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Are AV compatibility issues going to get worse?

post #1 of 8
7/26/10 at 12:52pm
Thread Starter 
I was just reading a thread on 3D. And it made me think.

Back before HDMI, I bought a receiver. A Yamaha RX-V657. Great receiver, still works 100%. Rock solid stability out of the box.

Then comes HDMI. Ok, a few problems. I figure (back in 2007 or so,) than they can only improve.

Out comes HDMI 1.2 and HDM 1.3. And new source devices and TVs. People are still having issues with HDMI. Receivers have numerous glitches over their feature sets. DVRs and Set top boxes are still causing problems.

Now comes 3D. People already reporting issues. And HDMI still has issues it's had since 2006 or whatever (not arguing about who's to blame, but there's issues, is my point.)

So in my mind, it's not getting better. Manufacturers will keep making devices with issues. No one seems to want to take a step back and figure out how to make stable gear before coming out with next year's models with more features and (maybe) more issues.

I am not on some rampage here. I just wondered what other people thought about the state of the industry?
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post #2 of 8
7/26/10 at 1:01pm
Not saying they don't exist, but I have never had any issues with HDMI. I'm sure I won't have any issues with 3D, I don't plan to bother with it.
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post #3 of 8
7/26/10 at 1:15pm
I think something that might be helpful would be for the periodicals to start dedicating an entire section of the AVR (or pre/pro) review to all things HDMI. And by this a mean a section that's easy to understand for most readers going over how reliable (and the performance of) their HDMI connections were with, say, a cable or statellite box, BD player and game console connected via HDMI to the AVR and then HDMI out to the display. They would, obviously, not be able to cover all component combinations, but it would at least give some idea to how well their components (a common configuration that most readers have) played with the particular AVR under review. This probably wouldn't help the compatibility problems directly, but maybe the gear makers would take more notice of how their equipment is behaving in real world scenarios (which, I would hope, they should be doing in the first place before releasing products to market!).
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post #4 of 8
7/26/10 at 1:27pm
Thread Starter 
With regards to that, not all reviwers have the sort of gear which creates issues. And not all reviews are intensive. And obviously, it's not always the receiver/pre pro which is at fault.
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post #5 of 8
7/26/10 at 2:20pm
I had an HK AVR 520 for 8 years that switched component and composite without a hitch for all that time. My first HDMI AVR was a HK 247 - switching was dodgy at best - great sounding AVR other than the HDMI. When I bought a prepro - an Onkyo SC885 it got worse. It took up to 20 seconds every time I turned the channel on the HD DirecTV box. After another HK 247 which died - it was be swapped out for a 254 that worked GREAT! Imagine that! Read the 254/354 problem thread some time.

My current prepro is an Integra DHC 40.1 which works great.

I think the receiver industry is where the computer industry was in the mid-late 90s. Buying a motherboard/cpu combo meant you had to study the forums to find out which video and sound cards would work with brand x motherboards. Often the card would work ok but would interfere with other motherboard functions. Sometimes it wouldn't work at all. Ditto with memory. Some brands worked better than others in certain chipsets.

Chalk up 95% of the HDMI problems to HTCP issues. Once the morons in Hollywood realize that any movie that can be seen and heard can be copied and remove the heavy hand of copyright protections the sooner these problems will go away. Or maybe they'll just come out with DVD copyright protections so serious that you won't be able to play it at all.
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post #6 of 8
7/26/10 at 2:24pm
Thread Starter 
I am not sure all issues are HDCP.

For example, I and others had issues with the display powering off and our DVR/STB. Because the DVR/STB would no longer get the info it expected via EDID, and would change it's output resolution setting.

Some people did not have this problem.

My theory being that someone was storing the EDID info when the display powered off.

HDMI spec did not seem to explain what should happen in this scenerio other than explaining that the repeater should look like the sink to the source (which does not really cover a powered down sink.)
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post #7 of 8
7/26/10 at 2:31pm
Without HDCP would there even be a need for HDMI?

I think I know the answer to that.
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post #8 of 8
7/26/10 at 2:38pm
Thread Starter 
Need is a tricky word.

Ignoring the issue of content protection, it could be argued that all that's needed for high quality AV was an updated version of S/PDIF, and DVI.

Having both on one cable seems like a good idea though, in theory. I don't buy into the idea that a single cable theory is inherently flawed. But it does seem like a challange to create a system without the sort of issues HDMI causes (complex systems are VERY hard to manage.)
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