HELP HDMI issues

Tim.C

Member
OK a New Year puzzle for all you clever folk.

I have been using my HDR T2 with a PC monitor, through HDMI for the last 6 months.

A friend just bought a new TV, so I've had his old one. He was using it with his HDR T2 through HDMI.

Now at my house, I cannot get the TV to see my Humax through HDMI - it's just like the lead isn't plugged in.

The TV shows my PC through HDMI (and the VGA input). The Humax works through the Scart.

Very confused, I've tried all that I can think of - except changing the HDMI lead, as I don't have any others, but this one worked perfectly* from the Humax to the PC monitor.

(* it wasn't perfect, you had to hit vformat to change resolution to get the monitor to pick up the video, but I assumed that was the monitor not the lead)

Any ideas??? I'm very confused, and not happy about having to watch though scart!!!!

Tim.C
 
Oh yes, it also worked perfectly when I first bout the Humax and set it up on my old 40" TV, before i had to switch to a PC monitor.

All the bits definitely work, it just seems to be this combination - which doesn't make any sense.

I'd forgotten how bad video through Scart was :(
 
Have you cycled through the v-format setting on the Humax (button on bottom row of humax remote).


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I had an HDMI cable that spontaneously went bad. Black from HDR to TV. Moved it so it was in the PC to monitor feed and it worked OK, for a few months, then that connection died too.
I would get another cable as the first thing to try. Bloody digital stuff with no monitoring. Hate it!
 
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I thought of that, but it still works in the monitor......... I will try another cable anyway when I have one.

EDIT: Just tried the monitor again. Works OK. Says No Cable, then when plugged in says Input out of range (but in more words), then when pressed vformat, picture appears.
TV just gives black screen whether plugged in or not - no message of any sort.
 
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OK, well the friend I got the TV off came round this morning with lots of bits to swap and test - including a different Humax and a different HDMI lead (with SKY stamped on the end).

Well, it turns out that a different lead worked perfectly - even though the old one worked fine on different TVs and a monitor.

I'm off to buy a new lead, so is it mostly likely to be;

a) a broken lead - so a new one the same will be OK, or
b) a crap made lead - so need to buy a different sort?

My old one was a ~£5 Asda one and hadn't been used much (it was a spare until 6 months ago)

What sort should I buy?
 
An HDMI is an HDMI is an HDMI. Chances are your old one was intermittent in some way, and just happened to work when connected to different kit. Nothing wrong with a lead from Poundland - assuming you don't then get UHF wipe-out due to signal bleed.

The only other things to worry about are whether you are using very high bandwidth, Ethernet-over-HDMI (or other advanced features), or a very long lead (which will require a decent quality cable). The first two don't apply when connecting a HDR-FOX to a TV, and the last isn't a problem for ordinary leads around 4 feet (1.2 metres).

I was in a Maplin queue the other day when the sales assistant managed to up-sell a guy a Maplin lead at £7.99 - there was a Poundland across the road!
 
An HDMI is an HDMI is an HDMI. Chances are your old one was intermittent in some way, and just happened to work when connected to different kit. Nothing wrong with a lead from Poundland - assuming you don't then get UHF wipe-out due to signal bleed.

The only other things to worry about are whether you are using very high bandwidth, Ethernet-over-HDMI (or other advanced features), or a very long lead (which will require a decent quality cable). The first two don't apply when connecting a HDR-FOX to a TV, and the last isn't a problem for ordinary leads around 4 feet (1.2 metres).

That was what I thought, and so was so surprised it was the lead. The fault wasn't intermittent - many times I swapped it between TV and Monitor with same result (nothing on TV, fine on monitor)

Only thing I can think of is that the monitor probably has better sync capabilities, and so when the signal changed (vformat button) it could work it out, whereas the TV couldn't. This makes me wonder if a wire that helps negotiation has broken (I'm not an expert, but there must be one ;) ) Freaky way to break, when it gives perfect video signal when it does connect!!
 
Only thing I can think of is that the monitor probably has better sync capabilities, and so when the signal changed (vformat button) it could work it out, whereas the TV couldn't. This makes me wonder if a wire that helps negotiation has broken
I've been thinking exactly that. The monitor is built to work with many types of input, the TV only 1 or 2.
OTOH it may just be to do with the version of HDMI - you do see cables advertised as "1.4 compatible", etc, so maybe there is a subtle difference which the old TV couldn't handle with the older lead.
 
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