Photos are blacked out when TV is connected with HDMI [SOLVED]

Known Issues
1

Hi, all photos taken during rides are black (in the app, in my activities online, in Strava) IF the data fields are included.

Switch off the data fields before uploading the photos and they show exactly as expected - toggle the data fields back on before uploading and they show black.

I run Zwift on a Windows 10 laptop, which is hooked up to a TV via HDMI.

2

Hi @The_MAMIL_Channel

Curious what would happen if the HDMI cable to the TV were disconnected. Would you try that for a short ride of more than 2km to see what happens?

FYI: 2 km is the shortest ride distance required for a session to save to your Activities history.

3

@The_MAMIL_Channel
Hi, what do you mean with “Switch off the data fields before uploading”?

4

The boxes of data/information can be toggled on and off on your photos by clicking the green chart icon on each photo before they are uploaded. My photos are only blacked out when the boxes are on (which is the default)

5

Did not know that, thanks!

6

@shooj

Confirming that photos work correctly when the TV is disconnected, but not when the TV is connected.

(not that disconnecting my TV is any kind of acceptable workaround)

7

@The_MAMIL_Channel
Thanks for confirming. Followup question: how long is the HDMI cable run to your TV? The distance of the cable run matters because HDMI signals can only travel so far before getting degraded.

I’ve seen this scenario when setting up the A/V gear for a corporate powerpoint presentation in a big conference hall. The projector at the very back of the room wasn’t projecting because the long HDMI cable running from the front of the room to the back degraded the signal too much. An active HDMI repeater / booster was used to alleviate in this instance

Also: is your computer’s graphics processor fairly high spec? If your GPU isn’t up to the task of pushing pixels quickly enough to refresh two screens simultaneously, that will also cause the symptom you describe. If disconnecting the big screen solved this problem, the GPU might be the root cause here. To check this theory - try reducing your display output settings in-game to the next lower setting.

8

OK, so it was a laptop spec/performance issue.

I’m in the process of migrating from an older laptop to a new one, just tried Zwift on the new one and the photos worked perfectly.

The older laptop was only a few years old though, so I’m surprised that was the issue…

1 Like
9

@The_MAMIL_Channel

Thank you for reporting back to close the loop. Glad we figured it out, and thanks for helping others in the community.