Red Dots on botton of TV (1 Viewer)

[Neil1454]

Hi,

I have a modern Media Center with a 3770k (HD 4000) graphics.
I've tried various different HDMI cables and also other HDMI ports on my TV.

The TV is a Panasonic 50VT30.
Resolution is 1920 x 1080

I always have the TV in THX mode.

Since connecting my Media Center I've noticed a rather weird issue.
Red dots on the bottom right of the screen.
These appear in Media Portal and also PowerDVD 12.

I've tried rolling back the HD 4000 drivers just in case it was that. But with no luck.

It's only today that I decided to unplug the HDMI cable from the back (or close down the PC).
And I notice that although the red dots are less, they are still there.

I've only recently started to notice these red dots and never noticed them previously when using a Popcorn Hour C200.

The dots are far more noticeable on a dark background and show up on black or blue. But they only ever appear at the bottom right side.

Because when the HDMI cable is disconnected or the PC is closed down. The dots still show somewhat.
I decided to look into the TV settings. With the TV set to THX mode and a movie playing in 1080p @ 24Hz, i managed to get an option come up in the settings called "24p Smooth Film". I set this to "MAX" and the problem seems to have gone.

Is this normal?

I'm going to upload some footage if I can of the problem to youtube. That's if it's captured well enough to see it.

 

[Neil1454]

Here are the YouTube videos for anyone who can help me. thanks

Thanks

 

[Holzi]

Wow.. this is really strange! And I think it has nothing to do with MediaPortal. Maybe you wanna try out a different HDMI spot on your TV. Maybe also test a different HDMI cable, could be broken.

Or maybe its a problem with your TV?

 

[Terra]

I had the exact same issue with my old HTPC. The reason was the cable and/or the graphics card.
My old HTPC was connected with DVI and all black areas had either white or red dots jumping around. Unplugging the cable and reconnecting helped for some time to reduce the amount of jumping points but usually they reappeared again shortly afterwards.

To solve the issue I bought a DVI-Repeater (DVI SINGLE LINK REPEATER) that boosted the signal and the dots were gone. I used a 10m DVI cable.

Try switching the cable or maybe connect another PC to the same cable and see if you get the same result.
I still use the same DVI cable today without the DVI-Repeater together with my new HTPC, there I never had the problem, so from my experience I would say it is a graphic card issue.

 

[Neil1454]

I had the exact same issue with my old HTPC. The reason was the cable and/or the graphics card.
My old HTPC was connected with DVI and all black areas had either white or red dots jumping around. Unplugging the cable and reconnecting helped for some time to reduce the amount of jumping points but usually they reappeared again shortly afterwards.

To solve the issue I bought a DVI-Repeater (DVI SINGLE LINK REPEATER) that boosted the signal and the dots were gone. I used a 10m DVI cable.

Try switching the cable or maybe connect another PC to the same cable and see if you get the same result.
I still use the same DVI cable today without the DVI-Repeater together with my new HTPC, there I never had the problem, so from my experience I would say it is a graphic card issue.

Maybe that's what it is.

I am however using HDMI from the onboard HDMI output to the input of the Pioneer amp.

Do you think this still might be the problem I have here?

 

[Lotsofjazz]

..... posted to quickly...

 

[kiwijunglist]

Yeah I would test with a short HDMI (1-3m) cable directly from the HTPC -> TV (Bypass the audio receiver). If I still had dots I would try a different HDMI cable directly from HTPC -> PC.

 

[Terra]

Do you think this still might be the problem I have here?

I would assume yes. As far as I know the video signal of HDMI and DVI are identical.
Maybe you can connect a laptop or some other device for testing. As I wrote I am still using the same 10m DVI cable right now but my new HTPC does not produce the issue.