So on a whim I decided to buy a new BR/DVD player, however it appears that my “old” TV doesn’t support the 1080 HDMI resolution output.

TV is a Samsung PS-42q97HD, which looking online at a manual seems to indicate that is can’t handle this rate.

Is this a common first world problem?

I really don’t want to buy a new TV as there is nothing “wrong” with this one.

From googling, you’re right your TV will only support up to 720p.

You should be able to set the blu-ray player to output in that format, it’s slightly less hi-def than full 1080p, but the difference from DVD is still massive.

HDMI will happily carry 1080 or 720p signals.

Native resolution of that model tv is 1024 x 768. Can you connect the BR player in any other way (SCART, coax) to access the settings and downscale the HDMI output to 720p?

Edit: Snap.

Interesting thanks. At the moment I can’t even get the TV to recognize that it has something connected via HDMI

OK, try connecting it to different sockets in the TV and with a different HDMI cable to exclude a dodgy cable, I’ve had a few cheapo ones that were broken out the box.

You’ll also want to try connecting a different HDMI device if you have one so that you can check if there’s an issue with the blu ray player.

The problem is likely to be that the DVD player defaults to 1080 and until you can connect it to a compatible monitor you won’t be able to change the output rate. Worth checking with the manual or online for that dvd player.

Right, cable works as I can extend my desktop to the TV via HDMI.

Can you connect the BR player in any other way (SCART, coax) to access the settings and downscale the HDMI output to 720p?

+1

Are there any other connection methods apart from HDMI?

Only HDMI. Although I can now access the menu screen as I plugged the cable straight into the player

I plugged the cable straight into the player

Where did you have it plugged before?

From my laptop. Thought I changed the output resolution but now the screen is just flickering and showing the message mode not supported.

Hope, maybe

Think I’ve got it working via the laptop hack!

Throttled down the rate to stop the flickering and now the TV picks up that it has a HDMI signal!

Feels like buying a car and not using more than second gear to be honest.

Time for a better TV then.

Yeah clearly.