.[/quote]


It's the system, Cables are cables are cables. But Hey, I am glad to hear that a support system will actually man up and accept that their product is broken instead of blaming it on everything else.
 
I have a 37" Aquos and was having the same flickering problem with the HDMI. The latest system update seems to have fixed it though as it works like it should now after I decided toi hook up the HDMI for one last try after the update came out (for upconverting). I'm using the cheap monoprice $12 HDMI cables, so I think it's likely your system and not the cables or an issue with the PS3 HDMI signal and your particular model TV not synching up.
 
Alright, so, update on the situation.

I sent off my PS3, under the impression it was the cause of my problems. I got in my new PS3 from Sony yesterday and went to hook it up in HDMI and play VF5...and got the same problem. I forgot that I hadn't upgraded the firmware yet, so I upgraded the firmware and tried again...same thing. I put in my Blu-Ray copy of A Knights Tale just to make sure it was only games, and the movie loaded fine. But when I went back to VF5, flickering picture galore.

I can't find anything on google or anywhere about anyone else having this problem with my model TV, and I don't know what to do really. My friend has a DVD player with HDMI on it that we're going to try hooking up tomorrow and seeing if it works or not. But I'm guessing that since the Blu-Ray movie worked when I tried to watch it, it's not the HDMI ports that are bad. I'm thinking there has to be some sort of compatibility issue with the PS3 and my TV. I don't know what to do about it now though.

If anyone has any suggestions on how I might be able to fix this, please let me know. Am I just sort of out of luck until a new firmware update comes along to fix this or what? Help would be appreciated. Thanks.
 
What do you have your dashboard (display stuff) set at? 720p? Just out of curiosity... I have mine set at 1080i (not that it matters), but it does have the occassional flashy nonsense when swapping from dashboard to game... not sure why, though.... I've never been able to completely get rid of the sparkle that happens sometimes when it goes from dashboard to PS2 or PS1 (or a PS3 game sometimes... Motorstorm does that a lot...)

Have you tried going audio through another source (non-HDMI)? I noticed a bunch of clipping in games like Motorstorm when I used HDMI for both audio and video... not that that particular issue is related to your problem... but it might be something to try.

(Sharp's are good TV's.. and since it's playing movies grandly... it's most definitely not the TV.)
 
I have an older model LC-32D41U and I haven't had a single problem. If changing cables didn't work and changing PS3s didn't work, it's probably your TV.
 
The thing I don't understand is how it could be a problem with just the TV when the PS3 plays movies fine. I think it's got to be something between the two of them.
 
I believe it's a problem on the TV's part. You already got a replacement system and it's still having the same problems. Best thing to do is to try the system out on another TV with HDMI ports, or try using another HDMI cable just in case,perhaps the one you have might be causing the problem also.
 
I've used 3 different HDMI cables on 2 different HDMI ports using 2 different systems. When I do this, if I watch a movie using HDMI, it works perfect. However, if I try to play a game, things go wrong. That's why I'm not sure that it's just on the TV end. If it were just the TV or HDMI port, I wouldn't think it would play anything at all and I would just get no video period. Has anyone else ever experienced a problem like this?
 
I don't have a PS3 yet but is there seperate settings for blu-ray and PS3 games? Maybe you should check the 1080i option instead of 720p to see if that helps. You already said you tried it without the receiver but I would start from scratch and get rid of the receiver temporarily so you can try to narrow it down better.

Hold down the power button again like you already did with the receiver unhooked and then start playing around with the menus. After everything you've said it seems to me it's probably something in the menus maybe. You've tried two different PS3's and cables and also it works with blu-ray. Sounds like the settings are messed up??
 
The flicker you see could be the PS3 switching resolutions. And the reason you don't see it when putting in a bluray movie is because it doesn't need to switch resolutions, depending on which resolution you have set your PS3 on.

If the PS3 is set to 1080i, it won't need to switch resolution when playing a bluray movie. If you insert a game which run at 720p, it needs to switch resolution, and thus you'll see some flicker.

The reason why some doesn't see flicker when the PS3 is switching resolutions, could be because of what kind of display people have. Some displays could black that flicker out for example.

If you consider a normal PC, it's common with flicker when switching resolutions there as well, but again it depends on the monitor how much/little flicker you'll get.

I'm confident that if you'd have your PS3 replaced, you'd get the same amount of flicker with your new console. I believe both your PS3 and display are fine.
 
That's what the Sharp guy I talked to on the phone seemed to think as well, but when I made sure that my PS3 display resolution to 720p, I still had the same problem.
 
Well, I have a big "I'm sorry for forgetting this." to the guy who suggested the different audio combination earlier, for some reason I never tried it until today. When I finally decided to stop trying to use optical audio and went with the HDMI for the audio and the video, Everything worked perfectly. Is there a compatibility issue with using optical audio and HDMI for video that anyone else noticed? Is there a setting I need to enable/disable to make this work properly? Help would still be appreciated. Thanks.
 
I finally figured it out after tampering with various settings on my receiver/PS3. No more help needed. Thanks to those that offered suggestions.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top