Could Comcast be damaging my receiver ?

[TheDoc46]

Hi,

I have a Yamaha RX-A2010, and I'm unfortunately a customer of the crappy 80's interfaced, keeping the nation backwards in technology Comcast. or is it now Xfininity? Whatever they chose to call themselves these days..

Anyway, whenever i watch XOD (xcrapity on demand) after navigating its clunky slow interface, when i finally get to where i need to go, after 30 sluggish presses of the remote, when i start playing my on demand program, my receiver goes berserk. The display flickers through Dolby Digital to decoder off, like a thousand times a second. after a few secs it settles to dolby digital, however given the 1000x a sec its doing it, i'm genuinely concerned that my latest DVR Cisco Comcast RG200, xfinity box, is going to eventually damage my $2000 receiver ! Surely it can't be good for it, to change the audio codecs a 1000x a sec. the receiver is not happy with it going by the display...

Anyway, anyone else noticed this? Im more concerned of any lasting damage this could cause my receiver..

Any advice welcome.

[Spicoli]

Originally Posted by TheDoc46

Hi,

I have a Yamaha RX-A2010, and I'm unfortunately a customer of the crappy 80's interfaced, keeping the nation backwards in technology Comcast. or is it now Xfininity? Whatever they chose to call themselves these days..

Anyway, whenever i watch XOD (xcrapity on demand) after navigating its clunky slow interface, when i finally get to where i need to go, after 30 sluggish presses of the remote, when i start playing my on demand program, my receiver goes berserk. The display flickers through Dolby Digital to decoder off, like a thousand times a second. after a few secs it settles to dolby digital, however given the 1000x a sec its doing it, i'm genuinely concerned that my latest DVR Cisco Comcast RG200, xfinity box, is going to eventually damage my $2000 receiver ! Surely it can't be good for it, to change the audio codecs a 1000x a sec. the receiver is not happy with it going by the display...

Anyway, anyone else noticed this? Im more concerned of any lasting damage this could cause my receiver..

Any advice welcome.

Comcast is known to damage wallets

But seriously are you connected HDMI from your Shlomcast Box?

[OrbitalDropPodTroop]

My reciever frequently exhibits popping noises on some channels, and when it happens that channel becomes unwatchable. I have yet to hook-up my HT and fear that it may damage my speakers...ComCast equipment is recycled/refurbished CRAP!

[Spicoli]

Originally Posted by OrbitalDropPodTroop

My reciever frequently exhibits popping noises on some channels, and when it happens that channel becomes unwatchable. I have yet to hook-up my HT and fear that it may damage my speakers...ComCast equipment is recycled/refurbished CRAP!

List your equipment and year of manufacturing if you can. Model numbers not needed just year and brand.

[OrbitalDropPodTroop]

My equipment...I presume you mean my HT hardware? well it's not much really, just a small room-based HTiB...a Sony 3D Blu Ray home theatre system made this year I guess-Model BDV-N790W. I've always connected my surround sound to my recievers in the past, and yet this is a simple HTiB-I still don't want that popping and crackly noises/interference to ruin my already notoriously delicate Sony Speakers. I figure I won't connect it to my reciever just in case, and leave the audio to Blus & Gameplay. Thanks for asking though.

[Spicoli]

Originally Posted by OrbitalDropPodTroop

My equipment...I presume you mean my HT hardware? well it's not much really, just a small room-based HTiB...a Sony 3D Blu Ray home theatre system made this year I guess-Model BDV-N790W. I've always connected my surround sound to my recievers in the past, and yet this is a simple HTiB-I still don't want that popping and crackly noises/interference to ruin my already notoriously delicate Sony Speakers. I figure I won't connect it to my reciever just in case, and leave the audio to Blus & Gameplay. Thanks for asking though.

Return the system ASAP!

I only say this because you seem interested in quality sound.

The thing about it is patience. Look for bargains, try to buy in sections. Receiver (craigslist) Speakers, sub etc.. In the long run (that doesn't have to be that long if you want to sacrifice other vices) HTiB is not frowned upon because we all know we want the best we can have now.
But if you slow it down, do some due diligence you can have a nice HT.

BBY=Open box (same return policy and warranty)
Craigslist= Local resident dumping equipment
Display Items= same warranty

If you are patient you can get a killer system for little $$

Good Luck

[OrbitalDropPodTroop]

LOL!, I know, but it's just for a small room-not a something I'm expecting to keep the neighbors up at night with...just a little bedroom set. Otherwise I'd NEVER buy a HTiB at ALL! The Main HT Set-up is as of yet begun to take shape.

[Spicoli]

Originally Posted by OrbitalDropPodTroop

LOL!, I know, but it's just for a small room-not a something I'm expecting to keep the neighbors up at night with...just a little bedroom set. Otherwise I'd NEVER buy a HTiB at ALL! The Main HT Set-up is as of yet begun to take shape.

Oh

Splitter guy was right.

But seriously being concerned about the neighbors is not part of the HT Ethics Code

[OrbitalDropPodTroop]

Right there with you, and plan to be in FULL Compliance with the Code! Oh and thanks for the Sound advice...damn for some reason I have no emoticons, in any case, seriously thanks though-you're right COMPLETELY!

[gear]

Is your cable box connected to the receiver and TV through an HDMI cable. If so it sounds like you might just have an HDMI handshake issue. What happens is every time your cable box changes a channel or video display mode the display and receiver need to re-sync to the new display mode.

