Can an HDMI jack go 'bad'?

MR.MAGOO

MR.MAGOO

Audioholic Field Marshall
Recently my cable company swapped out a defective DVR for a new one. All was fine until I noticed when changing TV channels the audio was gone, only had video. To get audio for the channel I'd unplug - reconnect the HDMI cable connecting the DVR to the Yamaha RX-A1020, bingo! audio works. But change to another channel, no audio. Unplug - reconnect cable, audio returns. To experiment I connected SAME cable from DVR to TV, no problems, change channels, audio and video works (but with crappy TV speakers of course). So I moved cable to a different HDMI jack on the RX-A1020, bingo! When I change channels, no problems with audio! Could that original HDMI jack gotten fried or something?

AVR - Yamaha RX-A1020
DVR - Arris VIP2250 (AT&T U-Verse)
HDMI cables - Radio Shack
TV - Sony Bravia KDL50EX645 LCD 50" screen

Would upgrading all my HDMI cables to the newest spec be beneficial?
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
HDMI sockets are notorious for failures. It is a horrible connector and very fragile. The problem is they are surface mounted to the HDMI board, so you have to change the whole board at huge expense.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Then please explain how another HDMI input solves the problem.
Try all the hdmi inputs for consistency but also order of turning on can be a part of it. Possibly jack issue but not lots to go on here otoh.
 
Verdinut

Verdinut

Audioholic Spartan
Then please explain how another HDMI input solves the problem.
That happened with my Marantz SR5010. I had a problem with a source. I suspected a defective HDMI input. So I connected the source cable to another HDMI input: Problem solved.
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
This is one of the reasons I hate HDMI and have, from the start. Structurally, it's a terrible design- thin, wide and shallow reach are a formula for disaster when force is applied to the plug (especially if it's upward or downward) and I have seen many HDMI jacks that broke.

OTOH, try another cable- that could be where the problem lies.

Also, find a way to save the AVR's configuration and perform a hard reset- I recently did that for a Denon that wasn't passing HDMI from the sources and it came back.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
This is one of the reasons I hate HDMI and have, from the start. Structurally, it's a terrible design- thin, wide and shallow reach are a formula for disaster when force is applied to the plug (especially if it's upward or downward) and I have seen many HDMI jacks that broke.

OTOH, try another cable- that could be where the problem lies.

Also, find a way to save the AVR's configuration and perform a hard reset- I recently did that for a Denon that wasn't passing HDMI from the sources and it came back.
We both agree totally on this. We had three of our grand children here for six days after Christmas. The family room system is for their games to a large extent. They had the front HDMI connector on the Marantz pre pro I had in my Benedict AV room killed in less than half a day.

I suspect that the tech who changed out the DVR was hamfisted tech.
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
I suspect that the tech who changed out the DVR was hamfisted tech.
This is the reason I insist on changing cable equipment, rather than the cable service techs.

I replaced a box last week for a customer who had migrated from Time Warner to Spectrum (I know, a distinction without a difference) and the tech dropped off two boxes, one without the remote or power supply. For what he did, he could have just left them in the cardboard tray with plastic wrap, on her kitchen counter. One didn't work, the other took time to activate. One of them was supposed to be a DVR but both were the basic model. Not sure they would have been able to pass the power cord from one cabinet to the one where the DVR lives- might be the reason he left them without connecting anything. I got Spectrum to issue a $49.95 credit to her account for that.

OTOH, it's still not ATT, so that's a good thing.
 
2

2channel lover

Audioholic Field Marshall
Recently my cable company swapped out a defective DVR for a new one. All was fine until I noticed when changing TV channels the audio was gone, only had video. To get audio for the channel I'd unplug - reconnect the HDMI cable connecting the DVR to the Yamaha RX-A1020, bingo! audio works. But change to another channel, no audio. Unplug - reconnect cable, audio returns. To experiment I connected SAME cable from DVR to TV, no problems, change channels, audio and video works (but with crappy TV speakers of course). So I moved cable to a different HDMI jack on the RX-A1020, bingo! When I change channels, no problems with audio! Could that original HDMI jack gotten fried or something?

AVR - Yamaha RX-A1020
DVR - Arris VIP2250 (AT&T U-Verse)
HDMI cables - Radio Shack
TV - Sony Bravia KDL50EX645 LCD 50" screen

Would upgrading all my HDMI cables to the newest spec be beneficial?
In my Samsung Plasma...idk if there was too much pressure on the connection with a bad angle or something, but 1 of the 2 hdmi jacks failed...I never guessed an hdmi jack could fail so I was troubleshooting that thing for a good 20 mins before I even tried the other port and sure enough...it worked....put it back in the other one...it didn't work.
 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
Yep. They can and do go bad. I've had many types of connectora go bad. Sometimes it's the fault of the cable. Sometimes the connector is stressed in some way (cable being pushed/pulled down) and it makes the connector loose. Soon after it fails.

As others have said, HDMI sucks. Bad design from the beginning. We should be using display port, but that isn't going to happen.
 

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