Develop Bugs

[Q] Why is the refresh rate on the Note 2 58hz?

Hello folks,
I have had my Note 2 for a couple of days now and almost immediately noticed something strange. There is a VERY subtle flickering of the white and light grey areas of the screen. A very high frequency flicker, almost like I can see the refresh rate of the screen. My initial suspicion was that the refresh rate was lower than 60hz. So, I downloaded the app called Android System Info, and sure enough, under display, it was being reported that the refresh rate of the screen is 58hz. I got another friend with a Note 2 to confirm the same thing. My GS3 reports 60hz, and so does my friends HTC One S. So my question is, why is the refresh rate on the Note 2 not 60hz? Is this an intrinsic hardware limitation? Or can this be changed with software? My eyes can definitely notice the 2 less frames per second, I was using a GS3 since June, and switching to the Note, I immediately noticed the refresh rate was lower. Why? This is very strange to me. There are many videos on YouTube with the Note 2 and GS3 on the screen at the same time, and sometimes there is banding interference on one phone and not the other, meaning obviously the phones are running different refresh rates. Now I know the Note 2 refresh rate is lower, why? And is there anyway to change it with software?
Thanks much!

first, i think u should get yr note2 to warranty,
second, u sure yr eyes can differentiate 58hz and 60hz......?

emprize said:
first, i think u should get yr note2 to warranty,
second, u sure yr eyes can differentiate 58hz and 60hz......?
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It is EXTREMELY subtle, almost a non issue, so I doubt warranty will even say anything is wrong. I can notice it on all the demo models i've seen, so I doubt it has anything to do with my phone.
I have confirmed on 3 different Note 2s, the reported refresh rate in the app 'Android System Info' is 58hz. While all other phones I have used report 60hz.
I just find this so strange that maybe someone has a great explanation as to why this is the case. And maybe someone can dig deeper than I can and figure out if this is in the OS or an intrinsically hardware thing. I wish I had the email of a Samsung engineer who worked on the design of this phone, would love their take on why this is the case. 58hz is just such a strange refresh rate.

Goontron said:
It is EXTREMELY subtle, almost a non issue, so I doubt warranty will even say anything is wrong. I can notice it on all the demo models i've seen, so I doubt it has anything to do with my phone.
I have confirmed on 3 different Note 2s, the reported refresh rate in the app 'Android System Info' is 58hz. While all other phones I have used report 60hz.
I just find this so strange that maybe someone has a great explanation as to why this is the case. And maybe someone can dig deeper than I can and figure out if this is in the OS or an intrinsically hardware thing. I wish I had the email of a Samsung engineer who worked on the design of this phone, would love their take on why this is the case. 58hz is just such a strange refresh rate.
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you are the man, mate, my eyes cant even differentiate 50 and 60 Hz, for all my note2 experience, i cant see any unusual on the screen.
But for the 58hz issue, i think its not quite a strange thing for me, it reminds me when i was using CRT monitor(or early lcd?), it always can set the refresh rate to 58hz or 60hz, but it might like u say a hardware or driver problem, hope u can contact with samsung engineer and tell us the answer

I suppose the app might be reading the values of somewhere not actually measuring it or something ! Correct me if am wrong .

this is interesting. i also notice a subtle flicker of the screen. it's annoying in some lighting. i don't notice it on other phones.. it's definitely seems like the refresh rate is a bit slower than it should be.

The refresh rate is correlated with the resolution and the main base clock which feeds the display controller, in this case 1280 * 720 * 58Hz = ~54Mhz plus some margins for which are too long to describe, which gives them a target frequency of about 54MHz for a 16 divider of the 880MHz base clock. That's the main reason of the 58 vs 60 Hz difference.
But the reason you're seeing flickering might be completely unrelated to that and caused by some odd much lower timings in the display settings. Maybe a developer with the device could test it out by changing them.

AndreiLux said:
The refresh rate is correlated with the resolution and the main base clock which feeds the display controller, in this case 1280 * 720 * 58Hz = ~54Mhz plus some margins for which are too long to describe, which gives them a target frequency of about 54MHz for a 16 divider of the 880MHz base clock. That's the main reason of the 58 vs 60 Hz difference.
But the reason you're seeing flickering might be completely unrelated to that and caused by some odd much lower timings in the display settings. Maybe a developer with the device could test it out by changing them.
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Thanks for that information, it's great technical info I've been looking for. So it's basically a ratio/multiplier of some clock speed in the hardware. But now my question is, why would the Note 2 be any different than a GS3? I would think they have relatively the same hardware, and resolution on both screens is the same, so why would the refresh rates differ? Just seems to me that 58hz is not an ideal refresh rate. I mean, the main reason there is a trend towards 120hz TVs these days is because both movies (24 fps) and TV (30 fps) are evenly divisible into 120. Whereas with a 60hz TV, there is a remainder on 24, so movies do not interpolate as smoothly. With 58hz, no recorded content I can think of divides evenly into it, always making interpolation less smooth. Again, in my mind, 58hz is just silly, why not just give me the extra 2hz!! Doesn't make sense to me.
Final question. Would there be any way with software to change the refresh rate? Or is this set in stone at the hardware level?

