4250HD incompatible with HDMI 1.3a?

[illy]

I got a brand new 4250HD box from Cablevision and I connected it to my Sony XBR4 via a new HDMI 1.3a cable. I didn't get any picture. I went through a troubleshooting session with a Cablevision support person who had me reboot the box. Still there was no picture. The explorer screen didn't show up either. The technician said that most likely this is becuase I am using an HDMI cable that the box doesn't support. I got picture when I switched to component cable.

My question is: Does anybody know of such a problem with the 4250HD box? The technician said I should buy an HDMI 1.0 or 1.2 cable instead. Any thoughts?

[illy]

I just got off the phone with Scientific Atlanta. They confirmed that 4250HD is not compatible with HDMI 1.3 and above.

[Chucky Cheese]

I just got off the phone with Scientific Atlanta. They confirmed that 4250HD is not compatible with HDMI 1.3 and above.

Your TV is HDMI 1.3, the cable shouldn't make a differnce. You most likely have a bad 4250 box.

[chek_ya_self]

I have a 46 inch XBR4 with the 4250 and it works fine. I'm also using the Monster 1000 HDMI wire which is HDMI 1.3
Having a TV that supports HDMI 1.3 with a box that is 1.2 will work fine.
All HDMI wires need to be backwards compatible with previous versions.
There are three things that could be wrong though.

1. Defective HDMI Jack on the XBR4
2. Defective HDMI Jack on the SA 4250HD
3. Defective HDMI Wire

Swap out the box and see if that works.
If not swap the wire and then finally check the TV.
If there is still an issue, it is a settings issue on the Box or TV that needs to be adjusted.

[Lubelaczek]

Chek_ya_self.

Does your XBR4 recognize cable box as HDMI device? When I try to update list of my devices it says that No HDMI devices are connected. Box is powered on, hooked to Sony using HDMI 1.3a certified cable. I can watch HD channels at 1080i so cable is not the issue (I suppose). Also it will be nice to have a chance see Closed Captioning from Sony not "pixelize" from cable box. Do you konw if this is possible?

[chek_ya_self]

Lubelaczek,

Yeah, the XBR4 recognizes the 4250HD as an HDMI Device. Try a different jack on the back of the TV, if that doesn't work, try swapping the box at Cablevision. HDMI jacks on all devices are notoriously weak and break easily. If that doesn't work, try borrowing an HDMI cable from a friend that you know works to rule out any issues with the HDMI wire.

Regarding HDMI 1.3 and 1.2, the main difference is the amount of bandwidth is supports. HDMI 1.3 is really only required for Blue-Ray.
HDTV is only 60 hz, so their is no benefit of having a 1.3 cable box over a 1.2 cable box, since the TV will have have to up-convert the signal to 120 hz.

Also, all HDMI devices have to backwards compatible, so a 1.3 will be able to speak with a 1.2.

Regarding, the HDMI Cable 1.2 and 1.3 are exactly the same, except 1.3 is insulated better, so in theory it should support faster connections up to 10.2 Gbps for 1.3 versus 2.23 Gbps for Cable TV, so the wire you have is exactly the same, but just supports up to a faster speed.

If that doesn't work, check the Sony.com site to see if there is an updated firmware patch for the XBR4

[dm145]

just use the component
i get better blacks than with hdmi