Hello all....

Thanks in advance for any help.

My system is the following: Scientific Atlantic 8300 HD Cable Box, Panasonic TH-50PHD8UK monitor, a Sony HD DVD player, and a Yamaha RX-V2600 receiver.

Until very recently I was using good component cables for all connections and never had any problems.

But I switched to HDMI cables for all connections and now Im having a big problem watching both HD and non HD tv channels. I should note that I dont seem to be having any picture problems when watching a DVD.

For some reason, when I turn on my SA 8300 HD cable box, the HD channels are totally black, no picture or no sound, for about a half hour!!?? Finally after some time, like a half hour, finally I get a picture???

So while Im waiting for the HD channels to come in, I of course watch the non HD channels but there are numerous lines across the screen and the picture randomly flashes on and off. Basically a very bad picture.

I called Comcast, and they said they dont really support HDMI cables and told me to switch back to component cables. I can do that but there must be something wrong here right??? Ive tried to find other posts that address this problem but none seemed thatr similar.

After the half hour, I can finally watch the HD channels but they often flicker in and out - even when Im just using the menu guide or something.

Any ideas??? Please help!!

tradewindsre:

My system is a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD (Time Warner cable service), Samsung 40" LCD 1080p and a Yamaha RX-661. On non-HD channels, it works fine, but on HD or the new recently added digital channels in the 500's, it will flicker periodically in both video and sound. I have 1 hdmi cable going from cable box to the receiver/amplifier and 1 hdmi cable coming from the receiver/amplier to the Samsung TV. When I try bypassing the receiver and going directly from set-top box to TV, it doesn't appear to flicker, but I'm hesitant to blame the receiver because there are periods with hdmi-switched receiver setup where it doesn't flicker, so I could have just been viewing the direct setup during a favorable time. Also, it could be a bad cable, but the receiver and cables are both less than 1 year old. Since my system is comparable to yours, I wonder if there's a common theme.

HDMI does not always work as expected. You have:
1) A compatability issue between the two HDMI units.
2) One of the two HDMI units is bad.
3) Bad cable.

Not sure this is an issue with the cables. I have this same unit, use HDMI cables, and it seems to have issues during the following situations:

- flickering of HD channels (not audio though). This occurs a few times a month and may be limited to 1080i content. Sometimes turning off the unit and turning it back on fixes the issue - sometimes not. HD content will flicker and this appears to affect all HD content at that time on any channel. Sometimes changing the channel to non-HD content and coming back resolves this as well.

- 1080i content coming up as snow. This happens periodically when changing a channel from non-1080i content to 1080i content with Dolby 5.1 sound turned on. This issue does not happen when I use any of the other sound options. Turning off and turning back on almost always fixes this issue immediately.

I have also began experiencing the same problem. I am with comcast and have a 8300hd receiver connected with HDMI. I figured I would give setting up the box a try and surprise surprise flicker is gone! First, turn off the box. Press the guide and info buttons together ON THE BOX. A screen will pop up for the setup. Choose advanced setup and select all resolutions that apply. After that turn it back on and it should be okay. A new option is now available in the menu called picture format. I have it set at 1080i and have not seen 1 flicker for the past hour. Hope this helps.