Resolution issues, and stuttering on Netflix/Amazon Video.

volkerball3011

Honorable
Jun 13, 2013
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10,540
I use my PC as my primary media device, for Netflix, Amazon Video, Youtube, etc. I built it myself last year, and I've had no issues until recently. I have two screens; one is an old Hanns-G monitor in 1366x768 that plugs into my mobo via VGA, and the other is a Sanyo 1366x768 flatscreen TV that plugs into my graphics card via HDMI. I'm using my integrated Intel GPU for the lower screen, and my Graphics card for the upper screen, you see.

The first issue I'm having is what while my monitor will happily display in its native res of 1366x768, my TV will only do so if I am in dual-screen mode. If I'm using just the TV, such as when I'm gaming, I have to use 1360x768. It'll display in pretty much all the other resolutions, but if I put it on 1366x768, it just shows me a black screen until it reverts back to 1360x768. I can use ANY other resolution, but 1366x768 is just a black screen.

Even weirder is the fact that when it shows me that black screen... I can access my PC via my tablet using Chrome Remote Desktop, and THEN my screen will appear in the proper resolution, on both my tablet and my TV screen. The second I exit the app on my tablet? Back to the black screen. I'm absolutely confounded.

The other issue is Netflix and Amazon Video. I've been watching both on my PC ever since I built it, with no problems at all, but now suddenly both services cause my PC to stutter. I don't mean the video feed alone, but rather my entire PC lags every 2-3 seconds, and you can see it in my mouse movement. Two to three seconds, then lag for up to a second, then back to normal. It's not my connection speed, my graphics drivers are (always) 100% up to date(so please do not suggest I update them), and so I don't have any clue what's causing this. I've tried disabling multi-monitor and running both screens solely off of my GPU, and that doesn't work either. I've tried allocating more RAM to my IGPU, and still no luck.

But the thing is... if I switch to my lower monitor alone, the one connected via VGA and powered by the Intel chip... then I can watch videos on these services just fine. If I fire up VirtualBox, load up a Linux Distro and watch on there via Chrome or Firefox... THAT works just fine too, even on my upper screen.. So I don't know what the problem is. You'd think it would have something to do with my graphics card or HDMI, due to the fact that I can watch on my lower screen, but then why am I able to watch on the upper screen via VirtualBox? Truly, it's things like this that make me wonder if technology can be possessed by malicious spirits. :(

In any event... sorry for the long-winded post, but I've been putting up with these issues for at least two months, and I'm truly stumped. I have no idea what to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated, and thank you in advance to anyone with help to offer.

Oh, and my specs, just in case;
OS: Windows 10 Home
CPU: Intel Core i5 4590
GPU: AMD Radeon R9 380
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1333Mhz

EDIT:
I experimented a bit, and switched to using just my Intel GPU. I hooked my TV's HDMI directly into the mobo's HDMI port, and Netflix/Amazon videos play just fine... so this is clearly an issue with my graphics card. I just don't understand why sites like Crunchyroll, Youtube and pretty much all the others play videos just fine, but Netflix and Amazon Video are acting like this with my graphics card, over a year after I built this PC.
 
Solution
As of now, it appears I've found a solution. Digging around on Google some more, I found this page:
https://community.amd.com/thread/221927

Same card, same issues I've been having. I'd tried rolling back my drivers once before, but it didn't seem to do anything. At the suggestion of some posters on that page, I tried again. I rolled back to late October, which didn't work. So I went further, all the way to July of 2017. This worked. Netflix and Amazon Video on my browsers work, the Netflix app for Windows 10 works, everything is back to normal.

As someone on that page states, the issue might have to do with DRM and HTML5 interacting badly with a bug in recent AMD drivers for this line of cards. This issue apparently is not confined...

volkerball3011

Honorable
Jun 13, 2013
48
0
10,540


Thanks for the reply. As I stated in my post, however, my graphics drivers are all up-to-date. I even checked for updates before I posted this. But I did forget to mention that I'd tried enabling/disabling hardware acceleration in Chrome, to no avail. Not only that, but the problem exists on both Firefox and Microsoft Edge, as well. I even tried Opera, but it wouldn't even let me stream from either service anyway.

I actually experimented a little more since my last edit; if I switch to running both monitors off of my card, the problem persists when I try to play Netflix/Amazon Video on my TV. If I switch to the VGA monitor? No problem. It runs as normally as it did when I tried using the Integrated Graphics alone.

So... perhaps there's an issue with my graphics card transmitting via HDMI? But again, why would I have an issue specifically with these two services and literally no others? Why is it that videos stored locally on my machine or games I play don't provoke the same issue? It really is strange.
 

volkerball3011

Honorable
Jun 13, 2013
48
0
10,540
As of now, it appears I've found a solution. Digging around on Google some more, I found this page:
https://community.amd.com/thread/221927

Same card, same issues I've been having. I'd tried rolling back my drivers once before, but it didn't seem to do anything. At the suggestion of some posters on that page, I tried again. I rolled back to late October, which didn't work. So I went further, all the way to July of 2017. This worked. Netflix and Amazon Video on my browsers work, the Netflix app for Windows 10 works, everything is back to normal.

As someone on that page states, the issue might have to do with DRM and HTML5 interacting badly with a bug in recent AMD drivers for this line of cards. This issue apparently is not confined solely to the R9 3## line.

My top screen still refuses to display in 1366x768 when I go single-screen, however, but this is really just a minor annoyance by comparison. It's something that has happened off and on for a while now, so for all I know, it could be the TV's fault somehow.

Thank you to anyone who read the thread and to Pat Flynn for trying to help. In the future, should this issue arise, I'll experiment with rolling back drivers first.
 
Solution