Getting screen tearing with htpc. need help

[saint1000]

i have a dell gx620 tower with a radeon hd5550 video card running a sanyo dp50740 plasma tv. the only thing i use this for is streaming movies. i a, getting screen tearing bad in action movies and sporting events. doesnt matter if im streaming or playing a movie off the hard drive. im running windows xp. ive played for hours with ccc with no luck. any ideas?

 

[king smp]

set CCC back to default settings

double check what the refresh rate of the tv is set to in CCC and in windows display manager (right click desktop)

is it every movie or just movies with intense action scenes?

 

[saint1000]

refresh rate is set to 60hz. happens in every movie

 

[king smp]

does it happen with anything besides the movies ie desktop,games or apps?

 

[saint1000]

thats all i use it for is movies. i dont see or notice it on the desktop. it only happens in fast panning. ive tried powersrip, playing with the ccc and can not seem to get it to go away. i get it with netflix, flash videos, vlc media player. ive checked cpu useage and thats under 10% when its happening. the radeon 5550 card has a 1gig of onboard memory. i dont know what else to try

 

[king smp]

what size screen?

resolution and inches

did you reset CCC back to default?

also what CCC/driver version do you have?

 

[saint1000]

1024x 768. ive reset it several times

 

[saint1000]

the other thing i noticed is it only happens in full screen mode

 

[king smp]

wow this is a good one

I am on crappy work computer

I will get back to you later in the evening (right now 12pm Eastern time)
when I am back on my rig

 

[saint1000]

do you think switching to windows 7 would cure this?

 

[king smp]

Well it wouldnt hurt LOL
I am a big fan of Win7
and if the problem is software related it might
fix it
but no guarantees

 

[RussK1]

Force Vsync in catalyst control center...

 

[saint1000]

i tried forcing the vsync but still have the tearing

 

[RussK1]

i tried forcing the vsync but still have the tearing

If it makes you feel any better to offer consolation I don't think it's your hardware nor software... plasma T.V's usually have a really high refresh of 600hz (which is the main reason I'm a plasma guy) and I looked your particular T.V. up and it's confirmed to have a 600hz refresh rate.

I have a HTPC hooked up to my Panasonic Viera in my livingroom and I get tearing as well (esp. with Netflix). You could go into "desktop properties" in catalyst and play with the refresh settings... alternatively you could go into "display color" in catalyst and enable EDID. You may have a problem with Blu-ray though... for some reason when I had it enabled and I played Blu-ray I would get total color distortion, anyway it's worth a shot.

edit: enable triple buffering

 

[saint1000]

my refresh settings only give me the option of 60hz. is there anyway i could cange this. what should i try to set it at?

 

[RussK1]

my refresh settings only give me the option of 60hz. is there anyway i could cange this. what should i try to set it at?

First, what connection are you using?

I assume you only have the option of 1280x720 right? Go into Catalyst "HDTV Support (DIGITAL FLAT-PANEL)" and create a custom resolution to match the display's native res. ~ 1024x768.

 

[saint1000]

it does give me the option of 1024x768 so that what im running it at. i am using hdmi to the plasma

 

[RussK1]

it does give me the option of 1024x768 so that what im running it at. i am using hdmi to the plasma

Did you enable EDID?

Do you have another HDMI cable? If so try it...

 

[saint1000]

i will have to check edid when i get home. the plasma is mounted on a wall and there is a 50ft hdmi fished down the wall and up the oppisite wall where the pc is. i could try running another across the room for ttest purposes

 

[RussK1]

i will have to check edid when i get home. the plasma is mounted on a wall and there is a 50ft hdmi fished down the wall and up the oppisite wall where the pc is. i could try running another across the room for ttest purposes

While HDMI offers the highest video resolution currently possible it does have it's drawbacks; HDMI cable isn't suggested for long cable runs (50ft is beyond spec-compliant)... HDMI cable is manufactured out of twisted pairs of copper conductors that are small-gauge (instead of the usual coaxial cable) and this can cause signal integrity problems esp. considering your source output.

Try a shorter HDMI cable... and if the problems clear up you could look into a repeater.

 

[king smp]

I am glad you came along russwood
This one had me baffled

Only thing I can suggest is that I notice on my settings
that is has the option to force HD settings and also use some weird refresh
rates like 30HZ interlaced etc

I do know that the EDID somtimes is a faulty system
I get alot of false settings sometimes
and you can force HDTV settings

 

[RussK1]

I am glad you came along russwood
This one had me baffled

Only thing I can suggest is that I notice on my settings
that is has the option to force HD settings and also use some weird refresh
rates like 30HZ interlaced etc

I do know that the EDID somtimes is a faulty system
I get alot of false settings sometimes
and you can force HDTV settings

Yeah EDID is a toss-up... I know it doesn't' work with Blu-ray playback at all. I have my HTPC hooked up via DVI-to-HDMI... I get some tearing but it's barely noticeable. Usually happens when switching scenes in netflix... Don't happen when I play a dvd, so perhaps the problem lies in the bit-rate of the stream myself.

Edit: and the card in my livingroom machine is a 9500 GT so I know this problem isn't unique to ATI...

 

[king smp]

and the GPU while not powerful should be be fine for driving that resolution

I would definitlely look into the HDTV forcing displays option in CCC

 

[saint1000]

i cant seem to find were to force hdtv option.the other thing i noticed is i dont get the tearing when watching videos on vudu.it seems netflix, hockey streams, and videos i have saved on my hd. i dont have a blu ray drive. could it be a flash problem?

 

[RussK1]

i cant seem to find were to force hdtv option.the other thing i noticed is i dont get the tearing when watching videos on vudu.it seems netflix, hockey streams, and videos i have saved on my hd. i dont have a blu ray drive. could it be a flash problem?

I think it can be isolated to Netflix - play a DVD I bet the problem isn't there.

Go into Catalyst and open "video\video settings" and check all that apply to internet video~