Flashing ambilight issue when 3D gaming on my PS3

[morma]

If the 3D TVs should work perfectly with one machine, it's the PS3 and of course second the xbox. There is a high percentage of users out there who own a ps3 and only buy one these TVs to be able to use it with 3D games in a comfortable way. This is the actual market for these tells. For anything else but 3D movies and 3D gaming, a 3D tv is not required....
D

Hi, Dyna

i can just totally agree you. I bought my television so i could enjoy my movies and games in 3D. Not to mention my old TV was an 720p, no Full HD XD.

But this issue was the first thing i noticed. And as you say my "little trick" is only a provisionary solution and is'nt going to releases Philips from their duty towards the consumer. For the moment it's only a trick for PS3 owners but for XBOX it's another thing, unfortunatelly i dont own one so i cannot check if there's a possibility to trick the system aswell. That's up to the XBOX owners. For PC i don't use 3D on it, i use the connection PC-TV only to expand my screen.

But like i said Philips isn't released from their duty and i hope that they're working on a fix.

Best regards from your luxemburgish neighbor XD

[morma]

Hi Guys

well unfortunately the TV's now restarting with his annoying behavior -.-

The ambilights are flashing again

I'm really frustrated.

Edit: I shutted down the TV for 30 min after that i played my 3D Games on TV and no flashing. This is really weird.

Edit 2:

Since the TV restarted with his bad behavior and i found some other probs (which have nothing to do with ambilights, such ass pvr malfunction...), i contacted philips again. This time the luxemburgish philips center, received the number from my retailer.
This time i had a really competent man on the phone, he told me that the problem is well known and should have been solved during the last update.
Since i still have the prob theyre going to send me an technician which will take my TV away for testing purpose in theyr repair shop.
He told me that since this is a software prob theyre not going to open it, but trying to do something with the software.
I told him from my experiences with the PS3 settings and that it temporarily solved the issue. The answer there are some problems with the HDMI signals and they are working on it.
And when i told him that his belgian colleague tried to convince me that the PS3 isn't compatible with the TV, he answered that is is pure nonsense. The PS3 is one of the most uncomplicated systems out there and it should work fine.

Well this time i'm shure that i will give the TV away.

I Keep you updated

Kind regards

[Dyna]

Based on Morma's experience and "homebrew" solution, I think I found another detail about this problem. I were able to make a few tests with a 42pdl7906 tv and an xbox. It seems like the problem only appears if the tv receives a 3D image signal and any kind of surround sound input.
The problem didn't appear when the xbox was set to "digital stereo" sound. As soon as i tried a game and set the sound to 5.1 surround for the input of the tv, the flickering directly appeared.
Another test I made was setting the sound to surround and then go to the tv menu and set the sound option "surround" ("Raumklang" in german menu) to "OFF". Seems in this case, the sound signal is interpreted as stereo input and the problem also seemed to disappear. I only tried this second setting for a few minutes, but it seemed to work.

It would be nice to know if the problem still appears with other games or systems using this setting (Menu->Sound->Surround->OFF).

Best regards,
D

[morma]

Hi

Well philips sended an technician to repair my TV. First he reinstalled the firmware, no change, then he tried a new SSB (the mainboard).

Result the TV worked for five minuts without the possibility to switch to 3D and after powering it off it didn't even started up ><. Well he put the old SSB in the TV, well it works again and the problems aren't solved. So he left without helping and the brilliant words : I couldn't do anything from the beginning because these are software problems, but he had to check it.
That was monday.

Today i checked the service order so i can see the service status (good service so i know exactly the status of my repair even if the TV isn't in theyr repair shop).

Well the technician asked Philips:

Have been to the client, The following ponits were observed:
- the SSB received does not work in 3D
- The client's problem is : when he plays with his PS3, in 3D, the ambilights
flashes (but just in 3D, if he switches into 2 D, it is OK + If he watches a
film in 3D it is OK). Is there a solution ?

Answer from Philips:

Philips advise to switch off the ambilights during viewing 3D


Well really a super advise, i never thought of this simple solution, thumbs up. No honestly, do they really think i wouldn't try this first.
If it would be so simply i wouln't mind to switch the ambiligths off, but they're flashing even when i do this. And then they're the other problems like TV shutting down every hour, IP-EPG producing errors, sound loss during watching tv, sometimes starting up on its own.

Its almost if there's a ghost living in the TV, i had better to call an exorcist or better the Ghostbusters maybe they can solve these problems.

I'm going to call Philips again and try to convince them to give me either a new device or my money. I have enough of this.

This was the worst investation ever and im not going to buy any Philips product ever again.

Best regards

[Dyna]

@ morma: Wow, this is REALLY horribly bad service......
The technician isn't really to be blamed, but there seem to be serious issues with the service quality here....
I mean, they already know it's a common problem, they also know that the problem doesn't disappear simply by "switching off the ambilight", but there seems to be a huge problem in communication, so that one technical department doesn't know what the other is doing.

Nonetheless, just this answer to "switch off the ambilight" is sheer unacceptable.
If you have this answer as a written statement of any kind, use it directly and ask at philips to talk with some kind of supervisor... If not, ask the technician if he told you this message, as he should receive such information via email.
I mean, seriously, this is simply disrespectful.

