# Why does my HDMI connection look bad?



## Crazy9000

Sounds like you bought a bad HDMI cable.


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## microman

its a 40" tv with a low resolution i have a 52"1080 tv and it still looks like **** with HDMI


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## EyedClock

So are you guys saying that when you run HDMI out of a HTPC, that the picture will always be bad no matter what???? Doesn't the computer scale it somehow or something? If you have a Blu-Ray player in the HTPC, is the picture going to look as good as a Blu-Ray player or worse???


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## Lurikrunch

It sounds to me like you got a bad HDMI cable, how long is it? It should be shielded at anything up to 6 feet and double shielded past that. HDMI from my Gigabyte 780G board looks fantastic, using some post-processing options in ffdshow makes DVDs look even better than a regular DVD player.

Another thing to look at would be to make sure you have the Catalyst Control Centre set to HDTV mode (there should be an HDTV option heading in the left-hand menu in the advanced control panel, there are settings in there to adjust overscan, underscan, resolution, refresh rate and interlacing or progressive).


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## sillykid

Make sure you go in and enable the correct setting for the HD format or it will look bad. I had the same problem with a 26" HDTV and after adjusting the settings it looks fine.


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## nicros

Not a bad hdmi cable, unless I got two of them (I bought 2 they both are the same). The problem I think is that with HDMI, the resolutions I can choose are restricted. So even if my tv supports 1360x768 over VGA, it doesnt over HDMI.

As absurd and insane as that sounds, from what I have read that is just how it goes. I twiddled quite a lot with the control panel from catalyst, but there seemed to be no way to select 1360x768 at 60 refresh... and again (please correct me if I am wrong!) these supported resolutions over HDMI come from the TV.

Would love to be wrong though, anyone? The TV is a Samsung LN-4096D by the way.


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## Coma

Your TV should have two HDMI ports. Use the second one. It should say PC HDMI.


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## dasparx

you sure its not a cable problem, you might have uber ****ty taiwanese budget cables.


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## h33b

Why are you trying to run 1360x768 as an HD resolution? Granted, at 1920x1080 most of your icons will be small, but it will make video playback look more accurate. I'm using an HDMI cable out of my 780g at 720p, and it looks fantastic. I had to go into CCC and adjust the overscan option, but the screen looks great. Your vga and HD signals are meant to be different, and you shouldn't really be running at the vga native resolution.


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## this n00b again

1) where and what kind of cable did you buy?
2) did you buy an DVI - HDMI cable, or DVI - HDMI converter + cable
3) 720P is native 1280 x 720 should be at 60Hz. but depending on the TV it shall/shall-not support 1360 x768

your sig says you have a 9800gtx but yet you are looking at ATi CC, Please clarify on what card you are using for this setup.


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## h33b

Quote:


Originally Posted by *this n00b again* 
1) where and what kind of cable did you buy?
2) did you buy an DVI - HDMI cable, or DVI - HDMI converter + cable
3) 720P is native 1280 x 720 should be at 60Hz. but depending on the TV it shall/shall-not support 1360 x768

your sig says you have a 9800gtx but yet you are looking at ATi CC, Please clarify on what card you are using for this setup.

He mentioned using a 780g board, meaning it's an HTPC with an integrated ATI HD3200.


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## nicros

Exactly. The system is not the one in my sig, its a new HTPC. I suppose it is possible that the cables (both) are bad, but that seems odd. They are just cables that pass digital information, right?

I was trying to run at 1360x768 because that is the native resolution of this TV. Running any other resolution results in a blurry picture for the PC part, and bumping that up to 1920x1280 means I now have the pixels interpolating. At least this was my understanding.

I managed somehow to get it to look okay for the PC. Things look a bit odd and the colors are kinda screwy but movies and dvds really look great.

Should the PC part (meaning Im not running a movie or anything) look as crisp and clear as if I were running VGA?


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## llChaosll

Hey whats up, I kinda had a similar problem.
I have a sony 32" native 1366X768 TV and when I connected it using vga cable from pc to tv it looked like crap also.
I had ordered a cable but it was a VGA cable, I returned it & didnt notice that it wasnt a SVGA cable. I then got the cable replaced to a SVGA cable & its perfect, crisp, clear. Maybe thats the same problem your having.
Try it & GL!


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## Shin2k35

WAit, a 40" Samsung that's only 1368?


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## BlackandBlue

I could be wrong, but I believe the only resolutions supported over HDMI (for TV's) is 480i/p, 720i/p and 1080i/p. I would try 720p and adjust it to fit the screen. I had the same issue with my old Pioneer 42". It had the same resolution as yours, but I had to have the video feed @ 720p to get a good picture. Basically, your TV is scaling to the native resolution and thats why the video looks bad. So, if you feed the TV 720p, let the TV scale it to 1366X768, you should get a better picture.


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## XFreeRollerX

have you looked at your HDMI adapter? could be faulty...


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## AGreatACE

I had this same exact problem, and first noticed it many years ago when I bought my Samsung 550.

I just fixed it. Simple.
http://www.samsung.com/us/support/faq/FAQ00055865/67941/LN37A550P3FXZA#

You must rename the HDMI input to PC. Fixes it right away.


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## hexaq

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *sillykid*
> 
> Make sure you go in and enable the correct setting for the HD format or it will look bad. I had the same problem with a 26" HDTV and after adjusting the settings it looks fine.


I second this, first time I plugged in the video card signal through HDMI it looked like crap, fuzzy, ghostings...blergh

It turned out that my LG monitor has to have the HDMI source set to 'PC', otherwise it assumes that SOMETHING ELSE is the video source, and it applies various 'optimizations'.
Crystal clear picture after correct monitor setting, same HDMI cable, etc.


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## Cavi Mike

Stop bumping a 5 year old thread.


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