Problems with PS3 as Blu-ray player (1 Viewer)

I have an interesting problem and I am out of ideas as to how to fix it. My audio receiver (Marantz) has two HDMI out ports. I use one for my DirecTV receiver and the other for the PS3. Recently when scrolling through the PS3 menu and especially when trying to watch a blu-ray or DVD either the sound or the picture continually flickers on and off. It makes it impossible to watch anything since you either cannot hear or cannot see all of what is going on. I thought it might be the PS3 so I tried everything I could think of with it and had no luck. I tried a different HDMI cable and no change. I then thought maybe it was the audio receiver so I tried switching which HDMI out port is used for the PS3. That did not work either. The blu-ray still had the same problem and the DirecTV worked perfectly on the other HDMI out port. At that point I was at a loss so I bought a cheap blu-ray player that I wanted to use in another room anyway. I tried hooking up the new blu-ray player to both HDMI out ports on the audio receiver and had the same problems. I tried multiple blu-ray disks and the same thing happens regardless of the disk. Another strange thing is that when I put a game into the PS3 it plays with no sound/picture problems. I do not know what to try now. I suppose it could be the audio receiver but why does the DirecTV signal work fine on both HDMI out ports and with any HDMI cable I have tried? Does anyone have any suggestions? Bryan

First check to see if there is any problem with the PS3. Hook it up directly to the TV. Test it out throroghly. Does it work to your satisfaction? No? Then problem is with the PS3.

If the PS3 works fine, then there is probably some compatible issues between the receiver and the PS3. On the receiver, turn off all video and sound enhancements you might have. Go into the PS3 menu and ensure all is set to default and no special video processing is happening (like Deep color, 3D, turned off, things like that). Also, check the sound settings, you may have to adjust those. If after all that you still have problems, then you may have to connect the PS3 directly to your TV for picture and send an optical cable to your receiver for sound.

But he had the same problem with another blu-ray player, so I would not suspect the PS3.


I had an extremely similar problem. I am willing to bet the problem is with your receiver.

The issue I had is that going from the PS3 to the Receiver to a projector would have intermittent problems with the projector having to resync the hdmi signal, causing it to lose picture for a few seconds.


I was able to trace the problem to the receiver by trying several different HDMI cables, etc.


The problem is this: The receiver has problems passing through a 1080p60Hz signal. It's like it can't 'keep up' with the data flow. Any other combination worked fine: 720p60Hz, 1080i60Hz, 1080p24Hz. Those all have lower data rates, which the receiver can pass through fine.


Your DirectTV most likely is passing a 1080i signal so that is why it doesn't have problems. 95% of all PS3 games are 720p, so they will not have any problems. Only when watching Blu-Rays are you utilizing 1080p60Hz, so this is what is causing the problem.


Two things to try: If your TV supports 24Hz Blu-Ray playback, then set your PS3 to output in 24hz, and see if the problem goes away. Otherwise try disabling 1080p on your PS3, forcing it to output 720p, and see if that makes the problem go away. Obviously you don't want to watch movies in 720p, but this will let you know if the problem is with the PS3 or the Receiver.