942 hdmi issues?

[its4]

I recently purchased a panasonic TH-50PX50U (plasma w/HDMI input) and upgraded my old 6000 receiver to a Dishplayer 942 (it was between the 921 and 942 but I picked the 942 due to its HDMI output).

The problem I'm having is that when using the HDMI connection, the audio and video intermittently drop out. I'll be watching a great picture for a minute or two then the screen will go black from 1-4 seconds and then resume displaying the signal. The portion of the video that was dropped by the TV is recorded by the 942 and plays back fine. The audio suffers from the same problem - period choppyness and/or complete momentary drop out.

Dish sent me a 2nd 942 but it didn't fix the problem. Now I'm wondering if the TV input is malfunctioning, however HD feeds don't seem to exhibit the problem - that is, I can watch HDNET for hours without any dropout. So I'm in a quandry. Is it the 942 or the TV? How can I troubleshoot this? Is it an incompatibility between Dish and Panasonic?

I would appreciate any opinions or suggestions - Thanks

 

[MikeD-C05]

Try replacing the hdmi cable they sent you from Dish for a new one that is truely hdmi on both ends. That is if you have hdmi on both tv and the 942.

I have one flat screen Toshiba tv that is true hdmi and I am using the cables they sent me with an adapter to to make it hdmi. The other rear projection Toshiba tv I am using hdmi adapter so I can use it with dvi input on my tv. I get good reception on both , but no sound on my Toshiba flat screen tv with hdmi. I even had to use the menu option on the tv that allows you to change to dvi , just to get the tv to output sound via rca jacks.

My point is try to change out the cable and see if that helps.

 

[its4]

Replacing the cable was the first thing I tried. New hdmi<->hdmi cable didn't make any difference (except perhaps reducing some noise).

Does anyone know if signal generation/test equipment exists that can test a TV's hdmi input?

 

[j5races]

I have seen this before with a sharp lcd and a directv H10 hooked up HDMI. It would play fine for a while and then drop audio or video or both for a sec and then play fine for a while.

It must be some kind of HDMI sync problem. The bad news is because HDMI is so new, there are no filters or boxes to clean it up yet that i know of....

 

[buckwild]

I have this same issue on my Toshiba 57H84, using an hdmi-hdmi cable. Its pretty rare though, so it doesnt bother me that much.

 

[its4]

After experimenting with the 942 HD format, I've learned that when I configure the 942 HD setup to output 480i or 480p, the hdmi problem goes away. If I configure it to output either 720p or 1080i, I get the dropped video. I have a panasonic service appt this week. If I learn anything new, I'll update this. If not, I'll call and ask Dish to send me a 921 to see if the DVI output works.

 

[troublefan]

I'd like to know what you find out. My Panny CT34wx54 does the same thing, every now and again, now that I have the 942. My difference is that the installer has HDMI on one input and component on another, and I get the occasional A/V dropout on both. Mine also is configed to 1080i, but like buckwild said, dropout is rare so it doesn't bother me much. Still like to know what's going on though.