Tearing my hair out now - Dolby Vision on HDMI3 on AF8

[Mchaggis69]

Ok so I had a bit of a nightmare trying to get Dolby Vision up and running on my AF8 TV.

I have a NVidia Shield attached via a Marantz receiver to the TV.

The Shield can output Dolby Vision but I could only get it to work on HDMI 2 input on the TV.

HDMI3 (which is the preferred input due to ARC) was giving me sparkles on screen and picture drop outs.

I even bought a new AV receiver thinking that was the problem.

Anyway - a software upgrade of the TV seemed to fix this and I closed and open ticket I had with Sony.

Tonight - the issue has re-appeared.

Screen is unwatchable using Dolbyvision on HDMI3 - thousands of ‘sparkles’ on screen.

Switch to HDMI 2 and its fine.

I am gutted this has re-appeared as I thought it was resolved. Any clues out there?

Video of whats happening - choose 1080p quality to see it properly https://youtu.be/iM-btPADgHU

[rooobb]

I'm sorry you didn't get a solution, but I hope for you it was a problem with the TV and not with the Nvidia Shield own Dolby Vision implementation for which there are multiple complain on the internet.

You won't find in the market any TV with a gigabit network card in any case

[Mchaggis69]

Yeah - the dolbyvision 'sparklies' issue could have been the TV, the Shield or indeed my Marantz amp in between.

I replaced the Marantz amp for a new model - same problem.

I took the Marantz out of the equation completely with direct connections between TV and shield - same problem.

I replaced the HDMI leads with hi-end branded - no change.

I replaced the Shield with an AppleTV box (which also can output Dolbyvision) - the sparklies were there.

If you reset the TV, the sparklies disappeared (for a bit).

If you change to HDMI2 - no sparklies (but cant use that cos only HDMI3 has ARC which I need).

There is no question at all - its the TV that is at fault - 100%.

I take your point on the gigabit adaptor but its a disgrace none of them do in this day and age on a piece of kit costing thousands.

[Pentium_Gladio]

Hi,

Just confirming the basics, which i understand you might have done. Does the issue occur if you connect your devices to the TV directly without the amplifier? Have you tried different HDMI cables in the same port? I know that you need the amplifier in the ARC port but if the amplifier is connected to a different port and the apple TV is connected to the HDMI ARC, will it still occur?

Cheers,

Gladio

[Mchaggis69]

Thanks for trying to help, but trust me - I've tried every possible alternate and set up.

Its the TV.

The only thing I didn't and couldn't try was simply plugging in to another AF8 TV to see if it was a fault with *my* TV or a more general fault affecting them all. The fact the last software upgrade made the delay between resetting the TV and the sparklies longer, illustrates to me (as well as resetting solving the issue temporarily) that there is a firmware issue. Something is not being 'cleared out' when I switch the TV into standby mode. That 'something' builds up and builds up every day of use until eventually it causes the fault (sparklies) to appear. Only a reset gets rid of them (by that I mean fully closing the TV down, not a factory reset).

I've spent more time, effort and cold hard cash trying to resolve this. The next stage would have been to seek a replacement from Sony under their 5 year guarantee, but you know what? We all know that would have been a clusterf**k of denial, months of email traffic, 'have you tried switching it off and on again' B-S, that makes me happy I'm leaving it with the house.

No more Sony TV's for me.

[Pentium_Gladio]

I would say it's best to call them or chat with them directly as you have a 5 years guarantee. I think they would request a picture or a video but they should be able to assist specially if it happens on all ports with the unit.

Regards,

[Mchaggis69]

Went through the whole 'Sony Support' charade.

They have a video of whats going on.

I filled in their multiple (mostly inane) question support list.

The ticket was open for months and all that happened was a monthly - 'we are still looking at this' until the last firmware upgrade which seemed to work. All it actually did was lengthen the period between occurrences.

I'm too tired of it all to re-open the ticket.

I'll just be asked what hdmi leads I'm using etc...

and getting them to stand warranty 2 years after purchase (despite the 5 year guarantee) would just be a nightmare. I mean have you ever know Sony to replace a TV 2.5 years after purchase? I've gone legal on companies before but it drains you.

The TV isn't my concern now.

Thanks for the suggestion though, its appreciated.

[HannahEd01]

Hi Mchaggis69, Sony has a process when they deliver your issue to the engineers directly to come up with a software solution (even an update sometimes). Maybe that's what's happening in your case? Anyway, let us know if you ever contacted them and they actually gave you an answer.

[Mchaggis69]

Thanks Hannah,

Tickets all closed - the TV has been included in the sale of my apartment so not my issue any more (and to be fair for 99% of users, they will never see the problem either).

I'm now looking at a new 65" TV and probably going down the LG C1 route. I'm not risking a sony again.