120Hz refresh rate hell (1 Viewer)

[Paul Stoddard]

I'd like to ask you folks for your help/opinions/ideas. I just set up some new equipment:

Sony KDL-46Z4100 monitor
Sony BDP350 Blu-Ray player

The monitor has a 120Hz refresh rate. The player is connected directly to the monitor via a 3-foot HDMI cable. Both ends of the cable are securely connected.

The problem I am seeing is a video glitch that looks like a flicker of an earlier image, always where the scene changes. Sometimes, it appears as several frames flickering by. This happens occasionally with Blu-Ray discs and very frequently with standard DVD discs. All of the monitor settings having to do with the image are set to "auto" on both the player and the monitor. I tried connecting the player via the composite video input, and had the same issue. I also connected a second, older DVD player and got the same results.

Initially, I thought the problem may have been caused by an inferior HDMI cable, so I replaced it with a new one that conforms to the HDMI 1.3b spec.

The presentation of video problem leads me to believe that it's some sort of a timing issue, and that the monitor may be defective. Unfortunately, there is no way to turn off the 120Hz refresh rate and revert to the standard 60Hz.

Has anyone else seen anything similar? Thanks for any info and/or help you can provide!

 

[Paul Stoddard]

Following up on my initial post, I did some further testing after installing a new HDMI cable, and still got the same results with standard DVDs. The Blu-Ray issue is completely resolved.

I called the Sony support line, and they suggested that I try the following:

1. remove all power from the monitor for 5 minutes then reconnect

2. reset all of the monitor settings to the factory defaults

These steps produced no change, so the Sony folks set up an appointment for in-home service.

After all of this, I decided to just watch a few discs and try to ignore the glitches. Surprisingly, there weren't any glitches! I went back to the original disc that I had been viewing when the problem presented, and the glitches were there. So, now it looks like a possible disc mastering/manufacturing defect. I'm leaning toward mastering, since the disc in question was part of a set, and the other discs in the set all exhibit the same problem.

I'm still going to have the service technician come out and run whatever diagnostic tests they may have, just in case.

In retrospect, the appearance of the glitches when the discs were being viewed on another DVD player, and at various resolutions, should have raised a flag with respect to the media. For the record, the set that exhibited the video glitches was "Sliders, Season 4".