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Poor video quality with HDMI cable to 1080p TV

Anonymous
2012-12-05T19:33:57+00:00

I plug the MSFT Surface HDMI cable/adapter into the Surface and into a Samsung 1080p plasma TV (which handles HD media fine from Xbox).  The effects are:

  • Surface will play videos (locally copied and streaming from Hulu, for example) but at a fuzzy resolution and with poor color/contrast.  It's not horrible, but it's difficult to see movies with dark scenes (such as Batman) and color is just never quite right.
  • The video can randomly switch-off entirely, as if the cable has moved (though the connection always seems solid)

Am I alone in this?  Is there a more appropriate way to play to TV than just popping the cable in and letting the Surface manage the transition?

Surface | Other

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-01-02T21:24:03+00:00

    When I used the surface on a 1080p TV it tried to scale the video to 1360x768 (the native surface resolution) by default.  My TV did not like this resolution and looked pretty terrible, scaling artifacts, etc.  Also, the video lagged at stuttered.  

    Fortunately, The Surface RT doesn't act any different than a Windows 8 laptop in how it handles an HDMI connection. Windows RT sees it as a 2nd monitor.  You can go into the display properties from the desktop and change how Windows handles the 2nd monitor.  (I think the Win-P hotkey lets you toggle between the typical modes without dropping to the desktop).  If you disable the built-in display and use only the HDMI, or if you change the HDMI to be a unique display and not just a clone of your primary display, it should look just fine on your TV.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-12-10T00:17:11+00:00

    Hello Marcper,

    Are you still experiencing these issues?

    Rebecca_AA1

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-12-06T02:35:24+00:00

    Hmmm. I poked around the Internets and found this article on Paul Thurrott's site:

    http://winsupersite.com/article/windows8/microsoft-surface-video-144651

    He says...

    "Somewhat surprisingly, the little Surface was able to drive both its own display and my own huge 27-inch 1920 x 1080 HD display with no worries at all, using the extend mode. (All modes worked just fine.)"

    And he used a cheap $5 cable to do it. I might have to buy a cable and try this...

    Kate

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-12-05T22:52:20+00:00

    Thanks Kate.  It doesn't seem to matter what the app source is - I could use a separate MP4, an Xbox movie downloaded, or stream from within Xbox video....same symptoms apply.  :(

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  5. Anonymous
    2012-12-05T21:48:53+00:00

    The Xbox Video app on Surface has a Play on Xbox 360 option. You might try that.

    Are you using the Hulu Plus app from the Windows Store?

    I'm curious if you have the same resolution problems with other video sources - you could download/stream a free video from the Xbox Video app and try watching that on your TV.

    Unfortunately, I don't have personal experience just yet. I've used the SmartGlass app, but I haven't tried streaming video yet.

    Kate

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