Screen tearing and frame skipping on Samsung QLED TVs
Posted: Sat Jul 03, 2021 12:59 am
Following on from the Samsung TV discussion in this thread since it was getting off-topic. To quote myself in that thread:
I've been testing mainly with the NES core, and it doesn't seem to matter if I cycle Game Mode while in that core or the menu core; the issue gets fixed either way (till the HDMI input is switched, of course).
This is most likely an issue with Samsung's firmware, and it's unlikely anything could be done about it from the MiSTer side, but I thought my findings might be useful to other users tearing their hair out.
Another tip: be sure to have "Game Motion Plus" enabled to prevent colours from being messed up due to screen dimming (it's really obvious in Super Mario Bros. when Mario is surrounded by black, like in the screen telling you how many lives you have). Everything else in "Game Mode Settings" should be off/0, though.
I've been doing some more testing (with "vsync_adjust=1"), and it seems that by turning Game Mode off and on again, the TV resyncs and the tearing and frame skipping disappear. However, this apparently needs to be done every time that HDMI input is engaged; switching to another input and back will reintroduce the problem, which can then again be fixed by cycling Game Mode again.jlancaster86 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 01, 2021 1:20 pm I'm not sure if this is related, but I've started having issues with my Samsung Q80T since it updated to firmware 2014.1 today. I had been using "vsync_adjust=1" just fine for the last six months, but now it (and "vsync_adjust=2") results in the frame skipping and weird tearing/ripples at the bottom of the screen others have mentioned in the thread. It seems "vsync_adjust=1" can temporarily work after some fiddling (like turning Game Mode on and off), but it looks like I'm stuck using "vsync_adjust=0" for now.
I've been testing mainly with the NES core, and it doesn't seem to matter if I cycle Game Mode while in that core or the menu core; the issue gets fixed either way (till the HDMI input is switched, of course).
This is most likely an issue with Samsung's firmware, and it's unlikely anything could be done about it from the MiSTer side, but I thought my findings might be useful to other users tearing their hair out.
Another tip: be sure to have "Game Motion Plus" enabled to prevent colours from being messed up due to screen dimming (it's really obvious in Super Mario Bros. when Mario is surrounded by black, like in the screen telling you how many lives you have). Everything else in "Game Mode Settings" should be off/0, though.