Q: 4.3 Flicker Problem

For anyone keeping score, I am having the same problem using my SONY rear projection LCD HDTV. This TV has a DVI only input and is listed as 1080i so it seems we know the necessary and sufficient conditions to reproduce this problem. It works fine on my other TV which is a 1080p Plasma. I bought the Apple TV figuring I could try it on my 1080i and see if it worked. It actually did work and I have been very happy with it. Today, I upgraded the firmware and now am stuck. Just Apple TV Radio for me until this is fixed or I buy a new TV!

Thanks

drsnacks wrote:
It's also irrelevant. The complaints are about a flicker, not an inability to get 480p (which I wish it would stop outputting in) or 1080i (which was never mentioned, and is well advertised as not being supported).

There have been a few users that have posted that their TV only supported 1080i and 480p but NOT 720p or 1080p and that those TVs use to work before the last update. Therefore, those people either don't know what their TVs are actually capable of or they were depending on a resolution that was never officially supported. In the latter case, there may be no simple option to get their TVs working again with the ATV2.

However, that doesn't apply to every case, and perhaps not to your particular situation, but I never said that it did.

Frankly, I think the Apple TV 2 should just work like the original version. That is, decode up to 720p but offer internal scaling and conversion so that it can output at 1080i and 1080p. However, we really don't know whether the ATV2 hardware can actually do that (reliably) so it may be completely out of Apple's power to correct.

In any case, if your TV accepts 720p as an HDMI input then it should work with the Apple TV, and if it isn't working given those inputs then Apple should be looking into fixing the problem.

I have reason to believe that Apple is (at least) collecting detailed data on the problem. I received an e-mail from someone at Apple requesting specific information.

Let's hope they can find a quick fix to what appears to be a significant issue. My box is useless for now, except as a radio.

FWIW I just got mine stable again using my pre-update "trick" of yanking out the TV HDMI cord for a few seconds and reinserting it, causing the Apple TV to stick with an output of 720p (as reported on the about screen) and stop the flickering." Sleep After Never" as always. Would be nice to be fully functioning and save a bit of power but it'll work fine as long as I never turn the it off. At least getting an iPad 2 at launch won't be sullied.

Same problem here... Bought my at2 in january... Plugged into my Sony grand Wega kf-42we620 using Rocketfish 4-port hdmi switch and rocket fish hdmi to dvi cable... Constant screen flicker... Every 2seconds. And video drops out every minute or so... Audio is also badly out of sync... This update has basically turned my atv2 into a useless ornament on my wall unit. Worked great before the update, even though the resolution was being dropped down to 480p.

I don't understand why my HDTV cable box and DVD play ok.. But atv2 is having so many problems.

Bad...bad...bad.

Message was edited by: stephgo

+1 Perfect before 4.3. Please address.

Just received my ATV2 to use with Sony KF-50WE620 via HDMI-DVI (based on other posts that this would work). Manufacturer's documentation states TV supports 1080i, 720p, 480p (I have used 1080i and 720p sources without problems) and that DVI in is HDMI and HDCP compliant. Setting up ATV for first time updated to new software when asked, so I didn't ever get to try it with the older firmware. Flicker problems as described by others. HDMI Out locked in Auto. ATV shows TV resolution as 480p. Reset, Restore both tried but with no change.

Honestly, I don't think apple will be too keen on fixing this one. All the problems are due to older televisions and non-HDCP compliant hdmi and/or dvi inputs. I checked my Sony tv manual... It doesn't say it's hcdp compliant. I did buy it 5 years ago and technology has changed.

I don't expect apple to address this unfortunately since we're probably a minority and it's not profitable for them to fix this. ***** for us though.

1. Sony, KF-50WE620
2. AppleTV2 into dvi input on back of tv.
3. video using hdmi>dvi cable audio using optical cable (audio fine, no problems.)
4.reported resolution in apple tv2 480p
5.color mode set: set to auto. (will not change from auto. i tried.)
6. not possible to get movie. (put it back in box, will gift to my dad.(has a new sony xbr)
7. never tried rented playback, tried movie previews and they worked fine before update.
comment: this atv2 worked great before the update. was happy to use on older tv until i get a new one.
tried connecting it to a panasonic viera with full hdmi and it worked fine at 720p. but that tv is a small tv and not in the right room.
was planning on keeping this atv2 and getting one for my dad for his birthday.
but since this is no longer useful to me he will get this one and i will suffer.
what a shame. i have a 27 inch imac,1st gen ipad,iphone3gs,and kids have iphone4's
what a disappointment.

I don't agree at all about Apple not caring. First off, I don't think folks from Apple would have sent some of us personal emails asking for specific details on the problem if they weren't interesting in fixing this asap. Also, they have nothing to gain except a lot of bad PR by not fixing something that used to work. To say it's not profitable is pure speculation and probably not correct. You don't know how many folks are affected and what costs to fix this are. Maybe it's a very simple fix. The nice thing about this, assuming that Apple fixes this, is that they'll likely add this configuration to their Test matrix so the problem doesn't occur again.

A fix for this and plenty other gripes would simply be to allow you to set it to 720p instead of allowing it to guess poorly what resolution to output. The flicker goes away when it sticks at it native res.

Maybe Waymen was right and it's not "supposed" to work in 480p