Hello all,

I recently switched to HDMI on my th-42px600u, I got the cables from Monoprice.

Everything is hooked up and the picture looks great.

I am having a strange problem. When I power down my set-top box for an a long time (let's say overnight) I have problems when I turn it on.

For example,

It's 11:00 friday night, and I decide to stop watching tv, I power down the cable box and the tv. The next day I go to turn it on, and my tv powers on fine, my cable box powers on fine, but I get no picture. It just says HDMI in the left hand corner. Like I am on a blank input. To fix this, I pull the plug on the STB and plug it back in forcing the box to reboot and the picture appears again.

I try not shutting the power on the STB to avoid this annoying situation, but I was hoping to get some info as to what is wrong.

MY STB is the Scientific atlanta 8300HD on Passport Echo software. I did some research, and I have a feeling it might be a handshake issue. I did not notice these problems when I was using component cables.

I can rule out loose connections because I checked them, and once I do a reboot, the picture re-appears.

I know the hdmi cables are good because I have 2 of them and both give me this problem.

Please someone point me in the right direction.


Thanks,
Frank

I don't use HDMI except with my dvd player, but it does sound like a handshake issue to me. Do you turn both units on at the same time or one at a time? TV then STB or STB then TV? However you are doing it I would reverse it, if you have not already tried that.

i do not have a specific order to turn it on. i will test this later. thanks for the reply.

ps...

is there a preferred order?

Also try updating your firmware to the latest version on both boxes if you can't solve the problem by changing the order of power up. HDMI/HDCP handshake problems between various bits of equipment have been very common, most manufacturers have released firmware updates to attempt to resolve such problems. There have been at least two for the Panasonic 600U models since last summer when I got mine.

I don't think that there is a preferred order, at least I haven't heard of one. I would use what ever works. I know that when I use my dvd player my tv is already on. I use a Harmony remote and I believe that my tv comes on just miliseconds before the other components, stb,receiver.

I recently switched to HDMI on my th-42px600u...I am having a strange problem. When I power down my set-top box for an a long time (let's say overnight) I have problems when I turn it on.

I try not shutting the power on the STB to avoid this annoying situation, but I was hoping to get some info as to what is wrong.

MY STB is the Scientific atlanta 8300HD on Passport Echo software. I did some research, and I have a feeling it might be a handshake issue. I did not notice these problems when I was using component cables.I have a PX50U Plasma and an SA8300HD/Passport Echo and i often have the same problem. The 8300HD is simply too sensitive and sometimes has a problem making the HDCP handshake with the TV. The 8300HD also does this with my HP LCD TV the same way so it's definitely not the fault of the TV, just a sensitive 8300HD. I also have a Tivo Series 3 connected via HDMI and it never exhibits this behavior, just the 8300HD. Both DVRs are routed through a Gefen 2x2 HDMI switcher splitter, but the problem exists even with the 8300HD connected directly to the TVs.

The best thing you can do is simply leave the SA8300HD turned on all the time. There is no need to power it down since turning it off simply disables the video outputs and IR sensor for the remote. The harddrive stays on no matter what so you may as well just leave it turned on all the time. I do this and i never have the HDMI/HDCP issue.

I don't think that there is a preferred order, at least I haven't heard of one. I would use what ever works. I know that when I use my dvd player my tv is already on. I use a Harmony remote and I believe that my tv comes on just miliseconds before the other components, stb,receiver.There is a preferred order, but since i always leave my 8300HD on i can't quite remember but i think you're supposed to turn the TV first, then when you turn on the 8300HD it sends an HDCP query to the TV which has to already be on in order to confirm that it's HDCP compliant. This is a common problem with cable boxes with HDMI outputs.