Odd HDMI new information problem

Paddyw01 · 28 Jan 2010 at 01:33

Hey guys,

I have a Pioneer KRL-32V TV with a Toshiba EP-35 HD-DVD player and a PS3 hooked up to it. Naturally, all through HDMI. Recently though (last couple of weeks), I've been getting an intermittent problem.

As people with Pioneer LCD's and Plasma's will know, when you've got them hooked up via HDMI, you get a little purple box in the top right hand corner of the screen when you turn your tv on, and when you fire up your PS3 or any HDMI device.

Now, I've had my TV since May and it's been great; cannot fault the picture or the sound I might add, but over the last couple of weeks or so, that little purple box shows up intermittently when I'm watching a DVD rip on the PS3's hard drive, an HD-DVD (tonight it happened a few times), and, annoyingly, it happened right at the end credits of Red Cliff (brilliant film guys by the way)

This problem started happening when I watched a non legit copy of Terminator Salvation on the PS3's hard drive at pretty much the exact same spot oddly enough. Could this be relevant?

I've spoken with my local Sevenoaks about this and they let me borrow a premium HDMI lead to test out for a couple of weeks, and it hasn't done it, apart from tonight when the end credits of Red Cliff appeared.
My HD-DVD player still has the standard HDMI cable that came with it, and it was showing up a good 6 or 7 times at randomly in the movie I was watching.

I've been thinking logically about this problem, and although it seems that the HDMI cable is to blame, the component that is common between my PS3 and HD-DVD player is the TV. Could it be the TV?

Also, because our flat is very compact, we have a kitchenette, and the washing machine is about a metre away from the TV, PS3 etc, and that bugger shakes everything for a couple of minutes every load (we do 2 loads a week). So, I've resorted to physically moving my PS3 into the next room before my gf

wacks a loads in, but the TV remains in our living room.
Could the vibrations be causing this? Might the HDMI cable be getting worn out as I disconnect it atleast once a week?

Could it be the PS3's firmware doing this, but then why does it happen with my HD-DVD player? Could it be a pain in the arse PS3 virus interfering with the HDMI signal? Any ideas?

Sevenoaks have said if the problem persists, they'll send a couple of technicians out, but does anyone know what on earth might be causing this intermittent problem?

Thanks

valve90210 · 28 Jan 2010 at 13:30

Paddyw01 said:
I've been thinking logically about this problem, and although it seems that the HDMI cable is to blame, the component that is common between my PS3 and HD-DVD player is the TV. Could it be the TV?

Looking at it from purely a logical point of view.

If the problem occurs with two different sources, i'd say it's unlikely to be a problem with both of them - it might be, but I'd think it unlikely.

You've tried with two different leads, which for me would rule out the lead being the problem, which only really leaves the TV as the culprit.

Might be a slightly poor connection in the the HDMI slot of the telly (possibly due to constant plugging and unplugging as you mentioned).

Does the TV have any more HMDI sockets you can try, this might allow you to narrow it down to just being a problem with one socket.

Valve

Paddyw01 · 28 Jan 2010 at 20:49

valve90210 said:
Looking at it from purely a logical point of view.

If the problem occurs with two different sources, i'd say it's unlikely to be a problem with both of them - it might be, but I'd think it unlikely.

You've tried with two different leads, which for me would rule out the lead being the problem, which only really leaves the TV as the culprit.

Might be a slightly poor connection in the the HDMI slot of the telly (possibly due to constant plugging and unplugging as you mentioned).

Does the TV have any more HMDI sockets you can try, this might allow you to narrow it down to just being a problem with one socket.

Valve

My thinking exactly. It must be the TV. However, although I do disconnect the PS3 (from the back of the PS3 naturally) from the TV once a week, I have not disconnected the HD-DVD player since we moved in around 3 months ago, and it's started with the EXACT same problem.

Yes the TV does have another spare socket, so I'll give that a go tonight mate.

Update: I said in my first post that it had happened once with the premium HDMI lead last night whilst watching Red Cliff, but tonight I was watching, again, a non legit copy of Chris Rock's Bigger and Blacker and it started doing it. So, I stopped watching it, and now it does it on the PS3 home screen!! :mad:

It better not do it while I play any game otherwise with my short temper, I might throw the TV out of the windows.

I think I'll give your idea a go tonight mate, then tomorrow, I'm going to go down to Sevenoaks and get them to send out a couple of engineers.

Sheesh, I bought this TV because my Samsung was playing up (randomly switching itself on and off), and now this!! What are the bloody odds?!?!

Paddyw01 · 30 Jan 2010 at 00:12

Anybody got any ideas?

Anybody had any issues (even minor issues) with their Pioneer TV?

Paddyw01 · 3 Feb 2010 at 00:18

Hey guys, sorry to go on about this, but after hours of trolling through the internet, I finally found someone else with the same problem that I have (his seems worse).

Please Mods, I'm only posting this link to another forum to better illustrate my issue, and not to help support a competitor.

Here http://www.avforums.com/forums/lcd-...v-krl-37v-krl-46v-thread-49.html#post10280075 is the first link (roughly half way down the page) and a possible fix and here's http://www.avforums.com/forums/pioneer-owners-forum/872454-faulty-pioneer-kuro-krl-37v.html someone else with the same problem.
It seems that a few people have got this problem so I thought I'd post this message and possible fixes if anyone else has got this issue.

Oh and an engineer's coming to view my set on thursday so hopefully he'll shed some more technical light on this weird problem.

valve90210 · 3 Feb 2010 at 10:23

Sorry, I completely forgot all about this thread.

Have you tried the removing aerial fix? any luck with that?

Although a totally different bit of kit and different problem, my Humax PVR was having a strop on me everytime I switched it on, Giving me an error saying that there was no signal received etc etc. Turned out to be a simple setting relating to the aerial lead, there was a setting called something like Antenna Power which was set to on but should have been set to off. Switched it off and all was well, so something very simple really can cause a big problem.

Will be very interested to hear what the engineer says - and if he's ever heard of it before...

Paddyw01 · 3 Feb 2010 at 11:27

valve90210 said:
Sorry, I completely forgot all about this thread.

Have you tried the removing aerial fix? any luck with that?

Although a totally different bit of kit and different problem, my Humax PVR was having a strop on me everytime I switched it on, Giving me an error saying that there was no signal received etc etc. Turned out to be a simple setting relating to the aerial lead, there was a setting called something like Antenna Power which was set to on but should have been set to off. Switched it off and all was well, so something very simple really can cause a big problem.

Will be very interested to hear what the engineer says - and if he's ever heard of it before...

I nearly forgot about this thread myself. hehe

Well the fix on the AV forums website is about the aerial so I really hope that fixes the problem.
Come to think of it, I did plug it in maybe a few days/a week before this problem started happening, but I didn't think anything of it. How the hell can an aerial cause an HDMI signal detect problem though? And, what if I wanted to watch TV and I didn't have Sky or Virgin Media? Hm... I wonder what then.

Yeah I'll post what the engineer says, but I'll try unplugging the aerial tonight when I get back home. Unfortunately, I probably won't know straight away if the problem's been solved.