I have an issue with this as well - I'm getting either fairly heavy frame skipping in any 8 or 16 bit emulator with frame skipping set to auto, or sound skipping with frame skipping turned off. I suspect this is because of the odd refresh rate with the app expecting 60hz and only running at 58 in reality, causing either the video or audio to run out of sync and needing to skip the two frames here and there to catch up. If the emulators could slow down the audio speed to match the slower video speed, it wouldn't be an issue.... but this shouldn't be the problem of the emu authors.
This happens with no other applications installed on a brand new phone. I've also installed clean rom and perseus kernel, no change. Power settings are all off, nothing is hitting my CPU to cause the frameskipping and it's very consistent, which leans towards the refresh rate causing the issues. Anyone know anything more about this? What a pain...

I am a traffic cop and I can definitely tell the difference between a car going 58mph and one going 60mph.
Sent from my GT-N7100

@rbiter said:
I am a traffic cop and I can definitely tell the difference between a car going 58mph and one going 60mph.
Sent from my GT-N7100
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I'm a noob and I don't know what "stuttering" is
But seriously, it's not like a mobile device should be able to emulate another system anyway, am i rite? Just use it for phone calls and internet browsing...

i think the reason why the refresh rate between gs3 and note2 is different due to both are using different lcd even though some of the hardware is the same.
even though the diff is small but it still incur some major hiccup where the frame skip especially with project butter where they keep the ui at 60fps.
maybe we can email to samsung engineer and they can take a look at it.

How bad is the overheating and wifi performance?

I've a few posts about the heating issues with this device, and just wanted to get more opinions. I've also heard about poor performance via wifi )(and even issues with wired?) and would like to hear about that as well.
I'm surprised with similar hardware that is normally passively cooled (nexus 7) has heating issues. I know they run it a higher clock rate because there isn't a reliance on a battery. But I read the dev version ran even hotter and they addressed this in an update. The only way I could see addressing this via an update is by clocking it at a lower speed. I saw a video of someone playing dead trigger and at parts it seemed much choppier than my nexus 7, which made me think it's running too hot.
I've heard about people running it on its side and it runs cooler that way? I'm basically wondering if stock cooling is sufficient and any info on wifi/nic issues.

For me... Taking the board out of the case was the best cooling solution. That and my cigarette pack mod lol
The case is a crap design IMO and I also wondered why tegra 3 phones run better with passive cooling and no way for the heat to escape other than absorbtion.
The extra strain on the GPU when running 1080 also doesn't help. My monitor and TV only allow 1080, so 720 upscale isn't an option for me!
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

I don't think it has any real heat issues, people just enjoy doing those kind of mods, (probably in the hopes that overclocking will be a possibility). the wifi and bluetooth though do seem to have issues, probably due to the metal case.
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium

Wi-Fi is shameful. My "gaming TV" is around 10 metres from my wireless router and OUYA (differently from Wii and PS3) cannot detect it, so I have to unplug the phone and move the router each time I want to go online.

The WiFi is unforgiveable, hopefully it's just a software issue. Wired internet is rock solid...never had any overheating. It does get hot, but Tegra 3 should be able to handle it.

I've only had 1 heating problem and it was my own fault (in a way). I currently have the kill processes upon exit unchecked, something that's required for certain sideloaded apps, and an app got stuck on over night. For whatever reason even though I put the OUYA in sleep mode, which should kill most of the apps (and does), it didn't that time. THe next day, the OUYA was hot to the touch. A quick reset fixed the problem and it cooled down in minutes. But to put that into perspective, my OUYA has never even heated up very much after 3-4 hours of gameplay and streaming 1080p video, only that one time.
As for wifi, after the last few updates, I haven't had any problem with connecting to Wifi and even the speed seems to be...tolerable, even with my router upstairs . I know this isn't the case for everyone, however, and I still tend to rely on ethernet as it just works better.

