PC to Smart TV using HDMI - Picture Dropouts in Zwift

Bugs and Support
1

I’ve recently purchased a Medion Erazer Recon E20 Gaming PC Intel i5-12400 512GB SSD 16GB GTX 1650 GPU Windows PC - connected via HDMI to HDMI cable ot a Samsung smart TV. New PC is Windows 11 latest home version.

I have connected the new PC up to my old Samsung TV running at 1366x768 smart tv, which i have used for a good while hooked up to my previous zwift pc, an older Dell Optiplex SFF PC, also connected with an HDMI cable. My old setup worked fine, just looking for a better image/refresh rate.

I have set the resolution on the new Medion PC to 1366x768 @ 59hz (The native screen res for the smart TV is 1366x768) the desktop image on the tv looks odd if I set the PC to 60hz but looks great at 59hz) and the desktop image is rock solid but when I start Zwift and get to the pairing screen the zwift screen drops out and back on every couple of seconds, when it drops out I get a black screen and ‘check HDMI cable’ message on the Samsung TV, then the zwift screen image re-appears.

When I close Zwift and back to the PC desktop the image is solid (no dropouts). looks like the screen dropouts appear only in Zwift from the pairing screen onwards, and while riding.

I have tried a few different HDMI → HDMI cables, just ordered a Display Port to HDMI cable to try the Display port out of the GTX 1650.

Can’t help thinking its a driver/screen res setting I am missing.

Think the screen res in Zwift is currently set to 1080p. which is how it was set with my previous PC.

Any ideas guys ?

2

Since the issue seems to be at the pairing screen, do you have an ANT+ stick plugged in by any chance? If so, unplug it and then plug it back in and try again to see if that makes any difference. I know it sounds odd but there have been many other people that have trouble at the pairing screen where this resolves it. Generally the issue is that everything slows to a crawl but it would be an easy thing for you to try.

3

From Zwift insider

" Settings: For smoothest performance it’s important to enable triple buffering and threaded optimisation in the Nvidia Control Panel, and disable video screenshots in the Zwift settings menu, should they be available for you.

4

Thanks guys for your suggestions, will try both those potential solutions tonight

5

I sorted this last night, found a 3rd HDMI port on my Samsung smart TV tucked away from the other two which is labelled ‘HDMI/DVI’ and plugged the HDMI cable into that port and all now stable and working beautifully, the problems on HDMI ports 1 and 2 I couldn’t resolve with any resolution settings on the PC or TV. Anyway, all sorted in HDMI port 3 on the TV, thanks for your advice/inputs.

The HDMI port on the Samsung TV labelled ‘HDMI/DVI’ must treat the signal from the TV in a slightly different way, hopefully this might help somebody else having issues now/in the future.

2 Likes