Can My HDMI Cause Pixelation?

Are you experiencing issues with your display screens like blurry or fuzzy images, pixelation, or muffled sound?

There is likely a chance that your HDMI and not your device is the cause. It could be damaged, faulty, or not correctly plugged in.

Like you, most people’s first suspect is usually the devices. You probably spent hours trying to fix the devices without glancing at the HDMI.

Before you trash your HDMI cable, read this post to learn the signs of a lousy HDMI and what to do about it as well as the possible ways to resolve the pixelation problem on your TV.

Can My HDMI Cause Pixelation?

Yes. A bad or faulty HDMI cable or HDMI connection can cause pixelation, freezing, or sparkles. Pixelation occurs when the digital signals are degraded, or interrupted causing problems with the video and audio output.

For most people, a quick fix would be to buy a new HDMI cable. After all, they come so cheaply.

However, it’s important to understand what is causing the pixelation. You may find that it’s got nothing to do with the HDMI and therefore buying a new one won’t resolve the problem.

How To Know If an HDMI Cable Is Bad?

It’s easy to tell when your HDMI cable is bad. The quality of both the image and the sound will be noticeably distorted.  

Among the first apparent signs are pixelation, freezing, sparkles, and poor screen resolution. 

For instance, the screen resolution is reduced,  from 1080p to 720p, which can be impossible to live with if you are used to watching on high-resolution screens.

Other pretty common signs of a bad HDMI cable are blurry or fuzzy images and an alarming discoloration on the screen.

You may also experience intermittent pictures- pictures that randomly appear and disappear. 

It’s also not uncommon to completely lose the picture, have muffled sound, or no sound altogether.

Suppose you are experiencing any of these signs immediately after plugging in your HDMI. In that case, the most probable cause is a loose connection, and just checking that the cable and connectors are correctly plugged in is enough to take your grief away.

For the most part, though, there are usually deeper issues that need troubleshooting. 

For instance, if you have an extra-long HDMI cable, there is a pretty high chance it’s suffering from fraying, crimping, or weak signal transmission.

Other possible causes include:

• Bent or broken pins in the connector 
• A large connector hood makes it impossible for the cable to connect with the port properly
• The cable is tightly coiled, tangled, or bent therefore not able to transmit signals normally

If it’s your first time experiencing these problems, then it’s likely that your cable was bad from the get-go. Either it was shipped while faulty, or it was poorly stored while on transit. In such a case, it’s best to have it returned immediately.

Otherwise, check the pin connectors to ensure that none is broken and all correctly matched. 

If your HDMI is extremely long, invest in HDMI extender  . An extender helps to retain the quality of signals when passing through a long run.

Ensure that all your device’s software is up to date.

If all else fails, get yourself a new high-speed HDMI .

How To Stop The Pixelation on My TV?

Television sets that produce images using pixels are likely to pixelate because of several reasons. It could be due to poor equipment quality, external interference, connection issues, or the mere fact that it’s an older set.

Pixelation usually appears like tiny monochromatic tiles or blocks that look like they are stretching from the original image.

It mainly occurs on TV sets that use plasma technology or liquid display technology.

Let’s take an in-depth look at the causes as we also offer solutions to stop the pixelation.

1. Faulty cables and connections

In most cases, pixelation is caused by poor quality or faulty cables that distort, degrade or stop the transmission of signals altogether.

The culprits can either be the HDMI cables transmitting audio/visual signals to your TV from a source device or the coaxial cables that bring TV signals straight to your home from the cable box.

Bent, crimping, fraying cables, and HDMI cables with an oversized hood that restricts the connectors from contacting the pins are some of the things you should be checking out.

If one of these is the cause, you may need to replace, straighten, or correctly fix the cables and connectors to resolve the pixelation.

2. External Interference

There are plenty of potential external interferences that can cause your TV to pixelate. These can be competing signals from other cables and devices or electric waves from other receivers. 

Weather, too, is a potential cause of pixelation. The electric currents from lightning can interfere with your TV signals, causing them to pixelate. 

While there isn’t much you can do about the weather elements but wait for the storm and lightning to pass, you can ensure there is little to no signal interference by other cables, devices, or electronic appliances by moving them away.

3. Old TV technology

If you have an older television, like from 10 plus years back, it’s not surprising that you are constantly experiencing pixelation. LCD and plasma technology TVs that use pixels to display images are therefore vulnerable to pixelation. They also have a slower refresh rate than newer TV sets resulting in pixelation.

There is no quick fix to this other than just investing in a newer technology television. Even though both technologies may have the same refresh rate of say 60Hz. Newer technology TVs are better at keeping up the pace of transmitting digital signals.

If you highly suspect that pixelation results from the cable TV, it may be a good idea to let your cable TV provider know and have them come to check. Similarly, it’s time to let the pros handle it if you can’t seem to fix the problem as a solution to the pixelation despite trying everything.

Conclusion

HDMI cables do go bad and can cause many issues like pixelation, discoloration, poor screen resolution, freezing, and the other signs we talked about earlier. 

While this can be frustrating, it is not the end of the world. As long as you identify the cause, the solution is a quick fix, pretty much.

Address your HDMI issues as soon as they arise to avoid aggravating the problems and, worse, ending up with a damaged system. In most cases, it’s hardly the device that is faulty but the HDMI.