Thanks all for the info.
But I still get the vibe some say it's a poor case design (and causes overheating) and some say it's not an issue.
ut to put that into perspective, my OUYA has never even heated up very much after 3-4 hours of gameplay and streaming 1080p video, only that one time.
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Hmm if a runaway app was taxing the cpu/gpu and it got hot to the touch, I would think a game would do the same, I guess it depends on the game.
Taking the board out of the case was the best cooling solution.
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This is what I've read in other places and not too thrilled about having to leave it out of it's case.
Someone mentioned bluetooth issues as well. I hadn't heard that before but I guess it makes sense if wifi has issues.
I wonder, has anyone used wifi/bluetooth when it's out of case? Just wondering if the case is shielding too much.
I really want to buy a couple of these, (one mainly for xbmc) but I'll definitely need wifi where I plan to put it so I'll think I'll hold off to see if there is an update resolving this.

mine does get very hot, but not "overheated". processors get hot, its a fact of, umm, tech.
wifi works WAY better out of the case. i mean, 100x better. i've never had a bluetooth connectivity problem.

i wonder what the source on thes heat issues might be.
thechnically the t33 shouldnt be too much different from the t37 in my htc one x+ which i enabled to run all cores @ 1,7ghz, too
i have to say, the phone tends to get very hot while playing demanding games like ravensword etc. but never throtteled too much.
i wonder what voltages for the consoles are and about the max gpu-frequency. can anybody tell?
else i have to wait for mine to arrive.
was lucky to shoot one brown limited edition one with 2 extra controllers on ebay for just 85 bucks

Sufficed to say I've not really noticed the overheating issue as I haven't really been monitoring it. The fan kicks in fairly noisy now and then but I only notice it when it's on my desk when I'm doing wired ADB tasks. When it's across the room I don't hear it.
As far as the WIFI is concerned it's my opinion that it's more firmware issue than the casing. When I took original delivery I set it up in my kitchen using WIFI. My kitchen is about as far away from my modem as is possible to get in my house and it connected just fine. I used it for a while with no problem. When I scanned for wireless networks it picked up 7 if I remember correctly, this is roughly the same as I get if I scan using my Galaxy Note 2 or Nexus 7. This obviously included all my neighbors networks BTW. After a subsequent firmware update it wouldn't connect and wouldn't see my modem. I scanned dozens of times trying to find a signal but no joy. The maximum number of networks it has detected since is just 2. Luckily every room in my house has a RJ45 network socket so it's not a problem. It's fairly obvious to me that this firmware update had a very negative impact.

Screen quality seems to have dropped in games since 5.1.1

Hi, I have just upgraded my 12.2 last night to 5.1.1 , since updating i have noticed 2 things with 2 games i play:
Clash Of Clans - Quality of the screen looks a little less in the game than it was plus when i start the game i get like a white streak at the very bottom of my screen and then the game starts afterwards.
Boom Beach - The quality of the graphics in this game looks much worse than it did before, i have checked that the quality was still set to high which it was, things just dont look sharp like they did before.
Is there something they have done in 5.1.1 to make the tablet cope with games better by reducing the quality or something?
Any advice?
Regards
James

I would thinks it's the other way around... That it's the games going into some sort of comparability mode if it's not updated to work with 5.1.1 on a screen with those specs (Rez and size) and/or not updated to run on 5.1.1 and our Exynos chips.. I'm speculating here, but I've never heard of the device maker doing the dance around , it usually the devs having to play catchup with updates to ensure their software plays well on the hardware. Good luck and check patches and updates for your games!

Having the same problem here with display after updating in 5.1.1, in almost every app and in browsing. Everything seems to be displayed in low quality aftr the upgrade. I own a tab pro 12.2 german version..

james_lpool said:
Hi, I have just upgraded my 12.2 last night to 5.1.1 , since updating i have noticed 2 things with 2 games i play:
Clash Of Clans - Quality of the screen looks a little less in the game than it was plus when i start the game i get like a white streak at the very bottom of my screen and then the game starts afterwards.
Boom Beach - The quality of the graphics in this game looks much worse than it did before, i have checked that the quality was still set to high which it was, things just dont look sharp like they did before.
Is there something they have done in 5.1.1 to make the tablet cope with games better by reducing the quality or something?
Any advice?
Regards
James
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The SAME EXACT thing happened to me on Boom Beach and Clash of Clans, more so on Boom Beach. It just started happening about 1 week ago, the "new Jellybean update" was within the last 2 weeks for me and now the games don't work very well. I get a flash of white distorted and enlarged graphic icons that flash across the bottom (like the poorest resolution possible) then it starts up and looks terrible. I've uninstalled both games and reinstalled them because I thought that I did something wrong and messed it up. I'm actually debating on uninstalling and not playing the games now because it's terrible. Silver lining, at least someone else in the world is having the same problem and it's not my tablet about to croak. I was worried I burned out my tablet.

