Blu-Ray signal goes off & on repeatedly. Ideas on this fault?? (1 Viewer)

[WarrenBD]

I’m hoping someone can put my mind at ease by possibly identifying what’s going on or at least postulating some theories.

My Panasonic 50” tv works fine, plays through my DirecTv DVR box no problems… everything is good. I bought a new Sony BDPS7200 Blu-Ray player and hooked it up to the decent quality HDMI cable my old Blu-Ray player used (had to replace it due to drive mechanism gone bad). Popped in a new-out-of-the-box disc and it played great for about 10 minutes, then the signal dropped out and I was looking at what I’d see on my tv if I’d switched inputs on the tv from DirecTv box (designated HDMI #1) to Blu-Ray player… a blank screen titled HDMI #2.

This drop-out lasted about 2 or 3 three seconds max, then picture and sound returned. Then the picture & sound dropped out again. And then returned. 2 seconds off, 2 seconds on, 2 seconds off, and so on. Tried another new disc, but still same problem.

Returned unit to Best Buy and replaced it with another (same model). Inserted another brand new disc and this time the player worked fine for about three hours and then – wouldn’t you know it – the exact same fault returned. I discovered if I powered down the player for a minute, then restarted, the fault would go away for about 10/15 minutes or so before returning, then it was back to the 2-second flopperoo. I set the input on the tv back to HDMI #1 and all other operation of tv & sat box remains absolutely fine.

I’ve no idea what might be causing this. Usually, if you lose sound & picture, they stay gone, but it seems reasonable to me that it’s the player and not anything else. Of course, there may be literally hundreds of you out there that might smack your collective foreheads and exclaim, “What a dummy! Doesn’t he know that etc. etc. etc. fill-in-blank causes that fault!!”

I’m not necessarily looking for the “EXACT” reason this is happening, after all, I’m going to be replacing the unit… happily, I have a protection warrantee… I just want to know what the hell might be causing it so I can have some techy ammunition in my back pocket if the customer service pod-person starts to give me a hard time.

I’d appreciate any thoughts on this. My thanks in advance!

 

[Adam Gregorich]

Odd. Do you have CEC control turned on (either on TV of BD player?). I would also set the video output on the player to 1080P or 720P depending on your sets resolution, instead of having it on auto.

 

[schan1269]

Did you unplug the TV from the wall when you swapped players?

 

[WarrenBD]

Odd. Do you have CEC control turned on (either on TV of BD player?). I would also set the video output on the player to 1080P or 720P depending on your sets resolution, instead of having it on auto.

I'll have to look up what CEC is first! Also, the player would have been set to Auto. I'll make sure it's set to 1080P when I hook up the replacement. Thanks!

 

[WarrenBD]

Did you unplug the TV from the wall when you swapped players?

Uh... no... never occurred to me. Though uncertain if this is germane, as 1st player was operating fine for 10 minutes, and 2nd player was working fine for over 3 hours...

 

[Jason Charlton]

Uh... no... never occurred to me. Though uncertain if this is germane, as 1st player was operating fine for 10 minutes, and 2nd player was working fine for over 3 hours...

It's pertinent because of the complicated "handshake" process that all HDMI-connected devices go through when first connected to a system.

An improper handshake can cause all sorts of oddball problems. Any time a user encounters problems with "newly added" HDMI devices, the first thought is always that of handshake issues.

You should disconnect all HDMI cables, turn off your devices and physically unplug them from power for at least 10 minutes. This will ensure that when they are powered up again, they go through their full reboot process.

While everything is unplugged, make your HDMI cable connections.

After reconnecting everything, plug the devices back in.

Start by powering on all of the sources - cable box and Blu-ray player. Be sure to give them all the time they need to fully boot and such.

If you have an AV Receiver, that's the next device that should be turned on. Let it do its thing.

Once they have settled down, THEN turn on the display.

This procedure should produce a proper handshake between devices.

Once the handshake is established, you should not change any HDMI connections (swapping HDMI 1 for HDMI 2 for example) as this will confuse the system that expects Device X to be connected to Input Y.

Fingers crossed that will help.

 

[WarrenBD]

It's pertinent because of the complicated "handshake" process that all HDMI-connected devices go through when first connected to a system.

An improper handshake can cause all sorts of oddball problems. Any time a user encounters problems with "newly added" HDMI devices, the first thought is always that of handshake issues.

You should disconnect all HDMI cables, turn off your devices and physically unplug them from power for at least 10 minutes. This will ensure that when they are powered up again, they go through their full reboot process.

While everything is unplugged, make your HDMI cable connections.

After reconnecting everything, plug the devices back in.

Start by powering on all of the sources - cable box and Blu-ray player. Be sure to give them all the time they need to fully boot and such.

If you have an AV Receiver, that's the next device that should be turned on. Let it do its thing.

Once they have settled down, THEN turn on the display.

This procedure should produce a proper handshake between devices.

Once the handshake is established, you should not change any HDMI connections (swapping HDMI 1 for HDMI 2 for example) as this will confuse the system that expects Device X to be connected to Input Y.

Fingers crossed that will help.

Understood! I will certainly try that approach. Thank you very much, Jason.

 

[Martino]

If the hand shake issues turns out not to be the problem, then moving the unit to a cooler location may help.

Another thing you might try - how is the player itself actually situated?

• Is it in a cabinet or somewhere else where heat may become an issue?
  
• Is it near or on top of another box that may be generating some heat?

Seems like after the unit "warms up" it starts to have issues. If it is on top of or in the middle of some rack or cabinet that is restricting the air flow, that could cause issues as well. Try putting some spacers between the components, adding a fan to your rack system, moving components around, or anything else that would help with cooling.