P

Peter Franks

Audiophyte
Had a unique conversation with one of the techs at a certified electronics
facility, that mentioned a lawsuit coming from the manufactures of A/V equipment against the cable companies or the manufacturer of the cable boxes, due to voltage spikes coming from cable boxes through the HDMI cable.
Now,I'm not talking about unconditioned power spikes, but a spike that passes or is sent from a protected box & A/V unit Via HDMI.

I'm beginning to think we who continue to purchase replacement gear are the one's funding the research & development of the new HDMI replacement to follow.
This problem has been occurring since the inception of HDMI and still continues today. Why ???
We have the ability to put fused protection on other internal components inside A/V units but not HDMI boards
 
T

tvrgeek

Enthusiast
You might note, one of the products made by TI is a chip that filters noise and spikes on the incoming HDMI. It only works if you use it.
I have had terrible issues with HDMI switching stability. I get a lot of "HDMI has issues" answers. Well, what I see is poor implementations by great amp companies who are not experienced in digital interfaces. I guess a law suit is easier than hiring some engineers who understand this.

I spent 10 years in failure analysis. I have a pretty good understanding on issues relating to interfaces. Anyone who expects a twisted pair to be clean is naive or just plain an idiot. I am NOT defending the cable box manufactures, but ALL of industry owns this problem and they need to work together to solve it, not just the HDCP protection that made HDMI happen. The HDMI working group is to blame.

If I were to design a product like this, it would have an optical isolater on the ports. I have never seen a ground loop jump one. This is why I use fiber for PCM over the coax.

Digital is not easy. It is not just on and off. Actually, digital is a concept as in the real world, it is still implemented in an analog world with a touch of quantum complexity tossed in. I did a survey of several years history on all the failures ou company had had. Over 90% were a component connected to the outside world in one way or another. These are design issues.
 
C

Cok Kinzler

Audiophyte
I'm interested in hearing a little more about this issue. Has anyone heard anything about HDMI cable spikes causing issues like this resulting in electric shocks? I heard of a similar thing happening to a friend of mine -- receiving a significant shock from plugging in an HDMI from a cable box to the TV. How does this even happen?? I am a newbie in this world, so PLEASE explain what you're talking about if you can.
 
jinjuku

jinjuku

Moderator
Funny how this thing doesn't happen with other established connectivity solutions.

HDBaseT... All the benefits of Ethernet and none of the crap with HDMI.
 
Rickster71

Rickster71

Audioholic Spartan
I guess it was because HDMI and its accompanying software were first and foremost for anti piracy.
The rest was an after thought.
 
K

Kevin362006

Audiophyte
I have visited several homes over the years from the cable company side. It appears to be a grounding issue. The cable box is unique in that the coax system it is hooked to is usually hooked to a very good ground source. We get damage claims every once in a while (2-4 a year in a city of 105,000.) From our Insurance Co standpoint if our system is grounded correctly we typically would reject such claims that we caused the damage. Almost always what we find are open grounds or neutrals in the premise wiring. We document this almost every time so even though it seems a cable box is involved there is actually more to the story usually. I am no electrician but it seems fishy that this always happens to flat panels in un-grounded outlets when attached to a device via HDMI or COAX with a good ground/bond. It seems maybe there is room for improvement all around.
 
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