We recently replaced our main TV. The old one had the cable box connected by component video cables, but the new TV has enough inputs that we connected the cable box with an HDMI cable. Nothing else has changed.
With component video, the channels would change as fast as you pushed the button? click-click-click. With HDMI the channels do not change as fast. Hit the up button, and…three seconds later the channel changes. Sometimes it changes to a black screen and then takes another second or two for the picture to come up.
I know HDMI is two-way communication for copyright protection, but is this what is going on? Has anyone else seen this? Is there a way to fix it? Or do I have to go back to component video?
I have four TV’s all connected with HDMI and don’t see that at all. You said old TV, is the cable box old also? Maybe the cable box is older technology and the HDMI port is no good/dirty/rusty/failing?
How is the speed of changing channels on the new TV with the component video cables? Maybe the TV is defective?
Maybe the cable box is “handshaking” with the TV every time you change the channel? or maybe the HDMI input has to “reset” every time the video stream is interrupted.
The times I’ve seen this “handshaking” delay is if the video source inadvertently does something to make the television think the video format (1080p, 480i, etc.) is changing. That forces a resync delay, and seems to happen (in bad implementations) even if there’s no actual change in format. Only if the TV thinks there is.
The “old’” TV was a Sony from about 2008. It had two HDMI inputs and three component video in. Since I was using the HDMI inputs for the computer and the DirecTV, I used the component output of the cable box. (I also used component video for the DVD and the Wii).
The cable box (we got in it about 2011) is just the currently-available Cox cable-DVR unit.
The new TV is is a fully “smart” Samsung with 4 HDMI inputs and one component video.
Prior to this, the DirecTV box was hooked into the old Sony via HDMI, and it, too, was slow to change channels. I just figured that was DTV having clunky electronics. Now I wonder if it is HDMI.
I haven’t switched over to component video from the cable box yet. I’d lose my Wii. I’ll probably try it this weekend just to see, but for long term I’d have to find a Wii-to-HMDI adapter.
Maybe check the settings on the cable box to verify it is outputting 1080p - assuming HD channels.
The channel changing might be delayed as the TV is converting the signal to fit the screen, causing a similar “handshaking” that gnoitall and jz78817 are talking about.
ETA: Just another thought, did you get a 4k TV? The cable box from 2011 may not support that technology and the TV is compensating, thus the delay, maybe?
These aren’t hard to find. I think I bought one through eBay about 5 years ago, and it wasn’t particularly expensive or elusive. And has worked perfectly every time we needed it in the intervening time.
Second that. Call Cox and see if you can get a new box. At the very least, describe the issue to them; perhaps they can change a setting on your existing box to resolve the issue.
We had a problem with HDMI the first time we used it at my parents’ house a few years ago. Updating the box did fix most of the HDMI problems.
AFAIK, channel switching on digital boxes is still not instantaneous as it is with analog. It’s much better for my parents now with their newer box…no where near 3 seconds but it does still have a delay. So don’t expect instantaneous. There’s even a delay with my HD antenna connected to my tv via coax.
Someone explained why there’s the short delay in some thread recently. Unfortunately I have no idea who it was or what thread it was in. But their explanation seemed valid.
Mine is set to “pass through” the output as either 720p or 1080i, depending on what the source is broadcasting in. There’s a longer delay switching from one format to another than channels of the same format. My Comcast boxes won’t up-convert to 1080p, leaving that to the TV, but if they did I would expect channel changing would be faster.
OK, so the Cox guy came by Friday. Turns out that the cable from the street to the house was in pretty bad shape, so he replaced it. You wouldn’t think it would affect channel switching, but now the channels change much faster. Maybe the low signal strength fooled the cable box or something.
I’ll probably try it this weekend just to see, but for long term I’d have to find a Wii-to-HMDI adapter.