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jmargolis

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 10, 2007
35
0
I upgraded from the first gen AppleTV to the new one (it came a day early). There is a lot of flicker. It might be because my TV is not 1080p. It's a 37in Sharp LC-37D40U, resolution is 1366 x 768 x 3 (not sure what the 3 is for). The first gen Apple TV worked great on this TV. I'm sure (I hope) the new Apple TV will work great too if I can just get it setup right. I changed the settings to lower resolutions, but still flickers. Any suggestions?
 

Macman45

macrumors G5
Jul 29, 2011
13,197
135
Somewhere Back In The Long Ago
If your TV can't handle 1080p, you are going to damage it trying to force the res. I hate to tell you, but to get the best out of the new ATV, you are going to have to get a newbie....I haven't got my ATV3 yet..It's delivering later on today so I don't know where settings are etc, but I would look at the TV's manual and use the lower 1080i (interlaced) setting, or even lower to 720...You should be able to find a manual for your TV online.
 
Last edited:

jmcgeejr

macrumors 6502
Oct 7, 2010
469
40
Seattle, WA
I upgraded from the first gen AppleTV to the new one (it came a day early). There is a lot of flicker. It might be because my TV is not 1080p. It's a 37in Sharp LC-37D40U, resolution is 1366 x 768 x 3 (not sure what the 3 is for). The first gen Apple TV worked great on this TV. I'm sure (I hope) the new Apple TV will work great too if I can just get it setup right. I changed the settings to lower resolutions, but still flickers. Any suggestions?

Hmm, perhaps a bad hdmi cable? I assume you were using a dvi to hdmi adapter for your old atv?
 

jmargolis

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 10, 2007
35
0
I figured it out. It's not the resolution. It's the HDMI Output setting. I changed it from Auto to RGB and the flicker went away. There are 4 options for HDMI Output: Auto, YCbCR, RGB High and RGB Low. Both of the RGB options resolved the flicker. Btw, the Resolution is set to Auto and tells me it selected 720p 60Hz, so I don't think it's trying to send 1080p to my TV.
 

Che Castro

macrumors 603
May 21, 2009
5,878
676
Rgb isnt that RCA cables ,red,white,yellow

When i select that option the picture looks like crap
 

jmargolis

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 10, 2007
35
0
Actually, I set it back to Auto and flicker is gone. Maybe it just needed to be reset.
 

jmargolis

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 10, 2007
35
0
Flicker keeps coming back. Watching movies is fine, but photos flicker as well as the onscreen menus. Not sure if it's because of my TV or the Apple TV. The first gen Apple TV did not have this problem on this TV, but the 3rd gen does. Does this make sense that video would look good, but still photos flicker?
 

Gregoh

macrumors newbie
Mar 22, 2012
1
0
apple tv 3rd gen.sony Bravia 1080p Tv

Hi, I have just received my new apple tv and have this flicker problem, I have raised a query with apple so. Will try to share my results after the weekend
 

Bill.the.Cat

macrumors member
Feb 13, 2011
89
0
If your TV can't handle 1080p, you are going to damage it trying to force the res.

What kind of damage does this do? I have never heard of a modern digital-panel television being damaged by feeding it a non-native resolution signal and would be curious to hear exactly how this happens.
 

jmargolis

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 10, 2007
35
0
Hi, I have just received my new apple tv and have this flicker problem, I have raised a query with apple so. Will try to share my results after the weekend

Is it same as me where video doesn't flicker, but photos (and the menu screens) do?
 

branvan

macrumors newbie
Mar 29, 2012
2
0
Sheffield, UK
New [1080p] Apple TV

Hi, I have just received my new apple tv and have this flicker problem, I have raised a query with apple so. Will try to share my results after the weekend

As with Gregoh; I have the new apple TV and it flickers when set to Auto or1080p. It works correctly when reset manually to 720p. As this kit was meant improve output to 1080p this does seem to be a major issue. No problem with 1080p output to 1080p projector using boxee box. I replaced the HDMI cable I was using for the Apple TV with a brand new 1.4a cable yesterday, but it made no difference.
 

kiranmk2

macrumors 68000
Oct 4, 2008
1,534
1,987
Mine flickered a lot - turned out to be my HDMI switch - same lead, but plugged straight into the TV bypassing the switch and it was fine.
 

branvan

macrumors newbie
Mar 29, 2012
2
0
Sheffield, UK
Mine flickered a lot - turned out to be my HDMI switch - same lead, but plugged straight into the TV bypassing the switch and it was fine.

Cheers kiranmk2; I was distracted from this test option as I started playing with the box when I got 720p working. I tested it last night and it worked without flicker at 1080p/Auto with a direct connection to the projector. Unfortunately this is not a working solution for me as I currently have 4 HDMI (apple/boxee/xbox360/satellite) inputs in a switch which then splits/amplifies to a surround sound unit and projector (and this is 8 metres from switch). I will have to wait for a fix from Apple and continue using at 720p. If it works using my setup/HDMI switch from Boxee Box there is no reason it shouldn't work from Apple TV. There can't be many people who have more than 2 HDMI connections on the back of their TV.
 

fred.bloggs

macrumors member
Feb 9, 2011
37
0
I upgraded from the first gen AppleTV to the new one (it came a day early). There is a lot of flicker. It might be because my TV is not 1080p. It's a 37in Sharp LC-37D40U, resolution is 1366 x 768 x 3 (not sure what the 3 is for). The first gen Apple TV worked great on this TV. I'm sure (I hope) the new Apple TV will work great too if I can just get it setup right. I changed the settings to lower resolutions, but still flickers. Any suggestions?

If your TV is not 1080P compatible the Apple TV should select the highest quality the TV can cope with. My bet is it is selecting 1080i and the interlace is what is causing the flicker.

I don't have the latest apple TV (I have gen 2), but I assume you can manually set a resolution. If so try selecting 720P.
 

darster

Suspended
Aug 25, 2011
1,703
1
What kind of damage does this do? I have never heard of a modern digital-panel television being damaged by feeding it a non-native resolution signal and would be curious to hear exactly how this happens.

It won't do any damage. It just causes the led's to fire on and off when it flickers.
 

kiranmk2

macrumors 68000
Oct 4, 2008
1,534
1,987
Cheers kiranmk2; I was distracted from this test option as I started playing with the box when I got 720p working. I tested it last night and it worked without flicker at 1080p/Auto with a direct connection to the projector. Unfortunately this is not a working solution for me as I currently have 4 HDMI (apple/boxee/xbox360/satellite) inputs in a switch which then splits/amplifies to a surround sound unit and projector (and this is 8 metres from switch). I will have to wait for a fix from Apple and continue using at 720p. If it works using my setup/HDMI switch from Boxee Box there is no reason it shouldn't work from Apple TV. There can't be many people who have more than 2 HDMI connections on the back of their TV.

I've had a bit more fiddling - my switch is one of those generic 3-into-1 sones that's rebranded all the time (like thi: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Duronic-HRS...?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1333123296&sr=1-12)

Seems like by clicking the button on the switch to cycle round the inputs once while the ATV was on has forced the TV and ATV to handshake properly and now everything seems to be behaving itself. Normally it's an auto switcher (switches to the newest signal) so it remains to be seen how stable it is over time.
 
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