Onkyo TX-NR7100 digital snow issue

[CrazyEightyNine]

I just went and upgraded from a LG OLED55B7A TV and a Yamaha RX-A1070 receiver to a LG OLED77C3PUA TV and an Onkyo TX-NR7100 receiver.

I bought the LG 77" first and it was hooked up to the Yamaha receiver with zero issues. But when I swapped out the Yamaha for the Onkyo last night, it has been intermittently displaying only digital snow on the TV. Occasionally I can get it to display the normal blue screen where I can then pop up the receiver menu but it's very hit or miss. I tried swapping the 10' Monoprice Ultra High Speed 2.1 48Gbps HDMI Cable for the 6' version and even the Ultra High Speed 2.1 HDMI cable that comes with the Series X and it still does the same thing. *Note eArc is currently on and I wanna use it.

So does anyone know why it would be displaying digital snow? As a long time home theater nerd, that makes no sense to me. And if you know, do you also know how to fix it? Thanks!

[doubledged]

Hi,

Unfortunately I have the same problem with my Onkyo TX-NR7100, where sometimes when switching video modes (and basically every single time when starting an HDR video), the screen goes fullscreen digital snow.

A workaround I've found is to power off and power back on (power cycle) the receiver, and then it works. This seems to be a bug in the receiver, since if it was a cable issue then it wouldn't work after power cycling.

Hoping enough people have this issue that Onkyo does something about it. Pretty disappointing for such an expensive piece of kit!

[TripleHBK]

I had this receiver on my radar recently due to it dropping below $700 on Amazon but the reviews have not been kind as of late. Loads of people complaining about faulty hdmi ports, a constant need for factory resetting the receiver, and in general just some really shoddy workmanship. I'd wager that Onkyo is well aware of the issues at this point... question is, are they going to do anything about it. It's not looking good on that end from what I've read thus far.

[SlaughterX]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

I had this receiver on my radar recently due to it dropping below $700 on Amazon but the reviews have not been kind as of late. Loads of people complaining about faulty hdmi ports, a constant need for factory resetting the receiver, and in general just some really shoddy workmanship. I'd wager that Onkyo is well aware of the issues at this point... question is, are they going to do anything about it. It's not looking good on that end from what I've read thus far.

guess I'm not the only one who has to constantly factory reset this thing. I thought it was because I got a refurb, but yeah, the audio will just stop working completely and you have to do a factory reset to get sound... I've had to do it probably 5-6 times if not more, no firmware update seems to fix it.

[doubledged]

Based on some other recommendations I went and purchased a $120 15m optical 8K HDMI cable by RUIPRO and confirmed that even a high-end cable makes no difference to the HDMI handshake issue.

I blame the Onkyo, full stop. Now to return this overpriced cable...

[PUsokrJosh305]

Originally Posted by doubledged

Based on some other recommendations I went and purchased a $120 15m optical 8K HDMI cable by RUIPRO and confirmed that even a high-end cable makes no difference to the HDMI handshake issue.

I blame the Onkyo, full stop. Now to return this overpriced cable...

Never spend that much money on an HDMI Cable!! A $15 certified 8K HDMI Cable will do the trick from places like Amazon or Monoprice.

[doubledged]

Originally Posted by PUsokrJosh305

Never spend that much money on an HDMI Cable!! A $15 certified 8K HDMI Cable will do the trick from places like Amazon or Monoprice.

Normally I would agree, as I'm using an Amazon cable currently, but one of my runs is fairly long (16-18 feet or so) and above 15 feet (especially around 25+) you pretty much need to go with an optical cable to reduce signal loss at high frequencies.

Some people have had success improving handshake issues over longer runs by switching to an active optical cable so I figured it was worth the shot.

[doubledged]

I got sick of having to workaround the handshake issue, as well as a little worried seeing numerous reports of Onkyo having HDMI board issues over time, so I went and bought a Denon AVR-X3800 to see if it had the same handshake issue.

The Denon works fine... no handshake issue whatsoever (and seems to lock in the signal much quicker, also). The only downside is the UI is every so slightly more clunky and rather than an included Dirac Live license, I had to use the built-in Audyssey setup.

IMO, probably worth it to not have to worry about the HDMI handshake.

Thankfully the Onkyo is still in return window!

[SlaughterX]

Hooked up my new 7100 in my son's room yesterday, went to put him to bed tonight and... already not getting audio! I had my girl connect via airplay and it started working again with out a factory reset. Pretty sad but needless to say its going right back. Shouldnt think be an easy fix via firmware update?

[Randy No Arms]

Hi,

I've got a TX-NR6100 but I've got the same problem: once I turn on eARC, the screen goes snowy. I don't recall this happening out of the box, but there have been FW updates since I bought it last October, and now it's 100% repro.

I've spent much of the summer talking to Onkyo about this. After trying multiple cables, various TV's, multiple factory resets, and a few other hidden menu settings, they confirm it is an eARC issue and that it can be addressed through FW, but they do not have an update yet or beta bits to try.

They did tell me I could sent my AVR in for service, but since that is ~800 miles from me, it will require shipping, which I have to pay for. Love having the separate AVR on my wall but wow are they expensive to ship, so I'm hedging: I am getting some additional cables from Amazon this week that are fiber-optic. Pricy but returnable if they fail.

I've connected the AVR to an LG C3 OLED and have been using a combination of Xbox Series X and Apple TV as sources in various modes. Since the snow showed up with eARC on a 1080p feed and my cables were called out for 8K, I'm skeptical that it's cabling, but I'll add any positive results here.

Thx!

[Randy No Arms]

Sadly, even a $50 RUIPRO cable didn't seem to make a difference: turning on eARC resulted in a snowy screen, so it did not make a change there.

One thing I found interesting was that in the maintenance menu - which is where I've been turning off eARC support - I noticed a HDMI cable speed test. In my multiple month conversation with Onkyo support, they mentioned at some point that they thought I was suffering a throughput issue on the cable, so I thought I'd do some test runs.

No matter what cable I have plugged into MAIN Out, not even the first test at 480p passes, which makes me wonder WTF is going on with this AVR. Makes me wonder what else isn't working and that it might be time to sell it on eBay rather than wait for updated FW.

[Randy No Arms]

Update, that might help others, so I'm sharing the experience.

My Onkyo TX-NR6100 suddenly stopped support 4K@120Hz for some random reason, so I did the obvious: I did a factory reset.

Didn't work, but as I was going through the various menus, I noticed that there was a new FW update, R135-1015-0280-0033. Knew it had to be recent because it showed up after my many months of troubleshooting the eARC snowy-screen issues I was having, so I opted to install it.

FW updated without issue, but after it started back up, I still wasn't getting 120Hz, so I did another factory reset: not only was 4K@120Hz now restored but since the factory reset also turned eARC back on [on the EDID menu] I was shocked to find that it was also working, with my Apple TV and LG C3 TV.

For anyone that was having eARC issues, might be worth rolling the dice and taking the update.



For people having trouble with eARC and Onkyo's TX-NR6100 or 7100.