Xbox one HDMI troubleshooting

Hardware and technical stuff
1

I can’t figure this out and wondered if I could get some help.

My son is home from school and he brought his Xbox one home with him. He didn’t bring his HDMI cable. I got an HDMI cable and we plugged it into the TV he previously used for gaming, but the TV reports that it doesn’t support this resolution or something. Here are the things we’ve tried:

  • Dinking with the TV settings for anything that looks helpful.
  • Another HDMI cable (exact same issues with either cable)
  • Unplugging and replugging on TV
  • Unplugging and replugging on Xbox One
  • Using HDMI 2 on the back of the TV
  • Using the other HDMI port on the back of the Xbox

Nothing really works. At one point, we did get a picture from the Xbox One, but it looked strange, not crisp. A weird double vision thing going on, almost like looking at 3D images without the glasses, but more subtle than I know how to describe. Also, when we navigated to video settings, it said there was no HDMI, which is crazy because I’m pretty sure Xbox One is HDMI only.

Ideas?

2

Hi Tim. Have you tried the Xbox with another tv or monitor? Could it have got damaged en route?

3

Yeah, I was just suggesting as much to my wife. It sure seems like it.

There is another TV, but it’s the one in the living room and he doesn’t want to deal with the hassle. I just checked and all the other monitors in my house or sorta oldies, with no HDMI attachments. Maybe the iMac has one?

Thanks for checking in. I’ll report back if we figure anything out.

4

You’re welcome. Don’t know about IMacs sorry as never had one.

Hope it works out for you. Not a nice Xmas present for a gamer…argh!

5

How old are those HDMI cables? Try a newer one.

6

One was brand new. :(

The other I brought home from work. It was a nice one, thicker than the one we bought.

7

Is it one of the newer Xbox that can do 4K and was it set to that?

8

I have no idea. When did Xbox One first come out? Subtract a year. It’s probably that old.

Doesn’t HDMI have something in place to handle such a situation? It doesn’t seem all that unusual that you might be watching in one resolution and then switch to another device that doesn’t support the last resolution.

9

Yeah the standard includes some way for the display to report the resolutions it supports. Then the devices need to put in code to auto switch etc

Honestly it sounds like something is broken