Choppy TV in Media Center

[ijk202]

This week I received an HPE-140f in the Quck-Ship configuration (i5-650, 8GB, GT230, 1TB HD . . .). It is connected to a small Samsung HDTV.

I'm having problems with choppy TV, and I'm hoping someone here has a suggestion. Basically, the picture is fine for a few minutes, then gets choppy and jumps around for about 5 seconds, then settles down for another few minutes. This happens whether I'm watching live or recorded TV. Audio output is not affected. There are no issues when playing a DVD. I've tried various TV and media center settings, and checked the cable connections. I've also reinstalled the TV tuner driver from HP's website and the latest graphics card driver from Nvidia's website. Nothing has worked. I'm stumped.

Note that this pc is replacing a 6-year-old Dell Dimension. Despite the old Dell being well past its prime, it did not show this particular problem. Since it used the same cables and TV, I think it is safe to rule those out.

Thanks for your time.

[RasterBlaster]

Things I've seen that resolve tuner jitters in Media Center:

Going into advance options for your monitor (through screen resolutions) and changing refresh rate from 59Hz to 60Hz. There must be some reason for HP setting it to 59 on many PCs - but I don;t know why. If you find yours is set to 59, try setting it to 60Hz to see if it gets any better.

I've also seen Windows Updates that makes things better (or worse).

One thing I have learned that the type of processor used by the computer seems to be a prime factor when jitter issues happen in MC. I had one really annoying jitter issue I could resolve on an older AMD system that was solved a month later through a Windows Media Center Update.

Other things to try...

Turn off PHYSX GPU acceleration in NVIDIA control panel.

See if you can disable ddraw acceleration (I do not know how to do this in 7 - dx11)

[Huge · Accepted solution]

My 2 week old HPE-140f does the same thing.  HP tells me there is an incompatability issue between the wireless LAN and TV tuner installed.  To check this out, go to Control Panel >Device Manager>Network Adapters> then right click on Atheros 802.11 a/b/g/n...etc > then click disable(not uninstall). Verify you want to disable it . Then  go to media center and watch live TV.  The flickering every minute should stop. If you don't wireless capabilities to connect to the internet, your in business!  If you do (like me) you have to disable the WLAN everytime you want to watch flickerfree TV or record, and then enable it after.  I am currently working with HP support to solve the compatability issue.  I'll let you know!

[ijk202]

Thank you both for your suggestions.

I disabled the wireless card and the flickering stopped. Since my pc is about three inches from my router, this solution is not a problem for me. I'm going to let it run for a few days to make sure before marking this solved.

In other news, why in the heck is the wireless breaking the tv? Wait - I don't want to know.

Seriously, thanks. I spent hours trying to figure that out.

[CHIEFCJD]

I recently purchased a 140f and have the same problem.Thanks for the info.

[AlyKat]

Same problem. Disabling network card worked. I sure hope you can get a satisfactory answer. 3 hours with 1st line tech support was a colossal waste of time. I sure wish I had tried this 1st! It works; but I'd rather not have to disable just to watch TV.

[RasterBlaster]

If you disabled the wireless adapter and the flicker problems go away, then I believe this is a better workaround... it should do the trick and let you keep your wireless:

1. Click Start and enter regedit into the Search field.

2. Click Registry Editor and click Yes to any User Account Control messages that may open.

3. Make a backup of the registry (click File, Export, fill a name out to create a backup).

4. In the main registry window, double-click each of the following keys:

- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
- SYSTEM
- CurrentControlSet
- Services
- HCW85BDA
- Parameters

5. With the Parameters key selected, click New DWORD (32-bit) Value.

6. A new value appear in the right window with the name selected for editing. Enter the following name: Enable3DComb

The value set for the newly created Enable3DComb Value is 0 (the number zero, not the letter O). Do not change this value to anything other than zero.

Click OK, close the editor and you are done. 

[Lucylou88]

I am without expertise in computers, but had the tiv issue when dell 420xps was new with windows vista media center.  Dell technical support for small problem, ended up with large problem after their ghosting and digging, and they recommended wiping and reformatting hard drive.  Which they did.  Now choppy tv problem back.  I remember the solution the first time involved the registry, 1s and 0s, so i think yours is the solution for me. My question/issue is that I seem to remember my computer's ?processor? being 64-bit was something that needed to be taken into account?  Would this change the particular instructions for me, or would the same instructions be appropriate?  Thank you RasterBlaster.