Screen goes black, audio continues?

[terp_fan99]

Hello, I bought a Pioneer VSX-819H receiver about 7 months ago. When watching cable, the screen will sporadically turn black for 3-7 seconds, but the audio continues. Sometimes you can watch TV for an hour or two without seeing it happen and sometimes it happens 3-4 times in an hour. It never does this if I run the HDMI cable directly from the DVR to the TV, only when I run it through the receiver. I purchased the three year warranty plan from Best Buy when I purchased it and I've brought it to them twice telling them what it does and both times they gave it back saying it was fine. I e-mailed Pioneer and they said it sounded like a defective item. Any clues as to what's causing this or should I really get in Best Buy's face about replacing it?

[ManUtd]

Just wondering, does the receiver have ample ventilation?

[Fors*]

Originally Posted by terp_fan99

Hello, I bought a Pioneer VSX-819H receiver about 7 months ago. When watching cable, the screen will sporadically turn black for 3-7 seconds, but the audio continues. Sometimes you can watch TV for an hour or two without seeing it happen and sometimes it happens 3-4 times in an hour. It never does this if I run the HDMI cable directly from the DVR to the TV, only when I run it through the receiver. I purchased the three year warranty plan from Best Buy when I purchased it and I've brought it to them twice telling them what it does and both times they gave it back saying it was fine. I e-mailed Pioneer and they said it sounded like a defective item. Any clues as to what's causing this or should I really get in Best Buy's face about replacing it?

Have you switched out HDMI cables from the receiver to the box and from the cable box to the receiver?

Another thing I thought of is whether your receiver is doing any video processing (upscaling the signal to 1080p)?

[terp_fan99]

Originally Posted by forsberg21

Have you switched out HDMI cables from the receiver to the box and from the cable box to the receiver?

Another thing I thought of is whether your receiver is doing any video processing (upscaling the signal to 1080p)?

How would I know if the receiver is doing any video processing? I'm not the smartest when it comes to the new electronic equipment.

And I've tried 6 different HDMI cables, they all work fine when run straight from the cable box to the TV, it only does this when ran through the receiver. The receiver also has lots of space for proper ventilation, it's not warm to touch.

[Zman2k2]

My SC-05 does the same thing when I have my cablebox connected via HDMI. I talked with the cable company, and they said it's a common complaint when running the box through HDMI and a receiver. It's the HDCP handshake causing the problem. Only way I got rid of it is running my box through component cables. No loss of signal quality, just a few more wires.

[Fors*]

Originally Posted by Zman2k2

My SC-05 does the same thing when I have my cablebox connected via HDMI. I talked with the cable company, and they said it's a common complaint when running the box through HDMI and a receiver. It's the HDCP handshake causing the problem. Only way I got rid of it is running my box through component cables. No loss of signal quality, just a few more wires.

Thats stinks! I had a green flashing issue when I first hooked up my SC-05 when changing channels. Luckily I found out over on AVS that it had to do with my HD box, and the "Native" setting. It needed to be turned off. Once I did that, it fixed that issue with not a problem since.

[Zman2k2]

Yeah, it' no biggie really. I was told they should be able to fix the problem with a firmware update, but the cable company is REALLY slow in doing those. I've also debated getting the new Pace box box that's available to replace the Motorola one I have, but there's nothing wrong with the Motorola. So I don't know, I just try not to think about it.

[terp_fan99]

Originally Posted by Zman2k2

My SC-05 does the same thing when I have my cablebox connected via HDMI. I talked with the cable company, and they said it's a common complaint when running the box through HDMI and a receiver. It's the HDCP handshake causing the problem. Only way I got rid of it is running my box through component cables. No loss of signal quality, just a few more wires.

So you use component cables from the cable box to the receiver and from the receiver to the TV for cable, but still use HDMI from your blu-ray player to the receiver and from the receiver to the TV for movies? Or do you have to use component cables for everything to fix the problem? Just making sure I got that right.

[BigAl87]

Originally Posted by terp_fan99

So you use component cables from the cable box to the receiver and from the receiver to the TV for cable, but still use HDMI from your blu-ray player to the receiver and from the receiver to the TV for movies? Or do you have to use component cables for everything to fix the problem? Just making sure I got that right.

Component only from cable box to the receiver should work fine. Then HDMI from receiver to TV, no need to touch it since it's already like that.

[terp_fan99]

Originally Posted by BigAl87

Component only from cable box to the receiver should work fine. Then HDMI from receiver to TV, no need to touch it since it's already like that.

Hmmm...tried that and it didn't work. Also tried what I said and it wouldn't work. The blu-ray still worked both times so I'm guessing you either need to use all HDMI or all component cables, no mixing and matching.

[BigAl87]

Originally Posted by terp_fan99

Hmmm...tried that and it didn't work. Also tried what I said and it wouldn't work. The blu-ray still worked both times so I'm guessing you either need to use all HDMI or all component cables, no mixing and matching.

Your component video must be assignable to any source I dunno your receiver by heart but that usually works unless your receiver does not do it.
Most Issues with cable boxes are related to HDMI when connected to an AVR.
Thats an odd problem.

I will try to give a look at your receivers Owner's manual to see if I can find useful info to help you further with this as no receivers are the same. Just to check but also make sure you unplug the HDMI from Cable box to receiver when you do this.

[terp_fan99]

Oh well, it's not a huge deal. I only bought the receiver and speakers for movies anyhow. The only things I usually watch on TV are sitcoms and sports so don't really need the surround sound, I'll just run the HDMI straight to the TV from my cable box.

[Zman2k2]

Originally Posted by terp_fan99

So you use component cables from the cable box to the receiver and from the receiver to the TV for cable, but still use HDMI from your blu-ray player to the receiver and from the receiver to the TV for movies? Or do you have to use component cables for everything to fix the problem? Just making sure I got that right.

Almost. I have 3 things connected to my receiver. I have the cable box, a Blu player and my Xbox360. The Blu player and Xbox are connected with HDMI, and the cable box is connected with component cables. All video output is from the HDMI output to my TV. My receiver does ALL my video switching.

I think you may have a setting wrong on your receiver. Take the receiver remote and press the "Video Parameters" button. Under "V. Conv", make sure that it's on. What that does is convert your analog component cable input to HDMI for output to your TV. Check it out, and see if it works for you.