HDMI Hanshake Issue?

[DarenN]

Here's a stumper. I finally gave-up on my Samsung BD-1400 and bought the Panny BDP-35, which was a smart move; now all BD's play perfectly. Unfortunately, the Panasonic does a terrible job of upconverting DVDs, so I'm trying to use the Samsung for that purpose. I switched some inputs around, and now, when playing a DVD for 5-10 minutes, the Samsung always freezes on scrambled colors. Possible HDMI handshake failure? Even though it always plays for 5-10 minutes? Perplexing. I'd love to get an opinion on this.

[gearyt]

did you stack them ??? it sounds like a heat issue

[brett_day]

just happens on dvd's? if it were a heat problem surely it would happen with all media, not just dvd's? maybe there is a problem with the dvd laser? thats what i would assume if it does not happen with blu's as well

[DarenN]

Good questions-- actually, yes, components are stacked, but the Samsung player is on top-- and in fact, worked better before, when it was on the bottom, so I'm not suspecting heat issues. And, DVDs played without incident prior to my switching some inputs around-- that's why I began thinking about handshakes. However, I've read that usually these "handshake" problems are encountered immediately-- not 10 minutes into the movie.

Thanks very much so far . . .

[gearyt]

it still could be heat related..
remember... heat goes up
pull the player off the stack, see what happens
is it on every dvd? or just the first... or....

[DarenN]

You're right-- heat goes up. I have two or three possible solutions, and now I'll include re-positioning the components as one of them. The Samsung doesn't have a fan (unlike the BD35), so perhaps heat is a factor. Otherwise, yes, I tried two or three DVDs, and two lasted for 7 minutes; the third (presumably when the machine was warmer) lasted for 14 minutes. Then-- a frozen pattern of colored lines . . . and death. I've heard that unplugging the AC power and HDMI connections of affected devices, then reconnecting, may solve some handshaking issues. I suppose I'll try that tonight as well.

Thanks very much . . .

[Evanesco]

Originally Posted by DarenN

Here's a stumper. I finally gave-up on my Samsung BD-1400 and bought the Panny BDP-35, which was a smart move; now all BD's play perfectly. Unfortunately, the Panasonic does a terrible job of upconverting DVDs, so I'm trying to use the Samsung for that purpose. I switched some inputs around, and now, when playing a DVD for 5-10 minutes, the Samsung always freezes on scrambled colors. Possible HDMI handshake failure? Even though it always plays for 5-10 minutes? Perplexing. I'd love to get an opinion on this.

Why do you think BD35 does a terrible job of upconverting DVDs? My BD55 does it really good and I had the impression of BD35 being the same as BD55.

[DarenN]

Well, two follow-ups on this. First, thanks to all for the sound advice, it is much appreciated. On the upconverting issue, I'd read that the Panny BD-35 did an unimpressive job upconverting, despite being an outstanding BD player. That was my experience as well-- lots of jaggies, artifacts and lost detail with regular DVD's. Make no mistake-- I love the 35, and it is an awe-inspiring BD player. At any rate, I bought the Sony DVP NS700 1080p DVD player on New Year's Eve, and it performs considerably better than the BD-35. At least, that's my impression. On the larger issue of why stuff didn't work-- it's true . . . the quality of HDMI cables can make a big difference. Components that would not work with a cheap cable now work perfectly with a high-quality 10-gbps cable. Everything performs flawlessly now, with the exception of the Samsung 1400. I can now confirm that this device is a worthless pile, and it shall be discarded.

Thanks again for the observations and assistance . . .