# HDMI out looks "worse" than VGA?



## speedy11131 (Dec 22, 2010)

When connected to an external display with VGA, colors are fine, text is easy to read. Videos look good.
When connected through an HDMI cable to the same display, colors look almost flat and washed out, and text is more difficult to read. It almost looks as its too sharp or something, anyway to tone it down and make it look better?
Videos look as if someone changed the setting for Windows to use 16bit colors...

What can cause this drastic difference?


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## Athlon2K15 (Dec 22, 2010)

sounds like your monitor has issues with the digital signal


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## n-ster (Dec 22, 2010)

some TVs have this problem... make sure resolution is good and the refresh rate is set properly... tinker with those kind of settings as that is how I fixed my problem with the TV, I just don't remember what I did exactly


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## Mussels (Dec 22, 2010)

at a guess, he's talking about a HDTV.


my guess is that its defaulting to the wrong resolution/refresh rate - say its running at 1080i instead of 1360x768p, or 720p

most common settings would be: (start at 720p and work your way up)

1280x720 60Hz
1360 (or 1366) x768 60Hz
1920x1080 (30Hz/interlaced)
1920x1080 60Hz

HDMI as a standard defaults to 720p, 1080i and 1080p - but theres no guarantees your device (or video card) can detect which one it actually needs for the proper image quality, as opposed to what it supports. (EG, 720p HDTV's support 1080i, but it looks like crap since it compacts it to fit)


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## Josh154 (Dec 22, 2010)

I have this same exact problem with my tv. I just run VGA now as i have tried everything i can to get hdmi cable to look good but couldn't so i just use a VGA cable.


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## Mussels (Dec 22, 2010)

one tip that may help: my TV doesnt support its native res on 2 of its 3 HDMI ports, so that may be something to consider. (1360x768 only works on HDMI2, its a 40" samsung)


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## speedy11131 (Dec 22, 2010)

It's an Auria EQ2488F.

Looks better at 720p but colors still look a bit off. At least its not too sharp anymore.


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## Mussels (Dec 22, 2010)

speedy11131 said:


> It's an Auria EQ2488F.
> 
> Looks better at 720p but colors still look a bit off. At least its not too sharp anymore.



try for 768p, its a far more common resolution than people realize.


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## speedy11131 (Dec 22, 2010)

Funny you should say that, thats native resolution of netbook I'm using to drive the screen. Text still looks a bit off, like its too sharp, got ClearText turned on.


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## Josh154 (Dec 22, 2010)

Mussels said:


> try for 768p, its a far more common resolution than people realize.



Hmm i should try that. I always have my pc plugged into hdmi 1 and the 360 in hdmi 2 and the 360 always looks way better no matter what res i set my tv at.


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## Mussels (Dec 22, 2010)

Josh154 said:


> Hmm i should try that. I always have my pc plugged into hdmi 1 and the 360 in hdmi 2 and the 360 always looks way better no matter what res i set my tv at.



they do that because the 360 (and all consoles) use a large, clear font without any fancy shading to reduce exactly this problem. they got years of experience to make things look good on interlaced screens, whereas PC's and their fonts are designed for progressive (and thus, look arse on interlaced)


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## brandonwh64 (Dec 22, 2010)

Make sure your video card is set to 60hz and not 30hz, I encountered this problem when first using my PC on my LG HDTV


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## CJCerny (Dec 22, 2010)

If this is a TV we are talking about, could also be that the picture settings (brightness, contrast, tint, sharpness, etc.) are different for the 2 different inputs. Most high end TVs nowadays save those settings seperately for each input.


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## xslavic (Mar 8, 2013)

*htpc hdmi 1.3 1.4 washed colours Apu or nvidia*

For colours to be accurate you have to set hdmi input of tv label to pc 1.
2. Choose tv colour spacing bt. 709
3. set gamma on tv at maximum ,at least 2.35 for THX certified setting
4. Use YCbCr 4:4:4 on hdmi out
5. Calibrate all


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## Mathragh (Mar 8, 2013)

Also, make sure your graphics card is not scaling the picture to a smaller resolution, which the TV then needs to upscale again to fit the screen. This'll also cause a blurry unsharp picture.


