So a client moved to my area. Has some urc stuff. Nothing crazy. A mrx-2 and an iPad app. That end of it I have under control.

He wanted to upgrade to a new receiver. He has a 5.1 setup so I went with a receiver that should have fit the bill nice for this install. A pioneer vsx-831. Some of you might recall i got the unit and right out of the gate it forces a firmware update. It hung at 70%. Snap sent a new one this time it took the update fine. The receiver has 3 inputs with hdcp 2.2 and 2 of the older spec.

The TV is a curved samsung 65" un65hu9000 with one of those one-connect (2500 series)external input boxes for hdmi and etc. (No jacks on the tv other then that proprietary samsung cable from the input box to tv).

So as i was programming everything and getting everything going again thru the receiver as the switcher I noticed the samsung bluray player (older Samsung BD-C6500 model i believe, forget off top of head) would only show up on the tv for a couple of seconds then no hdmi input would show up on the tv. I'm like lovely. So i try switching from the bluray input to one of the older spec inputs hdmi 5. Same thing. I have sound but no video. So then i tried plugging in directly to the input box that comes with the samsung tv on hdmi 5 and it works fine but I cannot pass audio back to the receiver over the ARC. So i work around with optical.

All good or so i thought. Then client tells me he got a new apple tv 4th gen, ok no prob. Well the 3rd gen works fine.... 4th gen does the same damn thing the bluray was doing. Except I get no video at all ever just sound. Plug the 3rd gen back in its fine. Swap to the older spec ports... same problem. Plug directly into the samsung input box on hdmi1 and its fine but again cannot pass audio back to receiver and play sound over the surround sound thru the receiver.

So what in the hell is going on here with these hdmi issues. I tried every setting possible in every configuration on the tv and receiver for cec on/off, arc on/off.


So now idk what to do other then try a different brand receiver, re-do all my programming and hope that it magically works with a new brand.

Oh, I also made sure I was using the newest high quality hdmi cables that meet the most current specs.

Anyone every run into this oddity? I'm guessing hdcp handshake bs.

I don't think I've touched any of the 9000s at any point, so I think I should help! Is that the first series of TVs that used the One Connect boxes? Check firmware on it and the TV for sure. I think your receiver is up to date :/

Here's more dart throwing.... Since we're talking a two year old TV, can you/ did you check for any Deep Color settings on the BD or ATV. The further back in TV time we go, the more popular that issue was. I know squat about Pioneers, but can you force the resolution down to 1080? So it doesn't try to do any extra work...

Take Luck!

1) A curved screen Samsung. I have a customer right now that is trying to get one repaired and after having problems with another Samsuck he owns, I have convinced him NEVER to buy another product from this POS manufacture again. How is this relevant to you: That Samsuck model is know to have issues - random ones at that.
2) Pioneer is not the best option to go with, when it comes to receivers. I don't mind the Elite's to much (although I have had HDMI problems with them before) but the regular Pioneer models... screw that.

Knowing the above, here is what I would suggest:
I assume the optical out from the TV is working fine for you. You didn't mention that being a problem. So I would plug everything directly into the TV box and use that to switch everything. If you don't have enough inputs, use an Ethereal HDMI switcher. A few extra codes of switching in the programming and let it rock.

Yes it has a first gen one connect box. I see there is a newer one for 400 bucks with improvements and fixes. lovely.

The bluray blue does support deep color I believe. I did not try messing with deep color settings. The new apple tv I haven't either.

Denon used to be my go to brand. I hear horror stories lately so I said ok I will try pioneer. I don't think i'll be trying pioneer(onkyo) again.

Another thing... I cannot get the optical out to work at all with this damn tv/receiver. I tried it bluray direct and from the tv one connect box. No audio. Hell i can't even get the ARC to work. The tv find an av receiver when I enable cec, but when I select receiver for sound options instead of tv speakers it says no receiver found. WTF!!! I was going to try doing the workaround you suggest and let the one connect do the switching. No clue why the hell optical won't pass. Receiver settings are proper... pick the input you want to use the optical on and done deal.

Been googling this stuff all night. His netflix app on the tv also doesn't work. First review i read on the new one connect box webpage is owh this makes my hu9000 look great now and netflix works. Others say just going into general settings and turning off samsung instant on fixes netflix and some hdmi input issues. Some say power it off for 10 min and it will magically fix hdmi input issues. Double WTF!!!

I also just read the cepro article where a jan 25th samsung update crippled almost all hdbaseT video although i'm not using hdbaseT.


I guess I'm just going to send this receiver back and go with another model.

Don't think that is going to help thou. Although I don't like the regular non-Elite Pioneer receivers, I do believe your main problem here is in the Samsung. And with all the quarky thinks it is doing, it should be easy to show the customer that as well.

A test TV is an awesome thing to have for this situation. I keep a 22" 1080p LG TV for testing. Easy to check if the Samsung is all the faults by substituting the LG in for the Samsuck. If everything works great then, show the customer and ask "Can I sell you a Sony XBR-65Z9D now"  :)

I like that idea. Time to implement some new procedures.

Bring in a little test TV and prove it to him.

Curious how you guys bill for situations like these. Just eat the labor? I guess if you use practices like having a second tv handy to show it's a client purchased tv issue it helps cover your ass on lost labor when things won't work right with the hdmi to the tv.

???
I guess I'm not understanding the question. Because surely you are not implying you would work for free, especially on a customer's system he purchased himself.
Is he a dear, close, loving friend of the family?


- if you mean the fact you would need to make a 2nd trip to diagnose the problem, either because you forgot to bring all your test equipment with you or needed to get something else. Then... I personally wouldn't charge (or penalize) the customer for my mistake/forgetfulness. But that only includes the trip charge, the customer is paying for every minute on-site. AND, any legit time spent researching the issue.

Well the first time the firmware update on the new receiver flaked out. Not his fault so I ate that. Now having all these hdmis issues so I'm on the loosing end of that. Next round I'll have a spare tv handy, show the client it's his tv and bill accordingly. Unless maybe it is the receiver being a pos but I'm way leaning toward the tv.

You should charge something for the time involved in the firmware update flake-out. It's not his fault, for sure! But it's not your fault either. How is not charging him fair to both you and him?

You could make the point that this is the state of the art ( = "how things are right now") and he's welcome to sit with you and watch supposedly wonderful equipment, whether bought by him or you, NOT do what it's supposed to.

I lost out once with a client who was an oncologist. I simply could not make his HDMI situation work and he didn't want to pay for the time it took me to ultimately get it going. I yielded. I should have asked him, "Uh, Doc, when you try an oncology treatment with a client, and it's the same cancer you've seen before and you're using the same treatment you've used a hundred times, but it doesn't work: don't you charge for the work you did on the way to getting the right solution?

Charge him half the time it took to do the first firmware update(s), and of course full rate for the successful one.

FWIW - we've had random HDMI issues with Pioneer Elite off and on. At home, my VSX-60 just started not syncing when you turn it on...again. It did this a couple years ago, but has been fine for at least 18 months. Just started up on its own again. You have to switch inputs back and forth to force it to sync. NOTHING changed. No firmware updates on any piece of equipment I own at all. Totally random and frustrating.

I'm thinking of making a waver that described the whole HDMI issue and the fact that manufacturers are more concerned about getting a product to market than they are about it working, broken firmware etc., and having the client sign off that I am not responsible for all of the bull shit. Remember when you plugged stuff in and it worked?

Craig

Ya, it was called component video, it just worked and looked just as good as anything digital.

I like that doctor analogy. Makes sense.