Gaming on the V30 discussion thread.

I didn't see a thread dedicated to gaming on the V30, so I figured I'd create one for us to discuss our recommendations, thoughts etc.
Please feel free to add to the thread.
On a start, I noticed on really dark games, such as Karma incarnation 1, it looks pretty stunning. The blacks are so dark you can't distinguish the screen from the edge of the phone. And the colors of the game look amazing. It's a very dark and odd game though.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.auralab.karmaincarnation1
It was free a day or so ago, and may still be. Check it out.

Anyone using Pokemon Go, South Park Phone Destroyer or Super Mario Run??.... any throttling after a few minutes or hiccups?
I'm mostly curious about playing and charging at the same time and how warm things get and if the procs slow down to a point it's noticeable in game. My current phone gets real bad with Pokemon Go after about 5 min... it's like a slide show after throttling starts, but it's smooth before the temp increases.
thanks for any info.

I've played super Mario run for periods longer than 5 minutes and it doesn't stutter or lag. The phone doesn't even really get warm. I haven't charged and played yet though as I still believe in the old "battery conditioning". ?

20degrees said:
I didn't see a thread dedicated to gaming on the V30, so I figured I'd create one for us to discuss our recommendations, thoughts etc.
Please feel free to add to the thread.
On a start, I noticed on really dark games, such as Karma incarnation 1, it looks pretty stunning. The blacks are so dark you can't distinguish the screen from the edge of the phone. And the colors of the game look amazing. It's a very dark and odd game though.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.auralab.karmaincarnation1
It was free a day or so ago, and may still be. Check it out.
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Thanks for the heads up. Just downloaded. Still free.

bilbo60 said:
Thanks for the heads up. Just downloaded. Still free.
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Here's a few more.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.cubusgames.TheFrankensteinWars
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.msherwin.GameStudioTycoon3

20degrees said:
I've played super Mario run for periods longer than 5 minutes and it doesn't stutter or lag. The phone doesn't even really get warm. I haven't charged and played yet though as I still believe in the old "battery conditioning". ?
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No doubt, even I dislike charging and playing, but when you get into a group and hit raids in Pokemon Go for 8 hours charging with a battery pack on the go is a must, lol. Happy to hear at least for Mario Run you've not seen any issues. Thank you.

Here are my two cents. The games I run are Hyperburner, Hitman: Sniper, Lonewolf, PacMan CE, Star Wars Pinball, with Hungry Shark and Flip Diving for the kids. On those the phone runs like nothing is happening at all, no warming and no lag whatsoever. I also run 5 emulators: NostalgiaNES, SuperRetro 16, MD.EMU, Mugen64Plus and MAME4DROID and apart for MAME not recognizing SF3 3rd Strike's CHD image all games runs ok. The only game I have to run on basically low quality is Star Wars: KOTOR (my favorite game), for some reason it will stutter and almost drop to 5fps if I run it with high-quality graphics, shadows on, grass on and frame buffer efftecs on. I was surprised since this is an old game ported from the main PC code, my guess it is resolution limited but nonetheless, I have to run it low quality. Other than that, no issues on those previously mentioned games.

snowman_pr said:
Here are my two cents. The games I run are Hyperburner, Hitman: Sniper, Lonewolf, PacMan CE, Star Wars Pinball, with Hungry Shark and Flip Diving for the kids. On those the phone runs like nothing is happening at all, no warming and no lag whatsoever. I also run 5 emulators: NostalgiaNES, SuperRetro 16, MD.EMU, Mugen64Plus and MAME4DROID and apart for MAME not recognizing SF3 3rd Strike's CHD image all games runs ok. The only game I have to run on basically low quality is Star Wars: KOTOR (my favorite game), for some reason it will stutter and almost drop to 5fps if I run it with high-quality graphics, shadows on, grass on and frame buffer efftecs on. I was surprised since this is an old game ported from the main PC code, my guess it is resolution limited but nonetheless, I have to run it low quality. Other than that, no issues on those previously mentioned games.
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Interesting about KOTOR... I assume you've tried reducing the resolution in settings on the V30... any changes?

