So here's my situation. I have a harmony 676, a Panny TH-42PX50U, a SA 8300HD and a Harmon Kardon AVR-240. Until about 2 months ago everything was running smoothly but then it seems as if over night this one problem crept into my happy little universe.

Whenever I use my activity button to 'Watch DVR' it turns on the TV, then the receiver and finally the cable box. The remote is still picking the correct input on the tv because I see it shuffling through the options on the screen. However, after everthing is up and running I have sound but no picture on the screen. The only way I can get the picture to come on is by turning off the TV and then turning it back on (with the TV remote).

Any suggestions would be MOST appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Just to add to the details, I have my SA8300 connected to the Panny via HDMI but the audio runs through the AVR-240.

Your HDCP "handshake" read: "copy protection" is not happening between the TV and the cablebox. This must happen on all digitally connected (HDMI and DVI)devices. Basically this involves the TV exchanging information with the cable box, about their video capablilities and that they are both HDCP compliant. This process will "time out" in your TV, if the devices that need to trade information are not powered up when the TV attempts to exchange info.. If the "handshake" dosen't happen, as you are experiencing, no digital video.

Turning the TV "off" and then "on", solving the problem, tells me that your cable box is not powering up soon enough for the TV to get the HD8300's info. Panny's HDCP implementation does not let an external device reinvoke the HDCP handshake once the TV "times out". Switching inputs to an analog input, and then back to a digital input would acomplish the same results as powering the TV off then on, it reinvokes the handshake.

Unfortunately because you can't specify the device start-up sequence, your only option is to spend a lot of time tweeking your device delay settings (which usually means a very long start-up from off, time), in an attempt to get the cable box to power up before the TV attempts to exchange information, or leaving the cable box on all the time, (which is usually the easier solution).

Sounds like I was thinking along the right lines. The first thing I tried doing was changing my device "start-up" sequence only to learn you simply do not have that option on the 676 (like you said).

I've played with the delay time a little bit but gave up when I didn't see any results. What really gets me though is that the whole thing was running perfectly for a good 6 months. I can't figure out why all of a sudden it got impatient about "shaking hands" as you put it.

Try increasing the Power On delay of the SA8300HD device to a value larger than the TV. The Harmony will send the power command to the device with the longest delay first in order to minimize the start up time. Note: The reason for the change in behaviour may have been caused by a F/W update on your SA8300HD device.

Tech support can specify the power-up sequence for you if you give them a call.

Alternatively, you could try increasing the Power On Delay of the TV so it waits longer before selecting the input. This MIGHT allow time for the cable box to be powered up before the input is selected.

Unfortunately with the Panny, this solution dosen't always work. If the Panny is already on the digital input that the SA8300 is connected to, the TV will attempt the handshake right after it is powered on. Reselecting the same input dosen't usually reinvoke the handshake.

jlet's solution is one alternative, but I have always found it easier, as stated before, to just leave the cable box powered on all the time.

I now have the dreaded "The DVI/HDMI output is blocked - Press Exit to Cancel" overlaid message from my SA8300HD PVR since the latest F/W update (Sara 1.89). The problem occurs when the Sony TV starts up regardless of the PVR power status. Remember that the PVR off state is just a standby state. It still monitors its HDMI input. Although the problem goes away when I press the Exit button, I found a better solution via my DVI switch. I noticed that the problem went away when I toggle its input. So, I simply delayed the DVI switching to the correct input by setting its Power On delay to 900 ms. My DVI Switch is the Dtrovision DS-41R which is deemed by Harmony to have no power button and can't be fooled by setting its power configuration otherwise. So I had to enter it as a fake device (-not listed-), confirm IR language to pick up its 4 input commands (Input 1-4), set its input configuration, and then pretend it's a powered device. I set its PowerOn and PowerOff commands to be an input not use by the PVR. So it starts on a non-PVR input, receive its PowerOn command which is also a non-PVR input, then Harmony waits 900 ms (PowerOn delay) before sending it the input command which is the proper input for the "Watch PVR" activity.