To fix this set your cable box to always output a constant resolution like 1080i or 720p. If it's set to change resolutions per channel then you'll get the re-sync issue. Also set you receiver to the same resolution as the TV.

Somme channels broadcast in 1080i, some 720p, and some 480p. So if your box is set to auto and your display and receiver don't handle the resolution changes every time you hit a channel with a different resolution than the previous channel you'll get the HDMI hand shake issue and things will flicker, crackle etc...

Look at the resolution on the cable boxes front display. It should show 1080i, 720p or 480p in small letters. Change to several different channels. Does it show a different resolution when you get the craziness?

[OrbitalDropPodTroop]

Originally Posted by gear

Is your cable box connected to the receiver and TV through an HDMI cable. If so it sounds like you might just have an HDMI handshake issue. What happens is every time your cable box changes a channel or video display mode the display and receiver need to re-sync to the new display mode.

To fix this set your cable box to always output a constant resolution like 1080i or 720p. If it's set to change resolutions per channel then you'll get the re-sync issue. Also set you receiver to the same resolution as the TV.

Somme channels broadcast in 1080i, some 720p, and some 480p. So if your box is set to auto and your display and receiver don't handle the resolution changes every time you hit a channel with a different resolution than the previous channel you'll get the HDMI hand shake issue and things will flicker, crackle etc...

Look at the resolution on the cable boxes front display. It should show 1080i, 720p or 480p in small letters. Change to several different channels. Does it show a different resolution when you get the craziness?

You know, yeah actually...it does...Good Call.

[gear]

OK so it does go crazy when the resolution changes on the cable box? Can you set the cable box to always output a fixed resolution say 1080i for all channels? You might be able to do it in the setup menu, if not call Comcast and they can tell you how to do it. Remember whenever there is a resolution change by the cable box, PS3 or anything else you'll always have an HDMI hand shake occur and it will flash/flicker to re-sync to the new resolution.

Let me know if I can help with changing the cable box resolution.

[OrbitalDropPodTroop]

I'll be trying that out, should that fail ComCast is gonna get a call. Thanks for the Info-really brought me out of the darkness and into the light concerning HDMI hand-shake...never even knew of such a thing before TBH. Thanks for the help man, much appreciated-and will take you up on the kind offer about the resolution if ComCast doesn't sort it all out, cool of you to offer, again-Thanks.

[gear]

Hey no problem glad to help.

[TheDoc46]

how about helping the OP

[gear]

Man I'd love to help you out but I've never seen or heard of the symptoms you described. Does it only do this with you use on demand? Also what does the front display of the cable box look like as the receiver is going crazy?

[TheDoc46]

Originally Posted by gear

Man I'd love to help you out but I've never seen or heard of the symptoms you described. Does it only do this with you use on demand? Also what does the front display of the cable box look like as the receiver is going crazy?

Only happens during on demand, when you press play or stop for a few secs, and when you press pause. It'll stay going berserk until you resume play. The actual cable box is fine. The LCD display just switches from the regular time it normally displays to PLA (for play)

It's just sending a super fast pulse between DD5.1 and no digital sound, which sends my receiver into a spasm, on its display. My concern is if the super fast on and off of that could be doing damage? Probably not ? But I'm not a Yamaha engineer.

[BIslander]

Originally Posted by gear

OK so it does go crazy when the resolution changes on the cable box? Can you set the cable box to always output a fixed resolution say 1080i for all channels? You might be able to do it in the setup menu, if not call Comcast and they can tell you how to do it. Remember whenever there is a resolution change by the cable box, PS3 or anything else you'll always have an HDMI hand shake occur and it will flash/flicker to re-sync to the new resolution.

Let me know if I can help with changing the cable box resolution.

To the best of my knowledge, Comcast Motorola boxes only have fixed output resolutions. That's been the case with the ones I've owned.

Also, I've never experienced the OP's problem, nor have I ever seen another post about that issue. So, I'd ask Comcast to swap out the box.

[gear]

Originally Posted by TheDoc46

Only happens during on demand, when you press play or stop for a few secs, and when you press pause. It'll stay going berserk until you resume play. The actual cable box is fine. The LCD display just switches from the regular time it normally displays to PLA (for play)

It's just sending a super fast pulse between DD5.1 and no digital sound, which sends my receiver into a spasm, on its display. My concern is if the super fast on and off of that could be doing damage? Probably not ? But I'm not a Yamaha engineer.

Now that I think of it I have seen something like this before. It's almost sounds like the remote is sending multiple pulses of the signal to the cable box or receiver. Is the remote the one that came with the cable box? Also in some cases the pulse from one device an be picked up by another. Are the receiver and cable close enough to each other that the receiver could be getting the cable boxes signals?

[gear]

Originally Posted by BIslander

To the best of my knowledge, Comcast Motorola boxes only have fixed output resolutions. That's been the case with the ones I've owned.

Also, I've never experienced the OP's problem, nor have I ever seen another post about that issue. So, I'd ask Comcast to swap out the box.

According to post #7 in this link you can change the resolution from fixed to Auto on the Comcast Motorola DVR model RNG200 or RNG200N. I'd imagine if his is set to auto he could use the same method to change it to a fix resolution.

http://forums.comcast.com/t5/Xfinity...i/td-p/1130867