LCD flickering with N64

[NinjaJoey23]

I wasn't sure where to put this, but since it involves one of my classic systems, here we are.

I just got a Polaroid FLM-1911 lcd television for my room. For being an lcd, composite looks pretty darn good on it. I was playing some Super Metroid today via SNES. Then, when I tried to let my girlfriend hook up the 64, the game started flickering. The actual display of the game seemed fine, but the screen kept sort of flickering a bright white light over and over again.

As I've said, this is only with the N64 in composite. I've hooked up a Wii, 360, SNES, and DVD player via composite (and the 360 via component) and they all worked fine. The television is brand new, so I don't think the problem is there. Is the output of the 64 somehow different? This is not a major problem, as this television won't be used mainly for playing the classics, but I was just wondering if any of the resident video experts knew anything.

I'll def. be trading up to s-video soon.

[Vectorman0]

Moved to the tech forum, with redirect for your convenience.

[NinjaJoey23]

Bump, as I still need an answer.

[NinjaJoey23]

blah bump

need answer....

plz

[SkiDragon]

I dont really have an answer, but perhaps you should try an s-video cable.

[davidleeroth]

Does the LCD have different contrast settings or view modes like movie, natural, dynamic etc.? Try switching between these, some of them adjust the brightness automatically which I've heard might cause problems with some signals.

[NinjaJoey23]

Does the LCD have different contrast settings or view modes like movie, natural, dynamic etc.? Try switching between these, some of them adjust the brightness automatically which I've heard might cause problems with some signals.

Yes, it does. I'll try that this evening.


I dont really have an answer, but perhaps you should try an s-video cable.

Yeah, I will be as soon as I get one.

[Algol]

Whoa! I have the exact same TV, and was just about to post the same thread!

I have a PS2 hooked up with a component video cable. Katamari Damacy seems to work fine, but Ico and Silpheed: The Lost Planet flicker. Silpheed was fine at first but started flickering at the beginning of the second level. I've messed with the video settings a little, but it doesn't help.

If this isn't enough, PS1 games don't want to come up at all. The screen just goes blue from the main menu.

[NinjaJoey23]

Well, like I've said, most systems I've been using work. The ran the Xbox 360 in 720p and it looked great. I hooked this baby up via VGA as my monitor and it was also great. I don't get it.

I may call Polaroid to see if they know anything.

[Algol]

I think I found the problem.

http://www.hdtvarcade.com/hdtvforum/index.php?showtopic=5638&st=0&p=50733&#entry50733


Resolution: 1440 x 900 <---- See that? That is the 16:10 resolution from hell. It confuses the $#@% out of a bunch of 240p and 480i games and they wont work at all. Theres more technical hub bub to it, but its basically a refresh problem. If you just got the TV, I suggest returning it while you still can, otherwise you are going to be stuck

But hold on. It says this monitor is 16:9 in both the instruction manual and on the screen when you switch between aspects. If both the instruction manual and the TV itself say its 16:9, shouldn't the TV be...y'know... 16:9????

Most of the stuff I hook up to this TV works just fine, and I'm mostly satisfied with it, but I'm wondering if I shouldn't pitch a huge fit about this to Polaroid, or whoever is responsible.

[RugalSizzler]

Flat screens are not real tvs. They are display panels that is no diffrent then the one your gba or gameboy use. The ability to build them at such scales have become cheaper so they just built them with tv outputs and some have wave tuners like a regular tv while other get data no diffrent then your cell phone.

A real tv is just a monitor without the VGA. The problem you might be having is the fact that the screen use an alternative method of displaying the picture unlike a regular tv.

The N64 has RGB support but was never finished built in. This is why your N64 might be having problems. As with the PS2 some games have such support where they take advantage of RGB or the Pi system ( which I am not familiar with ) so they might act abnormally when using such screens.

[MichaeltheGreat]

I had the same issue with 16:10 widescreen monitor that I was using also. Basically you won't have problems with 16:9 widescreen, but 16:10 can cause flickering issues. I found that I didn't have problems with analog inputs like svideo.