Finally got my new 990/7500 connected up to my Polk speakers and sub. Excellent!!!! Every thing works, tried it with a movie and with music, also TV. When the people on TV whisper it is crystal clear comming from the speakers, and the bass from "Polar Express"& "Pirates of the Caribbean"was awesome. My only problem was the TV won't work with the HDMI so had to connect it with component. When I connect the TV with HDMI the picture appears for a few seconds then I get a blank screen and a banner saying the HDMI is compromised and to use component cables. I tried using another new HDMI cable and got the same, also when I connected the cable box to the TV direct, so It must be the TV.

Sony KDSR60XBR1 SXRD
990/7500
Sony DVP-NS975V DVD player
Motorola DCT 6400 Cable Box
Polk LSI9's
Polk LSIC
Polk LSI15's
Polk PSW 1000 Sub

Glad to hear that it's working well for you.

The HDMI problem may be the cable box, as they are notorious for quirky HDCP implementations. My old Pace Micro box would occasionally throw up a warning that DHCP could not be negotiated (both with and without the 990 in the signal path), which amused me because it would do it at the same time that it displayed the video signal. It was less amusing to my wife, and that was one reason that I switched to component from that box. For what it's worth, though, the picture quality with that particular cable box and TV was equal either way.

To watch movie via HDMI, you can connect directly from DVD to HDTV (assume DVD player has HDMI port(s) and audio cable (Toslink or Coaxial) from DVD to 990. What's wrong with this picture?

He's saying that even when connecting the cable box directly to the TV via HDMI, he doesn't get a picture. The error message "HDMI is compromised" most likely refers to a problem negotiating an HDCP handshake.

Congrats on the 990/7500. Have you researched your tv model for HDCP compatibility? If tv has newer technology I would suspect the STB. You might try proping up or holding up the hdmi cable at the STB port to see if you get a stabilized picture. That worked on some sat boxes that had poorly constructed ports.

The TV's a Sony SXRD (i.e. LCoS, thus relatively new) - combine that with the HDMI input, and the TV has to be HDCP compliant. That's why I suspect the cable box is to blame. The cable seating poorly in the cable box's HDMI port is a good thought. If that did prove to be the issue, there's a "port saver" available from MonoPrice ( here\'s a link ) that can help reduce the strain on the port by transferring the weight of the cable to the shelf below the component.

gonk: nice link, wish i'd been smart enough to design that.

I have a similar problem with the SA8300HD DVR from Comcast and my Sony XBR2.

For 6 months the HDMI connection was great. Then soon after one of the Comcast software updates, I started getting a "red" screen every morning and would have to reset the cable box every morning (coincidence?) . Once or twice I got a message about HDCP not being established (or something similar).
After several weeks of trying different settings, different HDMI cables, etc.,I started using the component cables & have been happy since.

I will occasionally try the HDMI connection to see what happens, with the same bad results.

The TV had no problem connecting to a Toshiba HDA3 and a Sony PS3 with HDMI cables.

Try component cables with the cable box. I wasn't able to tell the difference.


Oy

I used to have similar problem with Comcast Motorola box where it would do a green screen. I'd just have to switch inputs on the tv and it would be fine.

I actually built this function into my Monster Cable remote as part of the Watch DVD or Watch TV Activity(which has a Help button that resets all inputs for whatever Activity you are on at the time) and didn't have any issues after that.

Sometimes have the problem with my Oppo DV-971 as well. Remote solves the problem...so no problem.

Thanks for the advise, I get a good picture with component cables but was wondering if I would get a better picture if I could get the HDMI to work. The Motorola cable box is a new HD PVR I bought to replace the old Motorola cable box. The HDMI would not work with either was why I suspect it is the TV.

Sony KDS-R60XBR1 SXRD
Motorola DCT 6208 HD PVR Cable box
Sony DVP-NS975V DVD player
Outlaw 990/7500
Polk LSIC
Polk LSI9's
Polk LSI15's
Polk PSW 1000 sub.

Whether you'll get better picture quality from HDMI than from component for the cable box is hard to say - I know that when I've compared the two outputs on both HD boxes I've used, I've come away unsure if there was any real benefit to either connection over the other.

Do you have any other HDMI sources available to test it with? The NS975V should have an HDMI output, if I remember correctly, and if it doesn't work with the SXRD then I'd suspect a hardware fault in the TV.

I've not noticed any difference on Comcast between HDMI and component. Comcast only supplies 720P video anyhow and it's so compressed that there are artifacts (pixellation) every time the scene is changing quickly.

I have DirecTV HD and have both component and HDMI and it is hard if at all possible to notice any difference.

The image quality (audio too) is limited by the weakest link in signal path. Apparently the quality of either the component or HDMI signal transfer between 'box' and display is greater than the weakest link in signal path, which, apparently, is the compression used by the service provider to move the signal through whatever bandwidth alloted for each HD channel.