teknomedic said:
Interesting about KOTOR... I assume you've tried reducing the resolution in settings on the V30... any changes?
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You're correct, I changed the resolution to both normal and low and the game won't run, it gets stuck on the splash screen. Go back to high resolution and runs as it's supposed to do. Same with framerate. Clearing data didn't help too. I frankly am surprised by this.
Sent from my LGE V30 using XDA Labs

not had a lag issue but i am having a screen sensitivity issue in gaming?

jamiee6610 said:
not had a lag issue but i am having a screen sensitivity issue in gaming?
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do you have a glass screen protector on? it might be it.
iv'e been running Dragon ball Z Budokai 2 on the Dolphin Emulator 60FPS no overheating, PPSSPP full res, fpse full res OpenGL, and even moonlight streaming my computer which is streaming PS4 Remote play! :silly:
I LOVE THIS PHONE
now all that remains is to get the HDMI adaptor - to have this phone beign a full console

Orof said:
do you have a glass screen protector on? it might be it.
iv'e been running Dragon ball Z Budokai 2 on the Dolphin Emulator 60FPS no overheating, PPSSPP full res, fpse full res OpenGL, and even moonlight streaming my computer which is streaming PS4 Remote play! :silly:
I LOVE THIS PHONE
now all that remains is to get the HDMI adaptor - to have this phone beign a full console
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Could be the screen protector?

jamiee6610 said:
Could be the screen protector?
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yes. i have a glass screen protecor on my and the sensitivity is bad. waiting on my whitestone dome screen protector to arrive and replace my current one

The other day I got 7.5 hours SOT, played CSR Racing 2 for a solid 1.6 hours straight lol. Perfectly smooth the entire time, very satisfied with this phone

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_-..zKiLLA..-_ said:
The other day I got 7.5 hours SOT, played CSR Racing 2 for a solid 1.6 hours straight lol. Perfectly smooth the entire time, very satisfied with this phone
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How far are you on CSR2?

Anyone gaming on v30+? It's weird and against all the good reports about gaming on regular v30, but IT'S SLOW! FPS must be around 10-15 fps playing mobile legends, titanfall, actually all games. I can see on some points it improves but only for a couple of seconds.
I've tried playing with the game settings. None improve the frame rate..

I played lineage 2 it ran like crap at max settings . but on my iphone 8 plus not problem. Other games ive tried is kuboom wasnt so great not smooth. Gunz of boom ran ok . over all not impressed maybe lg software might be throttling the cpu/gpu so the phone doesnt get hot. My lg v30+ stayed cool playing 3+ hours straight. Now i dont game on my v30+ all my games are on my iphone.

nizmoboy98 said:
I played lineage 2 it ran like crap at max settings . but on my iphone 8 plus not problem. Other games ive tried is kuboom wasnt so great not smooth. Gunz of boom ran ok . over all not impressed maybe lg software might be throttling the cpu/gpu so the phone doesnt get hot. My lg v30+ stayed cool playing 3+ hours straight. Now i dont game on my v30+ all my games are on my iphone.
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Ur using v30+ right? Weird that almost every review or regular v30 user praise gaming performance on v30.. I'd say it's a software bug specifically on the plus

Allesa said:
Ur using v30+ right? Weird that almost every review or regular v30 user praise gaming performance on v30.. I'd say it's a software bug specifically on the plus
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Yes i have sprint lg v30+ hopefully gaming will be better when oreo update is released

Zenfone 2 Zoom touchscreen dropping swipes

I've had a Zenfone 2 Zoom for about year and used it lightly only for testing. Recently it seems applications are getting worse with acknowledging rapid strokes. It used to be with Minion Rush I could play the game and only very fast strokes would get dropped (the reason described below), and now it's practically unplayable. The issue also affects two similar games, Paddington and Subway Surfers.
ASUS support site doesn't seem to have any specific recommendations other than adjusting Glove Mode. It's been with the factory ROMs since day one and currently has WW_4.21.40.209_20161216. Check for updates doesn't show any new ones.
I've had Developer Mode on since I first observed the symptoms, and I can see the digitizer has issues with fast strokes; usually they end up around 10 pixels long, clearly showing the digitizer isn't processing the correct request. The rest of the strokes are showing up, some are double-banded and some longer than expected, which also raises concern, but the rest of the UI and other programs all work fine. So far, only the rapid strokes of certain game genres seem to have issues. And with these games, I can see the strokes on screen, but the game isn't picking it up.
Will loading a custom 7 build fix this issue or should I toss it due to being bad hardware?