Problem with receiver and htpc

[thestrangebrew1]

I posted my issue in the htpc forum, but I'm really thinking that my receiver is most of the problem. My issue is this: When I watch a movie without my receiver being on, after about an hour or so, the audio gets distorted, robotic voices, loudspeaker echo sounding. I have to reboot the htpc to get it working properly, and sometimes xbmc needs to update the library to see the file. When my receiver is on, sound works fine. I have a Yamaha rxv467 receiver, the htpc is hooked up to it via hdmi and the tv is hooked up to the receiver via hdmi. The receiver allows sound to go through it and output to the tv while off, but for some reason I have this issue about an hour into watching anything. Anyone familiar with this receiver aware of any setting I need to go into and adjust?

EDIT: Would cheap cables cause this type of distortion when the receiver is off vs on?