audiofeline Posted April 18, 2018 Share Posted April 18, 2018 (edited) I'm hoping someone can help diagnose a problem I'm having with my HiFi and TV-Video. I think it's power related, so I'm posting it here rather than in the AV forums. I have my HiFi 2-channel audio plugged into a power socket on one side of my room, and my TV-video equipment plugged into a socket on the other side of the room. I don't know if they are on a different circuit, but I'm guessing that they are not. This setup has worked without fault for years until recently. In the TV setup I have a Panasonic hard-disk video recorder. This has recorded and playback OK. I often have the HiFi turned on, to get it to optimal temperature for listening while we are watching TV (it takes about an hour), at other times I play the video audio through the hifi. However, recently I have noticed that when i have my HiFi turned on it interferes with playback from the hard disk recorder. Video output will fail every few minutes, for periods lasting from a few seconds to several minutes (the screen will go black). Then the picture will return and play OK for several minutes until the next blackout. The hard disk recorder will record programs faultlessly when the HiFi is on, so the fault appears to be in the video playback output. I've been able to identify the hard disk unit plays video without problem if my HiFi is not powered on. As this is an annoying problem I would like to resolve it, but I'm not sure how. My Oppo CD/BluRay in the HiFi doesn't seem to be able to display video on the TV as well, but the unit's logo displays on the TV when it boots up. I'm unsure if this is related to the problem with the hard disk player/recorder. Could the problem be with the powerboards I've installed? I haven't tried changing them yet, but they worked fine for a long time before this fault developed. Is a capacitor in the hard disk recorder's video output circuit starting to fail? Thanks in anticipation of helpful suggestions. Edited April 18, 2018 by audiofeline Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjs Posted April 18, 2018 Share Posted April 18, 2018 I'm hoping someone can help diagnose a problem I'm having with my HiFi and TV-Video. I think it's power related, so I'm posting it here rather than in the AV forums. I have my HiFi 2-channel audio plugged into a power socket on one side of my room, and my TV-video equipment plugged into a socket on the other side of the room. I don't know if they are on a different circuit, but I'm guessing that they are not. This setup has worked without fault for years until recently. In the TV setup I have a Panasonic hard-disk video recorder. This has recorded and playback OK. I often have the HiFi turned on, to get it to optimal temperature for listening while we are watching TV (it takes about an hour), at other times I play the video audio through the hifi. However, recently I have noticed that when i have my HiFi turned on it interferes with playback from the hard disk recorder. Video output will fail every few minutes, for periods lasting from a few seconds to several minutes (the screen will go black). Then the picture will return and play OK for several minutes until the next blackout. The hard disk recorder will record programs faultlessly when the HiFi is on, so the fault appears to be in the video playback output. I've been able to identify the hard disk unit plays video without problem if my HiFi is not powered on. As this is an annoying problem I would like to resolve it, but I'm not sure how. My Oppo CD/BluRay in the HiFi doesn't seem to be able to display video on the TV as well, but the unit's logo displays on the TV when it boots up. I'm unsure if this is related to the problem with the hard disk player/recorder. Could the problem be with the powerboards I've installed? I haven't tried changing them yet, but they worked fine for a long time before this fault developed. Is a capacitor in the hard disk recorder's video output circuit starting to fail? Thanks in anticipation of helpful suggestions. This is a bit left field, but I had a “problem” with my Oppo BDP-95 not playing properly through my Pio Kuro for a while, there was only a partial pic at best. Turned out I had been plugging it and unplugging it previously and I didn’t have the HDMI fully seated in the socket on the Kuro, when I fully pushed it in, problem solved. D’oh!!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Eggcup The Daft Posted April 18, 2018 Share Posted April 18, 2018 The Oppo is involved. If I have my 105 on for audio only playback, then video from my Panasonic PVR switches randomly on and off. I've not looked for the cause, but my guess would be HDMI CEC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audiofeline Posted April 18, 2018 Author Share Posted April 18, 2018 4 hours ago, mjs said: This is a bit left field, but I had a “problem” with my Oppo BDP-95 not playing properly through my Pio Kuro for a while, there was only a partial pic at best. Turned out I had been plugging it and unplugging it previously and I didn’t have the HDMI fully seated in the socket on the Kuro, when I fully pushed it in, problem solved. D’oh!!!! Thanks, I've checked the leads. I wish it would have been that simple to fix. Still, it's good to be reminded as it's easily forgotten. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audiofeline Posted April 18, 2018 Author Share Posted April 18, 2018 2 hours ago, Eggcup The Daft said: The Oppo is involved. If I have my 105 on for audio only playback, then video from my Panasonic PVR switches randomly on and off. I've not looked for the cause, but my guess would be HDMI CEC. Interesting. I've tried this with my amp's on and the Oppo turned off and I still get the problem. I'm not familiar with CEC, can you explain? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Eggcup The Daft Posted April 18, 2018 Share Posted April 18, 2018 5 minutes ago, audiofeline said: Interesting. I've tried this with my amp's on and the Oppo turned off and I still get the problem. I'm not familiar with CEC, can you explain? I've not seen it when my Oppo is off, but standby mode might differ. CEC is the connection method used with HDMI to allow a remote control from one device to control others, and so passes instructions between devices. I read somewhere that if two other devices with CEC on try to control the same TV, the TV can end up switching from the current connection to the same connection, so the screen goes intermittently blank. If this is the case with your issue, you will probably see the input name appear on the blank screen as if you had just switched to that input from a different one. That's what I get. Alternatively, the TV may be set to control the Oppo and the Oppo the TV at the same time. As the Oppo is affecting the screen in standby mode, something could be causing the TV to try to switch to the Oppo and turn it on, that's not working. There are other possible HDMI related causes - the screen could be attempting to switch resolution for some reason, for example. It's also possible you have a problem with the cable between the Oppo and the display, if that is HDMI. That may also explain only seeing the startup screen. A place to start is to try a different cable. It sounds like you have a long cable, as you say the setups are on opposite sides of the room. You may have a cable that can send the startup screen successfully but nothing else... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audiofeline Posted April 18, 2018 Author Share Posted April 18, 2018 1 hour ago, Eggcup The Daft said: ...It's also possible you have a problem with the cable between the Oppo and the display, if that is HDMI. That may also explain only seeing the startup screen. A place to start is to try a different cable. It sounds like you have a long cable, as you say the setups are on opposite sides of the room. You may have a cable that can send the startup screen successfully but nothing else... Thanks for the explanation of the CEC. I do have a long HDMI cable from the Oppo to the TV, the HiFis on a side wall and the TV/video is on a front wall, with an extension going to the opposite side wall to the HiFi for power. When I got the Oppo I had some difficulties with the HDMI cable until I found that it didn't work with HDMI out 1 but worked ok with HDMI out 2. However, the setup is the same before and after this problem has developed. On the weekend I will check the cables to see if this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjs Posted April 18, 2018 Share Posted April 18, 2018 Hmm, interesting about HDMI1 vs 2, not sure why that would happen. How long is “long”? 10m? May well be the cable. One easy way to rule it out or otherwise, if you’ve got another 1-2m HDMI cable, just pull your Oppo out closer to the tv, use the shorter cable and see if that works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Eggcup The Daft Posted April 18, 2018 Share Posted April 18, 2018 If you've switched to a 4K TV and your Oppo is set to auto, that might explain why you can see the startup screen at usual resolution and not video - it has 4K upscaling of some sort. That's never worried me as our old TV is only 720P... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audiofeline Posted April 19, 2018 Author Share Posted April 19, 2018 7 hours ago, mjs said: Hmm, interesting about HDMI1 vs 2, not sure why that would happen. How long is “long”? 10m? May well be the cable. One easy way to rule it out or otherwise, if you’ve got another 1-2m HDMI cable, just pull your Oppo out closer to the tv, use the shorter cable and see if that works. The cable is 3 or 4m, I can't recall exactly. When I got the unit several years ago I tried different cables from the oppo supplier, until I found it was the input problem. No idea why 2 works better than 1 either. I use the Oppo primarily as a CD player and the occasional media player via usb, and the occasional music DVD. 4 hours ago, Eggcup The Daft said: If you've switched to a 4K TV and your Oppo is set to auto, that might explain why you can see the startup screen at usual resolution and not video - it has 4K upscaling of some sort. That's never worried me as our old TV is only 720P... No 4K TV. I can't see the point when so much broadcast is not in HD, and don't watch bluray disks very often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Eggcup The Daft Posted April 19, 2018 Share Posted April 19, 2018 Troubleshooting time I suspect. Try unplugging the Oppo from the TV (best at the TV end, perhaps) for a couple of days, and see if the problems from the PVR persist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audiofeline Posted June 7, 2018 Author Share Posted June 7, 2018 An update, I think I've fixed it. Thanks for the suggestions and info. First, I checked the HDMI CEC, and it was turned off on the video recorder and the Oppo, so that wasn't the problem. After trying lots of things, I noticed that the HDMI cable was plugged into the HDMI-1 output of the Oppo. I plugged into the HDMI-2 output (which I found was the output which worked when I got the unit), and everything seems to be OK. I will wait and see with extended viewing before relaxing on this one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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