ATI Radeon 3870 - Horizontal scan lines during video playback

bnieman

Video content, including all video played through Windows Media Player and YouTube via Internet Explorer or FireFox, yield horizontal scan lines during playback. The lines appear for a fraction of a second during fast panning, action, or abrupt scene changes. The problem is extremely noticeable when trying to watch a movie and is very distracting. When viewing a video in a window, the scan lines are contained in the video frame and do not affect the rest of the screen. I have tried many different screens including multiple monitors via DVI and a HDTV home theater projector via HDMI.

I cannot take a screen shot of the problem, the screen shot displays perfectly as if there was no problem. Instead I took the above photo with my digital camera, notice the line in the top half of the picture. Can this be fixed or is it a problem with my video card?

I have gone through all the settings in Catalyst Control Center including pulldown detection and anti-aliasing with no success. The problem has been prevalent since the purchase of the card and has continued through multiple driver updates (currently I am running Catalyst version 8.8).

The problem seems to be worst in Flash videos, MKV, and Xvid files. I have tried (2) different codec packs with the same result with both.

Here is some relevant information:
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate x64
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 3870 512MB PCI-e
Driver Version: Catalyst 8.8
Memory: 4GB
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Core q9300 @ 2.5ghz
Video Players Used: Windows Media Player 11, Media Player Classic, Flash Plugin for Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 2, and Firefox 3

p_low · **Same Problem -** 01-23-2009, 01:12 | posts: 2

Online streaming video is doing this to me only the bottom of my video seams to split with a very visible flickering line every time something happens other then someone sitting and talking.If anyone has any idea as to how to fix this the only solution I have fount thus far is to lower the resolution to 1024 x 768 and it seams to fix it.........but I would rather not lower my resolution when I watch an online video in full screen :'(

oMek · 01-23-2009, 02:19 | posts: 96 | Location: New York

i get this with my 4870x2 unless im in full screen video. i never had the problem with my 4870512 so i figured it was only a crossfire/x2 problem. guess i was wrong.

p_low · 01-23-2009, 04:02 | posts: 2

Well Mine only does it when I'm full screen other wise its fine and like I said turning the resolution down to 1024 x 768 completely fixed the problem but I don't want to have to change my resolution every time I want to watch a streaming video.I'm running a 22 inch monitor so that would be a pain...but I guess its good if I have no choice.

eugenix · 01-25-2009, 06:40 | posts: 1

I get this on some games with my 4870 X2,.. most notably, gears of war, just checked out legendary, and it does it as well. Games like GTA IV,. Call of duty 4 and 5 don't do it,.. have tried so many things to no avail,.. any ideas welcomed, changing screen resolutions doesn't resolve this, nor does enabling/disabling vertical sync. No problems with internet videos/youtube full screen, just some games

01-25-2009, 06:57 | posts: n/a

i was having similar problems in fallout 3 what seemed to solve it for me was to put wait for vertical refresh off,unless the application specifies instead of just off which produced those lines for me. Though gta4 is still suffering from stuttering but it is not the same horizontal stuttering in fallout 3.

downlord · 02-28-2009, 19:54 | posts: 1

Hi,

have the same issue w/ HD 3850, 256 MB. @ 1280x1024, 60Hz, Driver Packaging Version: 8.541-080923a-069992C-ATI, catalyst 8.10.

salanos · 03-01-2009, 16:04 | posts: 1,305 | Location: Singapore

Looks more like screen tearing to me.

Iarwain · 03-07-2009, 19:44 | posts: 3,048

Just got a 4870 and I'm getting this in games. What's up with it?

Bluedog · 03-07-2009, 19:58 | posts: 2,674 | Location: Near New Orleans, La.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iarwain

Just got a 4870 and I'm getting this in games. What's up with it?

All the time or occasionally? If its the later of the two then its normal screen tearing (as pointed out above) with LCD monitors.

Iarwain · 03-07-2009, 21:42 | posts: 3,048

I know what screen tearing is and looks like, of course. And I've got vsync enabled in CCC, D3D Overrider and in-game. It's not screen tearing because it is consistent, and rolls up the screen.

As a note: This appears to be a hardware defect, actually. Switching ports on my card has solved it.

Bluedog · 03-08-2009, 03:10 | posts: 2,674 | Location: Near New Orleans, La.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iarwain

Switching ports on my card has solved it.

Good info to know.