Receiver, TV, Cable - Delay in signal

[AJ]

Lately we have been turning on the TV via our all in one remote and the receiver turns on, the tv turns on, the cable box (comcast dvr) turns on, but we don't get the signal to come though. We often have to power off the cable box or change to another input on the receiver, then change back to get it to work. Other times we just let it sit 10 min and it eventually comes on.

Any ideas? Everything is hooked up via $5-$10 HDMI cables i've had for a couple years now. Do these ever really go bad?

 

[Picklz]

Did it just start doing this? Anything change at all? I've never seen an HDMI cable go bad really, though if you have an extra it would be an easy thing to swap in order to check.

Some TV's and/or Cable boxes can be sensitive to which order they are turned on as far as the HDMI signal/synch goes, and if they see a signal then loose it momentarily, or don't see one sometimes they won't pick it up again till it receives a new input then back to the old one. If its a Harmony remote you could try adding a delay in between device-power-on's or change the order in which they are turned on and see if that makes any difference. If its comcast's remote then I'm not sure what to tell ya, might be able to get them to give you a new box (or swap it with another in your house) and see if that makes any difference, but I kind of doubt it will.

 

[AJ]

We'll try the delay or changing the order. It's a Harmony remote, so I can see what Jana set it up as for powering on. This was never an issue when we first had things hooked up, but once we changed over to all HDMI, it's been an issue here and there.

 

[DrWebster]

Yeah, you need to get the TV to turn on first, then the receiver, then your sources (Blu-ray, cable box, etc.). This is because HDMI has built-in DRM which requires a "handshake" before it'll pass a signal. If the cable box sends the handshake but the TV isn't ready for it, you'll have the problem you're seeing.

 

[AJ]

Right now we have it set for the Cable Box to stay on, though to not miss any recordings we have set up. So when the Receiver and TV are powered up when selecting the "Watch TV" option on the remote, could the cable box already being on be the problemo...?

 

[Picklz]

You should be able to turn the cable box off as it will power on for scheduled recordings (just don't turn it off if it's in the middle of a recording.) That said I often leave mine on and don't have any issues, but each piece of equipment is a little different in how it behaves with that HDMI handshake. You could try adding a 'step' in your harmony activites to change the receiver input to something else then back to the cable box input to work around the issue possibly.

 

[Jana]

I'm updating the settings on the remote now & will let you guys know if this helps.

 

[Workdawg]

I've never had any issues with turning off our cable box in the middle of the DVR recording before. It records things whether it's off or on, or even turned off in the middle of a recording... it's smart enough to know I suppose.

 

[Jana]

I changed the order in which devices are turned on, and set a 5 second delay between each. It didn't change.

It's odd that it used to work, and then about a month ago it just started doing this. It usually takes upwards of 5 min. for the signal to get picked up. I'm wondering if perhaps it's the cable box or if we just have crappy hdmi cables?

 

[DrWebster]

Have you been plugging/unplugging the cables lately? Typically cables won't go bad just sitting there, but it technically is possible. I'd be more willing to blame the DVR first though.

Have you tried hooking the DVR up directly to the TV?

 

[Jana]

We have not been messing with the wires (that I know of), and we used to have the DVR hooked to the TV. Other than calling to have Comcast out to check on the DVR, what would I look for?

 

[Jana]

So I adjusted the delay settings to the max between each device on our Harmony remote & it still didn't help. I still have to turn the DVR box off and on, and switch the receiver from CABL/SAT to another one like GAME in order to get the cable signal to pick up.

Also, now when I want to switch our receiver over to watch a DVD, that doesn't work. I used to be able to just turn the DVD player on & switch the receiver setting to DVD...and it worked. Now after several attempts of the same off/on crap & switching the settings on the receiver, it still will not work.

 

[Picklz]

Have you tried playing with the order things are turned on in? That's probably more likely to help in this case than delay. It sounds like before you had things hooked directly to the TV and now they pass through the reciever, so it's likely you are running into a HDMI synch / negotiation issue.

Another option is I think you can program custom steps into activites that could change inputs back and forth in the harmony so it could automatically switch to Game then back to cabl/sat. Changing the order things are powered on might be a better option though.

 

[Jana]

I did change the order the devices are powered on - according to what was previously posted.

I have it setup as:

TV
Receiver - w/ delay
DVR - w/ delay

I haven't seen the option to change the inputs back and forth in harmony...you just indicate what you want it to power on to (which "input" setting basically). I can dig around in there tonight some more to see if there are other settings.