Laptop+HDMI-2-TV+Gaming=Hairpulling!

Hi gang! I am putting all my hope into the possibility that someone out there can answer my question, and here's the summary :

"Why do different games, running at the same resolution, flicker on hdmi out to my 32 inch 720p LCD tv."

Guess I'll get the stats out of the way first,
-Dell Inspiron 1525
-3 gigs ram
-Dual core 2 gigahertz
-Mobile Intel 965 Express Chipset Family onboard video
-My desktop is set to 1280X720 and the TV is set as my primary monitor.

Let's use 800X600 as the resolution.
-Tomb raider legend runs great. No flicker whatso-ever

-Sudeki runs great. No flicker whatso-ever

-Vampire the Masquerade : Bloodlines runs, but flickers every 15-45 seconds
once to 3 times in quick succession (it is a "long enough for the screen to turn black but not too long to be considered the start of game crash" length flicker) If that makes any sense.
-VtM Bloodlines in 1024X768 : No flicker?!!?!

If I can't fix the problem directly is there some way to get around it? Run at a "Fake" 800X600 on a 1280-720 native output or a fullscreen window or something like that? My TV wont zoom at an output from my computer I've already tried that.

Whew!

Please. Someone save me from this! lol =)

 

Oh yah, I guess I should mention that I can't run these games at 1024X768, they are too choppy at that res (I know, I'm pathetic, lol)

 

In short, it's because your video card is nowhere near enough to power gaming on a TV.

 

Thanks very much for the reply but I'm perfectly happy playing these games at 640x480 or 800x600 and have done so with Tomb Raider legend and Sudeki.

So my computer is powerful enough to play those game glitch free, from beginning to end.

The curious problem is why Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines flickers at the 800x600 resolution but is fine on 1024x768?

800x600 worked fine for the other two games (and works fine for this one on my laptop monitor) but my tv seems to not like 800x600 coming from this one game (and a few others)

 

- try turning v-sync on

- press the button on your tv that shows current resolution and vertical frequency (eg. 60Hz) and see if the freq is different at all resolutions

 

Are the aspect ratios of your laptop screen and your TV the same?

 

Driver update, resolution hz all set up correctly?

 

-V-sync seem to not do anything.
-Aspect ratios/hz all check out.
-best drivers available.

Thanks for all your help guys, but I think I'm just gonna suck it up and play the glitchy 800x600 games at 640X480 (Unless anyone has any other ideas of course) =)

 

Are you running the monitor and the tv at the same time? Meaning is the laptop screen on dual monitor or clone. Or is the tv monitor the only one that is running? Because you can get better performance by just running off the tv only.

 

"Are you running the monitor and the tv at the same time? Meaning is the laptop screen on dual monitor or clone. Or is the tv monitor the only one that is running? Because you can get better performance by just running off the tv only."

It's running off of just the one monitor, but here's a new update! It appears that ALL of my games are now glitching out on 800x600 mode on my TV. This was not the case circa yesterday, lol. So... I suppose the resolution itself is to blame?? I tested this theory further by setting the desktop resolution to 800x600 and lo and behold, it was glitching just like it the games.

This is new but at least it's consistent.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the very fact that the video card WILL output to the TV at that resolution represent that it CAN display at that resolution?

This is hurting my mind =(

 

Ok everyone, I'm happy to say that this problem is officially solved!

It turns out simply that my TV does not support 800x600, so I have to do 1 of 2 things:

1 - Play the game in either 640x480 or 1024x768 and suck it up.
2 - Manually change the resolution through the config file or other means to 600p which is 1024x 600.

Resolutions supported by my tv are:
640x480
720x480
1024x600
1024x768
1280x720

The TV I'm using is a Toshiba 32 inch, 720p ready LCD.
If you're having problems with this or similar TV I suggest you check out the resolution alternatives above.

Thanks for all your help everyone.

Case closed.