I am new to the form and would appreciate any help. For the last few weeks I have had problems with the 990. While watching TV through the cable box, the tv goes to black like when the 990 is turned off. Turning the 990 off then on brings the picture back.
The 990 must also be turned off and on too when switching from DVD to Video 1 (cable), switching from video 1 to DVD is ok.
Another issue is a blue screen for a few seconds on the tv while watching cable or a dvd, the audio is not affected when this happens.
The last issue I have is getting the cable programs audio to play through my external speakers. DVD plays through the surround sound fine. Cable only plays through the TV speakers since a hard reset. Befor the hard rest was my inital install and the tv (cable) would play through the surround speakers some times and other times it would play through the tv speakers. I never figured out why. I hope it is not the 990.
Thank you for any help.
Craig

System
990
7125 amp
Panasonic TH-42PM50U TV
comcast DVR cable box

craigp,

Welcome to the saloon! When I have run into issues in my HT I start with the easiest things to fix. You may have already checked, but make sure all the cables are well seated; a loose cable can cause intermitent problems. It looks like your video issues occur when you use your Comcast cable. Are you using a new cable box or changed the box's setup? You may want to do a hard reset of the cable box. If so, you may want to revisit the setup/reset with Comcast technical support.

I have run into a similar problem with the surround speaker/tv speakers in a family member's system. He has a Panasonic plasma TV with HDMI inputs. The HDMI connection provides audio to the TV even though it is preferred to have the sound from the AV receiver. If you have connected directly from the Comcast box to the TV with HDMI that could be the problem.

There a lot of very knowledgable folks in the Saloon. With a little more detail on how you have connected your system I'm sure the Gunslingers can figure out why you system is misbehaving.

AvFan's right that making sure all cables are properly seated is an excellent place to start, but we may need to dig a bit deeper into how you have everything connected to resolve the issues you are experiencing. The symptoms you describe make me think first of HDCP handshake problems, assuming that your cable box is connected to the TV with an HDMI cable.

First, a few questions. What DVD player are you using? What model of DVR cable box do you have? How do you have the cable box and DVD player connected to the 990? How do you have the 990 connected to the TV? Do you have any video signals going directly from source component (cable box or DVD) to TV?

Second, a few thoughts. First, you'll want to have digital audio from both the DVD and cable box (optical or coaxial, doesn't really matter which). You'll want to make sure that both DVD and Video1 are configured to use the correct digital inputs. (You mentioned a hard reset - if that was on the 990, it would have wiped out all of your settings and you would have to make these settings again.) If you have HDMI going straight from the cable box to the TV but you don't want to use the TV's speakers, you may want to adjust the cable box's settings to disable audio over HDMI - which is the most likely reason you have been getting audio to the TV at times.

Thank you AVFan,

I will look into the cable box as one of the problems, we have switched the comcast box many times due to its poor quality.
The set up for the speakers and tv are:
TV HDMI to DVI out (audio & video); cable HDMI to DVI 1 ; cable audio to coaxial 1 ; DVD HDMI to DVI 2 ; DVD Audio to Coaxial 2. This is how I currently have the system connected. I hope this will help any Gunslingers out their that might have some ideas.

Thank you,

Craig Pfaff

Here is a little more info
The Cable box is from Comcast Motorola DCT6412 III
My DVD player is Toshiba SD-K850 (I know it is not high end) I don't have problems with the DVD Player. Except the blue screen that occures during TV or DVD.
The front pannel of the 990 says video 1 (while watching cable) ; Analog; Prologic II; a red R2; and a red speaker. Last night before I messed with the 990 settings the front pannel said video 1 coaxial and now only says video 1. I hope this helps.
Thank you,

Craig pfaff

You definitely want to re-visit your input settings in the 990 - it sounds like the unit got reset, and if you don't have analog cables run from the cable box to the 990 you won't get any audio.

The DVD input should have DVI2 as the video input and coaxial2 as the audio input. The Video1 input should have DVI1 as the video input and coaxial1 as the audio input.

I agree with Gonk, check the 990 setup to make sure everything matches how you have it hooked up to the back of the 990. One of the things you could try is remove the comcast box and check out the operation of the 990, DVD, and your Panasonic display. I have also had to replace my cable box (Scientific Atlanta) due to quality issues so lets find out if the cable is the problem.

I'm not sure your issue with inconsistent sound, either from the TV or the surround processor, is the same as I have experienced since you have you are using DVI/HDMI cables. I don't use digital video as my plasma only has component inputs. I didn't think DVI includes audio. Regardless, revisiting the 990 setup might resolve the matter.

Keep us up to date on your progress.

I have checked the 990 settings and they are correct , as listed by gonk.
There are some other settings on the 990 when setting up the DVD and Video 1, I am not sue if turning different options on or off make a difference. I have not noticed anything different either way. As for the cable box and the blue screen we have changed the box like 3 times since installing the 990 and I get the blue screen with the DVD player too. That might be a switching issue.
The audio issue I have no idea why I can not get the cable audio to run through the 990. I know you guys are the best at cracking these issues. I hope it is just a minor issue and not the 990.
Thank you very much for your input.

Craig Pfaff

Based on this , there is no way to disable the HDMI audio output. (Sadly, there is no 6412 III manual here to help shed light on the subject.) On the other hand, we have long believed that the 990's DVI switching did not pass HDMI audio anyway, which should make it a moot point. Do you have any other audio connections coming from the cable box that might be going to the TV?

It may be a silly thought, but make sure that the cable box is connected to the 990 using coaxial1 and not something else. Also make sure the cable is solidly connected at both ends.

The blue screen sounds like an HDCP handshake hiccup of some sort. Nothing comes to mind right off as far as a solution, but I'll keep thinking on it.

I was having a problem with my Motorola cable box from Comcast. The sound was dropping out, (mostly during Patriot's games ). It turned out the settings in the cable box were wrong! You might want to go back and revisit these settings, accsessed through the Guide button on the remote. Jim