Cable Box Video Hookup Help!!!!!

[rissraider2211]

Please help! I have a sony str-de595 A/V receiver and a 61" RCA HD Rear Projection about 8 yrs old. I have the cable box running through the receiver then to the TV. The cable box will only give audio, no picture through the component hookup. If i plug my blue-ray and xbox 360 into the same port on the receiver I get picture and sound. My old cable box worked perfectly on this port the new one will not. Seems to me if other components (blue ray/xbox) work on the input shouldn't the box? I tried new component cords, no luck. I even went and swapped out cable boxes and the brand new one does the same thing. Tried hooking the box straight to the TV and still no picture. Wires are not crossed. Usually with nothing plugged into the TV it will flash black/red and text in middle of the screen blinks and says 'unusable signal'. Once I plug the box in the 'unusable signal' goes away like it has a signal, but no picture. Could it be my older TV can't put out enough signal for the new box? I plan on getting a new TV in a couple of months, but don't have $ to do so at this time. I am at ends here and have NO clue! Please help me!

 

[BMXTRIX]

What does your last line mean?

Could it be my older TV can't put out enough signal for the new box?

Your cable box should be plugged into the F connector at the wall which goes out to the cable feed for your home.

If your cable box has component (red/green/blue) connectors, then I would connect them straight to the TV.

If that did NOT work, then I would plug the yellow (composite) conector to the TV and see if I got a picture that way.

Your TV may only accept certain signals on the component video input, such as 1080i. If that is the case, then you need to set your video output from the cable box to 'FIXED' and to '1080i'. This may solve your issue, but you will need to go all the way down to composite, or even 'RF' perhaps to get the video on screen to make this adjustment.

Once you are set to 1080i fixed video output, then I would go back to a direct component video connection, then back to the receiver.

 

[markw]

This is a new cable box?

Sounds like it needs to be set up to output component. Either check the manual, call their tech support or, as a last resort, have a tech set it up for you. If they installed it to begin with, it should have been done then.

 

[TLS Guy]

Please help! I have a sony str-de595 A/V receiver and a 61" RCA HD Rear Projection about 8 yrs old. I have the cable box running through the receiver then to the TV. The cable box will only give audio, no picture through the component hookup. If i plug my blue-ray and xbox 360 into the same port on the receiver I get picture and sound. My old cable box worked perfectly on this port the new one will not. Seems to me if other components (blue ray/xbox) work on the input shouldn't the box? I tried new component cords, no luck. I even went and swapped out cable boxes and the brand new one does the same thing. Tried hooking the box straight to the TV and still no picture. Wires are not crossed. Usually with nothing plugged into the TV it will flash black/red and text in middle of the screen blinks and says 'unusable signal'. Once I plug the box in the 'unusable signal' goes away like it has a signal, but no picture. Could it be my older TV can't put out enough signal for the new box? I plan on getting a new TV in a couple of months, but don't have $ to do so at this time. I am at ends here and have NO clue! Please help me!

HDMI is probably the default on your cable box. Disable HDMI. I bet that will solve your problem.

 

[rissraider2211]

Fist off, thanks for all the help so far. I think yall have me on the right track. My TV runs off of 1080i and I have that enabled on the cable box. The cable box also has a setting for HDMI Settings. It has:

Audio Output Mode:
Auto
L-PCM
Pass Through
Disable Auto Detect
Yes
No

What should my settings be under?????

 

[BMXTRIX]

You don't have HDMI - so 'NO' would be what I would start with.

That's AUDIO though, I would want you to focus on the video settings to get a picture.

 

[rissraider2211]

thanks for everyones's help. After troubleshooting i discovered it was the video format. I had changed it to accept every video format. However I found out it had to be set to an exact format. Once I accepted it to the exact video format it worked! Thanks to everyone for all the help!

 

[BMXTRIX]

Yep, that would have been my first suggestion up there. Those older TVs can be really finicky about what you send them and on what input. 1080i is typically the 'gold' standard for HDTVs. I'm not aware of any TVs which did not accept 1080i signals. MANY did not accept 720p. Some did not accept 480i, though I'm not sure which ones, but apparently RCAs are on that list.

Sure, you can feed it 480i on composite, but not on component. So, you upscale everything to 1080i, and you are good to go.

Fortunately, the cable box had a setting to let you do that.

In the future, if you provide the make/model number of ALL the gear involved, you may get an even better answer more quickly because we may be able to get an owner's manual for those products and tell you just what to do.

Glad it's resolved!