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## scaminatrix (Mar 8, 2013)

> ... the drivers are/were still often limited by the standard timing descriptor limitation that the horizontal/vertical resolutions must be evenly divisible by 8. This means that many graphics cards cannot express the native resolutions of the most common wide screen flat panel displays and liquid crystal display televisions. The number of vertical pixels is calculated from the horizontal resolution and the selected aspect ratio. To be fully expressible, the size of wide screen display must thus be a multiple of 16×9 pixels. For 1366×768 pixel Wide XGA panels the nearest resolution expressible in the EDID standard timing descriptor syntax is 1360×765 pixels, typically leading to 3 pixel thin black bars. Specifying 1368 pixels as the screen width would yield an unnatural screen height of 769.5 pixels.
> 
> Many Wide XGA panels do not advertise their native resolution in the standard timing descriptors, instead offering only a resolution of 1280×768. Some panels advertise a resolution only slightly smaller than the native, such as 1360×765. For these panels to be able to show a pixel perfect image, the EDID data must be ignored by the display driver or the driver must correctly interpret the DTD and be able to resolve resolutions whose size is not divisible by 8. Special programs are available to override the standard timing descriptors from EDID data; PowerStrip for Microsoft Windows and SwitchResX for Mac OS X. Even this is not always possible however, as some vendors' graphics drivers (notably those of Intel) require specific registry hacks to implement custom resolutions, which can make it very difficult to use the screen's native resolution



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_display_identification_data

EDID is your enemy. See if PowerStrip helps.


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## SaiZo (Mar 8, 2013)

speedy11131 said:


> When connected to an external display with VGA, colors are fine, text is easy to read. Videos look good.
> When connected through an HDMI cable to the same display, colors look almost flat and washed out, and text is more difficult to read. It almost looks as its too sharp or something, anyway to tone it down and make it look better?
> Videos look as if someone changed the setting for Windows to use 16bit colors...
> 
> What can cause this drastic difference?



Have a similar problem, I was setting up the new "media center" for a friend yesterday and we noticed that under 1080p we couldn't read the text on files or when browsing the net.
But under 720p it was perfect. 

I do not know if it's the media centers graphics card or the TV itself, but when we connect the PS3 to it, it shows everything crystal clear. Someone said I could download something to make everything "look" better, still trying to find that application. 
If I find it, I'll PM you.


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## tokyoduong (Mar 8, 2013)

Many devices look like crap when using different connections.

The xbox360 looks great on hdmi and component but looks like like crap on VGA. Then they had to have an update to fix it.
Try to update your firmware. and see how it does.

TV will display whatever signal it is designed to to accept. Sometimes you have to change the settings to have it display correctly. If you cannot resolve it then use POE to see which one is causing the problem.

Plus device into another TV of same settings/specs to see if it still look like crap. If it does then it's your device.


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## scaminatrix (Mar 8, 2013)

Since OP is using a TV (or so system specs say), it's almost definitely an EDID issue. Nothing else to it.

EDIT: just noticed that it's an Auria HDTV; not the JVC in SysSpecs  



SaiZo said:


> I do not know if it's the media centers graphics card or the TV itself, but when we connect the PS3 to it, it shows everything crystal clear. Someone said I could download something to make everything "look" better, still trying to find that application.
> If I find it, I'll PM you.



Yup, EDID is causing that issue (well, drivers are causing the issue, but because of EDID). The application you may be talking about I mentioned above; PowerStrip; dunno if there's a free alternative tho.


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## SaltyFish (Mar 8, 2013)

xslavic said:


> For colours to be accurate you have to set hdmi input of tv label to pc 1.
> 2. Choose tv colour spacing bt. 709
> 3. set gamma on tv at maximum ,at least 2.35 for THX certified setting
> 4. Use YCbCr 4:4:4 on hdmi out
> 5. Calibrate all



Someone's first post resurrects a two year old thread? :shadedshu


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## qubit (Mar 8, 2013)

SaltyFish said:


> Someone's first post resurrects a two year old thread? :shadedshu



oops...

I wonder if speedy ever resolved his problem?


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## PatoRodrigues (Mar 8, 2013)

I thought it was a new thread, LOL. 

Mega fail. Hope this guy resolved his problem.


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