Stanley and Harriet's HDMI

They keep getting problems with their HDMI hookup.  It works for a while, then they have trouble.  And wind up swapping their cable box.  They have a Oceanic HD DVR hooked up to a big screen Sony LCD TV.

This time, it was working until a few days ago.  The HDMI wouldn't work though it would work via the coax out going to channel 3.

I confirmed that it wasn't working.  Even after resetting the box, switching HDMI ports, switching the HDMI cable.

However in the process, I did get an HDCP not-compliant message.  Not sure if that's coming from the TV or the cable box.

Called Oceanic.  Told me to turn off the cable box and turn off the TV.

But I pulled out the power to the cable box instead.

Took a while to boot up and get the time back.

Still didn't work and noticed the response was rather slow.

The tech guy asked why I had both the coax and the HDMI plugged in.  Told him in case one don't work.  But I pulled out the coax anyway.  Nope, still don't work.

Then he asked if I had another HDMI cable.  So I swapped it.  Nope, still don't work.

So he said it's probably the cable box and to swap it.

But then suddenly it started working.  The configuration was the original (not the Oceanic) HDMI cable plugged into the HDMI4 input.  And the cable box was more responsive.

Don't know what happened, but I'm not going to touch it if it's working.

We'll see how long it lasts this time.

I got a feeling that their Sony TV is marginal with HDCP outputs (despite this statement).

[9/7/15 update] after having sporadic problems with their cable box hooked up to their Sony TV over the last couple of years, the Oceanic tech hooked them up via component some months ago.  Problem solved.  The picture might not be quite as good as HDMI in theory, but it's hard to tell the difference.