Besides all your anger, have a look if the problem still appears when you set the surround sound settings within your philips menu to OFF (Menu -> TV Settings -> Sound -> Surround (german: Raumklang) -> OFF). As it seems to me that the problem is in connection to the combined signal of 3D image data and surround sound. Somehow, the huge datarate is problematic for the firmware. Downgrading the interpretation of the sound signal to stereo might help here, which is done by setting surround sound to off.
I also don't quite understand what the surround sound setting in the TV Menu is meant for, as the machines only offer stereo sound (maximum 2.1) themselves...

Best regards,
D

[morma]

Hi Dyna

i just tried to switch the surround sound of in the Menu, no change. Even my little trick doesn't work's 100%. Sometimes it flashes ><

Today i called Philips again ><, the support guy tried to install a patch over NetTV but the connection to the server wasn't stable so it didn't worked. I told him that i want a new TV and that i regret the purchase because of the many problems. And he told me that he will make a notice in the reclamation folder so that the higher ups could decide.
He cannot decide to give me a new TV, and he also said that after 3 failed repairs they normally give a new TV.
So i will stay persistent.

[Philips]

Dear all,

We've already replied that the issue is known and under investigation (see here). We strive to have it solved in a future SW update. Please be patient. Tnx.

Regards,
JuAn

[gallerian]

Hi all.I also have the same problem.Actually the first time I thought it was a thunder and looke outside if it was raining.Anyway this is a serious and annoying problem since this is a 3d tv which means that should offer an excellent 3d experience.This should happen in both gaming and movies but it happens only in movies.
So what all we gamers are supposed to do?I read the topic,it started on 19/11/2011 and today is 28/1/2012 and philips aks for us to be patient and that will fix it in a future sw update.Wrong philips, you should fix it in the NEXT sw update and this should be soon as the previous one was on 22/12/2012.You are already late and this is frustrating.
This tv differs from others because it's a passive 3d one and only lg has also passive 3d.So it is frustrating that 3d function has such a HUGE flow.I want 3d gaming as well as 3d movies.I cannot have this irritating flashing when I play.Please fix it soon because my patient is not big and I'll go to philis support Greece to claim a refund and then buy a lg tv.

[morma]

I'm waiting for an exchange ass well

And for your information the 7000 series have LG screens, i saw the LG logo when the technician opened the TV. So you won't lose, it's the same Image quality, if i just knew this before.
I will never buy a philips product again

[MrEdd]

Hi all,

I've been hard at work for a while so I haven't been able to keep an eye on the thread or play any 3D games.

I just wanted to say how sorry I was for Morma - all the problems that you are having it is so wrong. Philips should be working overtime to solve this fault for you and everyone (including me) who purchased one of their faulty TV sets.

While Morma's "home brew" resolution has improved the experience for me and hopefully many others it is not a full and proper solution for a fault that should have never have left the Philips quality control test centre.

I am so very disappointed in Philips for the Product but especially for the way they are dealing with their customers who thought they were buying a working TV set.

Philips have sent me a customer survey about my purchase. I have filled it in truthfully and given them the opportunity to contact me directly and discuss the issues I and many others are having with their Product and their Customer Support Service. If they do indeed get in touch I will let you all know the outcome.

Kind regards.

[Dyna]

Hi all,

@ Philips, I acknowledge and am glad to hear that you are working on solving this firmware issue.

For all others, here another step on my own trial to find the source of this issue:

Long story short:
- The issue seems to only appear when the TV receives other sound signals than stereo while 3D gaming. Set your gaming system to stereo sound, this seems to help for the time being until the problem is solved.

I were able to test it with a 42pdl7906k. As long as a 3D game is running, no matter if on xbox or ps3, and the TV is fed with a surround sound signal at the same time, the ambilight will go crazy. Seems the firmware just has a problem with the varying image data rate during game play, together with the 3D image and suround sound signal.

I were able to try check my assumption with several more philips systems of some acquaintances. And it was always the same result:
-> All sound signal but stereo makes the ambilight go crazy :P.
As the TVs themselves only offer 2 speakers, this should be the way to go for the time being.


@ gallerian: I agree with you. This issue should be fixed within the NEXT sw update and not an arbitrary future update.
It sounds like: yeah, maybe the problem will be solved within the next year,... we'll see.

Best regards,
D

[morma]

Hi Guys

Today i installed the new firmware Update 000.014.095.000 , the releases note said that the issue is solved, well solved is different.

The problem worsened on my TV.

So Philips what exactly where you doing, i really start to think that you're doing this on purpose.

[Dyna]

Hi morma,

did you do a hard-restart of your tv after the update? (disconnect electricity for at least 3 minutes). Within an other topic in the forum, I've read that this is required for the update to work sufficiently.

Best regards,
D

[morma]

Hi Dyna

After the update i disconnected the electricity for 20 min (had stuff to do), then i restarted the TV to test if the problem would still persist.
Like i said it worsened, it flashes oftener.

Regards, Morma

[Philips]

Dear all,

To all customers that were/are complaining about "Flashing AmbiLight issue when 3D gaming on my PS3" (like Dyna, MrEdd, Galerian, etc): did the upgrade to SW version 14.95 solve the issue for you? Please fill in the poll (see top of page).
We need to know if others are helped by it, and if maybe there is only a single case left (which then probably has another cause). Thanks for your help.

Please only fill in the poll if you experienced this particular issue.

Regards,
JuAn