[Kevin Johnson]

I have a Bravo D1 and a Samsung TS160 (STB) switching through a Gefen 4 X 1 DVI switch to my BenQ 8700.


I programmed my Pronto remote as follows:


"Watch Satellite" macro

1- TS160 - 'Power on'

2- BenQ - 'DVI input'

3- BenQ - 'User 1' (saved picture settings)

3- Gefen - 'Source 3'

4- Marantz (preamp) - 'DSS'



"Watch DVD" macro =

1- TS160 - 'Power off'

2- BenQ - 'DVI input'

3- BenQ - 'User 2' (saved picture settings)

3- Gefen - 'Source 4'

4- Marantz (preamp) - 'DVD'


Note that I power on all of my components whenever I'm using the system EXCEPT the TS160. I've found that if I switch from the TS160 to the D1 without powering off the TS160 first, the D1 image is cropped by about 5% on the left side - a minor inconvenience, easily solved by the Pronto macro.


I've been using the Gefen for about a 10 days now, and have been constantly switching between the 2 sources as I work out the timings (adding wait times between commands so it works consistently). I thought that I had it perfect and was doing a lot of toggling back and forth on Friday as a final test. Thats when things went south.


At first it would take several attempts switching between inputs on the Gefen to get an image. Then after a few minutes I couldn't get a DVI image followed by the the BenQ no longer accepting any input. I then powered off the PJ. It stayed in cool down mode (high fan speed) for about 10 min (vs the usual 2-3 min). When I turned it back on, it froze on the "BenQ" splash screen and would not accept any command.


I then powered off again (again the fan ran in high speed for a long time). I unplugged the PJ from AC and waited 2 min before plugging it back in. The good news is that it has worked fine ever since (about 10 hrs) and appears operationally normal again (e.g. back to 2-3 min cool downs).


Interestingly enough, another forum member had a similar experience using the switch with a Toshiba PJ:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...ighlight=gefen


My current guess is that I somehow jammed up the BenQ microprocessor by a combination of rapid commands and switching data streams simultaneously. I have since modified my macros so that I no longer hit switch to "DVI" on the BenQ (I'm using DVI almost exclusively anyway) and I also now manually hit the "user 1" or "user 2" presets once I switch the source via the Gefen and wait a minute.


This is the first time in about 250 hrs that the PJ has not worked perfectly. Anyone want to venture another guess of what might have happened?

 

[elmhollow]

The "Froze on the Splash Screen"... I had a BenQ PE8700 with only two hours on it freeze an image coming from the Component Interlace input. Nothing, including powering down the DVD player and unplugging the component inputs, would budge the image. All menus accessable, but anytime you swithced back to that input, there was the image.


Power cycled the PJ. Normal cool down time.


Now, any/all interlaced inputs are green/purple. Progressive are all OK. Many resets tried, used two different players, verified players are OK on a TV, etc., etc., etc.


I will call BenQ cust service monday, as my case seems to be 'infant mortality' of the de-interlacer.


Just thought I'd mention it because of the image freeze... although your's shounds like a freeze during PJ boot and mine was a freeze during operation... Anyway, best of luck with the DVI and post results, because that's in my future with the 8700.