Bluray/TV/Receiver Compatibility

[CycloWizard]

I have an LG BD270 Bluray player, LG42X TV, and Pioneer VSX-1022-K receiver. I would like to have the Bluray player connected to the receiver to use its speaker system while the receiver outputs the video signal to the TV. However, if I connect the Bluray player to the BD receiver input, I only get audio and the TV is blank. If I try a different receiver input, the TV will actually shut off. If I connect the Bluray directly to the TV, it works fine but only uses the crappy TV speakers. I'm using HDMI connections all around. I have tried every possible permutation of configuration options so I'm confident it is not related to software at this point.

I actually went back and read the receiver's manual and it supports ARC (HDMI 1.4) but the TV does not (HDMI 1.3). I'm not sure whether ARC is related to my problem but I'm sure someone here can tell me. I'm ready to go buy an optical audio cable to see if this will solve the problem but I wanted to check here first. Does anyone have any idea whether this is just a compatibility problem or something more serious?

edit: I also wanted to add that the setup works fine for other sources (AT&T box, XBOX 360) tied to the same receiver using HDMI. It seems that if HDMI version compatibility were the issue, then these other sources would have the same problems but it's only the Bluray player.

[Number1]

First, ARC and optical out of your TV will only put out 2.0 audio from externally connected devices like your bluray player using HDMI or not. Smart TVs with Netflix and other services will output 5.1 audio via ARC or optical.

Don't bother with an optical cable, you should get sound out of your receiver when connecting your BD player with an HDMI cable.


A bad HDMI cable is a possibility.

If your system works with everything else than the BD I would suspect there is something wrong with it. How old is it?

[CycloWizard]

Thanks. I tried a couple of HDMI cables but got the same result. The only other thing I could think of was that something was wrong with the Bluray player itself but it seems to work perfectly fine when connected directly to the TV (bypassing the receiver). The player is probably 3.5 years old.

[Phanuel]

It sounds like an HDCP handshake issue.

Are you able to play DVDs from the Xbox? That would force the Xbox to initiate an HDCP handshake with the entire HDMI chain from the Xbox to the TV through the receiver.

Otherwise, nothing you have is ever doing an HDCP handshake check as far as I'm aware and wouldn't trigger any issues usually.

[lupi]

sounds like an hdcp issue, are the :G components fully HDCP compliant? they may be ok when just together but not up to cert for the pioneer when placed in between.

[CycloWizard]

Phanuel: I have watched DVDs using the Xbox without issue. These aren't BRD's obviously but I'm not informed enough to know whether that would make any difference in HDCP.

lupi: I haven't been able to find out anything regarding the HDMI version of the Bluray player. However, when I looked to see whether it was HDCP compliant, I found something in the manual that states, "When the HDMI connection with HDCP is not verified, TV screen is changed to black screen. In this case, check the HDMI connection or disconnect the HDMI cable." The manual also states that "Not all HDCP-compatible HDMI or DVI devices will work with this player. The picture will not be displayed properly with non-HDCP device. This player does not playback and TV screen is changed to black screen." However, the receiver's manual states that it is HDCP compliant.

So it appears to me that all of these things should work together but for some reason they aren't. This seems to agree with Phanuel's suggestion of a handshaking issue but I have no idea what to try to resolve that.

[vshah]

try powering on the tv first, then the receiver, then the blu ray player.

[Number1]

Have you tried hooking it up directly to the TV, changing the resolution in the BD unit and trying it again trough the receiver?

Your best bet at this point is probably a newer BD player.

Some fairly decent units at good prices:

http://reviews.cnet.com/best-blu-ray-players/

[CycloWizard]

Originally Posted by Number1

Have you tried hooking it up directly to the TV, changing the resolution in the BD unit and trying it again trough the receiver?

Your best bet at this point is probably a newer BD player.

Some fairly decent units at good prices:

http://reviews.cnet.com/best-blu-ray-players/

I did try that but unfortunately it didn't change anything. I bought this thing for $80 almost 4 years ago so I'm trying to pretend that I won't have to pay more for the same thing later. Why are these things still so expensive?

I'm going to try vshah's recommendation when I get home. Some of the manuals mentioned that the order you turn everything on may matter. It's worth a shot anyway.

[KeithP]

Is the firmware up to date on the BD player and receiver?

-KeithP

[CycloWizard]

Originally Posted by KeithP

Is the firmware up to date on the BD player and receiver?

-KeithP

The receiver is up to date (just did it because it was having issues with Pandora). I'm not sure that the BD firmware can be updated but I'll look into it.

[CycloWizard]

I just wanted to follow up and let everyone know it's finally working! I did exactly as vshah said (turn on TV, then receiver, then Bluray player) and everything worked immediately. This HDCP protocol must be a big mess if that was the reason I wasted all this time but hopefully I can program a remote that will turn everything on in the correct order before I forget how to do it... Thanks to everyone who posted with suggestions! :beer;

[Number1]

Originally Posted by CycloWizard

I just wanted to follow up and let everyone know it's finally working! I did exactly as vshah said (turn on TV, then receiver, then Bluray player) and everything worked immediately. This HDCP protocol must be a big mess if that was the reason I wasted all this time but hopefully I can program a remote that will turn everything on in the correct order before I forget how to do it... Thanks to everyone who posted with suggestions! :beer;

Good stuff. My second video card also has handshaking issues with my TV and sometime loses the connection. I then have to go to the Catalyst resolution screen and re detect the display for it to work.

Anyway good to see you got the issue resolved.

vshaf

[vshah]

glad to hear that worked! if you have/get a harmony remote, you can tell it the order in which to power on components for the "watch blu ray" activity