Poor Quality Picture/Sound Through Mini DislayPort

[lukemholl]

I've just purchased a mini displayport to hdmi cable to connect my Surface Pro 3 to the TV.

Once connected the picture seems to have a lot of tearing, pink and green pixels and is flickery, and the sound is very loud and crackley
Everything works fine if I connect a different laptop, also using Windows 8 with the default settings.

I've attached a couple of pictures which kind of show the issue... Any ideas?

 

[BaritoneGuy]

Are you using the one from MS? A 3rd party one may not be able to fully connect due to the beveled edge of the device.

 

[MBytes]

HDMI is a pain in the *** to get working, as it is very picky. Sometimes it works fine, other it doesn't.
I wish TVs would just dump HDMI and switch to DisplayPort, but that won't happen, due to the HDMI exclusivity deal that they sign to get HDMI for cheap (low royalties) (which also includes supporting HDMI group), else they wont' be able to to sale the TV's as low price, or cut their profits. Anyway,

Make sure that your Surface Pro is outputting the correct resolution and refresh rate for your TV.
Try changing the HDMI under scan within the Intel control panel (you may need to install Intel own drivers, if you don't have the panel). If you have overscan option, change that as well. See which combination works.
If that doesn't work, look for a color option if any, I know Nvidia and AMD have an option to set colors to limited or full colors. Your TV may work with Limited colors (16-250).

Normally, a video connector is suppose to communicate back and forth all this information, but with HDMI it doesn't work many times, so you have to set it manually.

 

[JasCola]

Looks like a bad adapter connection. You are saying that you tried the displayport adapter on the other laptop? (just clarifying).
Also, check the plug on your Surface- the connector in the middle should be solid and not wobble at all. If the connector moves when you GENTLY press against it then it may be broken.