S3-391 HDMI issue

Hi all.

I'm having a problem with my Acer S3-391, running Windows 8.

When I have the HDMI plugged in to my TV (Panasonic), if I am viewing a video on the computer, then change the channel on the TV: the computer screen flashes. When I change the TV channel back to the HDMI, the computer screen again flashes.. and 100% of the time, the audio is gone. Much of the time (it might depend on what site I'm watching), the video will freeze and I'll get a message about flash plugin crashing. My only recourse then is to reload the page that the video is on.

I'm using Firefox.

What seems strange to me is that the TV is apparently in communication with the laptop. On my old Acer netbook, once I had the HDMI hooked up (same TV), changing the TV channel from HDMI to another channel would have no effect on the laptop. I could freely change my TV channel, while the video stream on the laptop continued. As soon as I switched back to the HDMI channel, the audio and video continued just like they should.

It would be great if I could get this new Acer S3-391 to behave like my old netbook: don't do anything as a result of the TV channel being changed. I don't know if my old netbook only communicated one way with the TV (sending audio and video to it), but it never gave me any indication that what I did with the TV affected the stream on the computer. Which is why I'm confused by the behavior of this S3-391. Why should it care if I switch the channel? (I only say it "cares" because the computer screen flashes when I click off the HDMI channel).

So, is there a solution to this? I just would like to flip to a different station without having to grab the computer and fix the crashed plugin or lose audio and have to reload the stream.

Thanks for any input!

Dave

Accepted answers

All comments

Tommy-Acer

Generally, the HDMI input is going to be on a different INPUT, not a different CHANNEL.

Can you describe a bit more about what input you are visually on when connected to the HDMI and then what you are changing when you say you are changing channels?

ucdcrush

Hi Tommy. You're right, it would have been better stated to say that I was changing the "input" that I was viewing on the TV. It just so happens that I can do that by pressing channel up (it will go from HDMI input to the broadcast channel I was on before) so I said "channel".

That said, my goal here would be to make this S3-391 behave the same as my old Acer netbook: it seemingly had no "knowledge" of the TV or what the TV's input happened to be. It just kept outputting video out of it's HDMI port. So when I switched the TV away from the HDMI input (to a broadcast channel for example), my old Acer just kept streming out video.. so when I returned the TV to HDMI input, I resumed viewing of the continuing stream/video being output. Now with this new one, as soon as I change my TV from HDMI to broadcast, the Acer screen goes black then returns, and the video is frozen and/or sound is no longer working until I refresh the page. (Sorry if I sound like a broken record, just re-stating the problem).

I'm sure there is a reason that the Acer wants to know (and cares) what input my TV is on (not that I understand what that reason is). Otherwise I think there would be no effect on the Acer of me changing my TV from HDMI input to another channel/input. Ideally, I'd like to disable any knowledge the Acer has about what's going on at the TV side, so that changing input/channel has no effect on it. Is this possible? I'm not even sure where Windows/Acer stores settings related to the HDMI output. Or which driver I might try to update to see if the problem remains.