[Camera.Ken]

Hi All:

I have an intermittent situation where the TV set and the Shaw STB cannot get together properly -- or so it seems. Occasionally, on startup, the set will not display any picture at all; on rarer occasions it will display "goofy colour", where the picture looks made up of greens and yellows only. Mostly, the picture comes on at startup and is utterly gorgeous.

Turning things off and on will eventually bring things to normal.

The set is a Samsung LN46C610, and the Shaw STB is a DCX-3400. They are connected through a Pioneer VSX-520-K receiver, along with a Samsung BR player; HDMI cable is used in all cases. Neither symptom shows up when using the Samsung BR player.

Audio always plays in all cases.

All devices have the latest firmware.

Is this a known problem, with (hopefully) a solution? I do note the wonderful FAQ's around HDMI do mention odd colours and no video situations that may occur as a result of HDMI handshaking deficiencies.

The HDMI cable from STB-receiver is supplied by Shaw with the STB. It is plugged in securely. The receiver-TV cable is an aftermarket cable, made by Accel ($20). I'm discounting receiver-TV cable issues since the BR player always works, first time, through this cable.

 

[danomac]

I've had this problem with my Shaw STB and my brother's Toshiba TV. While mine would mostly go purple-yellow-ish, it sounds like the same problem.

I did eventually figure out what was causing it. I used my A/V receiver to switch between HDMI components and the handshake would fail unless his TV was turned on before the receiver.

We fiddled with it without the A/V receiver and found that the TV had to be turned on last. If it didn't the HDMI "handshake" would fail and you'd get the funky colours. Weird, eh?

The Shaw STB is terrible and has always had the HDMI handshake problem. It was really bad with my 64xx STB - the tech replaced it with a 3xxx STB and the problem happened a lot less (still happened, but not nearly as often.)

In all cases with his TV all we had to do was power cycle the TV and the Shaw box would magically "fix" itself.

Edit: I did find out in the end his TV didn't announce the signals it supported via DDC, and this was the primary cause of the problem...

 

[57]

Pioneer VSX-520-K receiver,...the wonderful FAQ's around HDMI

As mentioned in the FAQ, have you programmed the Pioneer to turn on first? There are lots of comments in the FAQ, some of them may help.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=71112 Item 28

 

[Camera.Ken]

Good Info

Hi danomac and 57:

This certainly seems to be an HDMI problem. There is certainly plenty of chatter about HDMI goofiness.

I am not sure how to program the Shaw-supplied remote to turn on the Pioneer AVR first. As of now, the sequence is STB, TV, AVR.

Interestingly, a thorough search of the Samsung TV's manual reveals that "no screen display, or ... abnormal colour" can occur when the STB's HDMI version is less than 1.3. Can anyone confirm what version the DCX-3400 is? I can not find that anywhere in the user manual or tech specs -- just an anonymous web forum posting that it is 1.3.

 

[danomac]

I looked on Motorola's site, the spec sheet says 1.3.

I'm not sure if you can program the Shaw remote to power on things in a certain sequence.

I have a fully programmable Harmony remote, and that's how I fixed the problem (I just changed the order of the power-on sequence.)

Harmony remotes are excellent, although a bit on the pricey side (I wanted one with a charge cradle, and they're 1.5x the price of one without...)

Try powering things on manually without the remote, and if it doesn't happen it's likely the order the Shaw remote uses.

 

[Camera.Ken]

Many Thanks

Hi danomac:

Thanks for the HDMI version confirmation. Your version of Google must work better than mine ;>}

The Shaw-supplied remote can be programmed for a sequential startup -- page 19 of the manual. It's not very hard, and time will tell if it solves my problem.

 

[danomac]

Oh, I guess I should've posted the URL, otherwise it's heresay...

The spec sheet is on Motorola's website.

Also, the Harmony allows to set delays between different devices powering up, from what I remember. (I did this a year ago.) I think I told my brother's TV to power up first, wait a second, then power up the amp and other devices. Or something like that. I did solve it in the end.