HDMI Dilema and How!

[Gatsby191]

Hello All:
Haven't posted in quite a while here. Just finished all the major work on my new HT/ Music room, and all that's left is putting up about 4 or 5 sheets of sheetrock for the OUTER walls. The inside is DONE!!! A couple of pretty nice framed movie posters on the inner walls and she's ready for opening night! My dilema? you say. Here it is: When we did all the pre-wire a little over a year ago(just after all framing was done) we ran every wire you could imagine for the pre-wire job (Cat5 Cat6, coax, HDMI, etc..). And With the exception of the 14 gauge speaker wire that was ran for 7.1 from the intended speaker positions, and then back to where the wall mounted Gear enclosure will be, everything was ran from where that wall mount enclosure is going to be and then ran up and then through the above floor joists and about 20 feet away to the other side of the room, and just where the center of the plasma was mounted is a hole where all of these wires comes out. Well when my cable company came out to hook me up with a new HD cable box, since my Onkyo TX-SR875 wasn't due for another 2 months, I just took a short run of HDMI (6 Feet) and connected the HD cable box to the HDMI input that my Plasma carries as an extra HDMI connection on it's left side (still can't see the connection spot though, thank GOD!) Well I'm telling you that not only was I truly amazed at the picture on just about every channel, but on top of that, the person who sold this Plasma to me (Samsung FP-T6374) happened to be a great friend of mine and he installs all high end gear every day as his profession, he just couldn't stop going on and on about this set. Hell, I went up to bed at like 1 AM, and left him there while he kept surfing the HD channels and polished off a case of beer. (Hey I pay top dollar to my hired help!) Well the ONKYO TX-SR875 (HQV Chip) finally came , and after staring at it in that huge box for about a month, I finally disconnected the cable box from the side imput-HDMI on the plasma and then hooked the HD Cable box and everything else to the ONKYO's HDMI Imputs, and then plugged in the HDMI cable we had ran at first into the ONKYO's only HDMI OUT and then connected the other end to the back of the Plasma it was just about stabbing into, and wala! Everythings all done, right? Well my decently beat up Yamaha C750 plays it's DVD Video "Super Clean", but I swear I see alot of drop off on the picture quality on the Hi DEF channels now, where they looked like glass when the HD Cable box went straight to the TV at first. I just went as far as ordering a new HDMI cable, and it's a "Blue Jeans" custom made 50 footer. But After speaking to 1 or 2 other HT people and Blue Jeans cable themselves, I was lead to believe that when it came to HBMI cables, either it works or it doesn't. Can some one shed some much needed light on this for me please. I've pounded every last nickel I've have into this room for the last 2 1/2 years, and this is killing me now. Since the outer walls are still "Naked", Running this new HDMI cable is still not a real big job at this point, but is it necessary?, and does anyone (Hopefully all of you! LOL) think it will bring the picture back up to where I thought it once was, if I run the new Blu Jeans HDMI cable? Thanks all!! Joe B. Warwick, NY (Orange County Chopper Territory!)
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MY "STUFF"
Samsung FP-T6374 HDTV Plasma (1080P)
Onkyo TX-SR875 A/V Receiver (140 WPC) Hey the room's only 10 X 20!
Yamaha C750 5 Disc DVD/SACD/CD changer(Waiting on the Sammy UP5000) and then the Yammy will play only my music.
Tannoy Sensys DC 2's-Front Left and Rights
Tannoy Arena Highline 500C-Center
Tannoy Arena Sattelites- Surround left and rights
Tannoy Arena Highline 500 Sattelites- Rear left and rights
And Bringing in more THUNDER than I ever imagined, or than I ever really WANTED: An Aperion Audio Intimus S-12 Subwoofer. This thing shouldn't be allowed in residential applications anymore! MY God! I used 2 sheets of 1/2 inch sheet rock for my ceiling with Green Glue sandwiched in between, and I even went so far as to use Furring stirips and attached them to the above floor joists before we screwed the double layer sheetrock ceiling to the furring strips, and I set this sub at just about 1/4 when I finaly finished construction, and it's pure insanity!! The dining room floor above may as well be down below right there in the room with me!! Yikes!!
4 ButtKicker Mini LFE's mounted in the bottom of each of my 4 HT Loungers (2 rows of 2)
ButKicker BKA 10004A AMP
Audio Technica Direct Drive Turntable- Hey I'm 43 going on 25, but I still love what Vinyl I have.
Just need some simple rope light for my modest but nice theater riser. Hope you all like my gear. I DO!! LOL

 

[Davemcc]

First things first, right? Is your Onkyo's video setup set to pass through native resolution or is it set to output a specific resolution. It could be set up to output 480p. That wouldn't be good.

 

[Gatsby191]

Stilla bit of a problem here with the HDMI

I had done what you suggested and switched "monitor out" to "PASS THROUGH" on my 875(rather than 480P. 720P,1080i 0r 1080P), and here's what happened: I came back down to my HT later, and I got my normal audio playing, but no video other than a Blue screen that said weak or no signal-----eveytime I switched between Cable/SAT and DVD(they're my only 2 imputs right now-Cable Box is imputed into one of the 875's HDMI imputs, and DVD is put into 875's DVD imput via RCA-L&R and Yellow video in-connector-"the old way"). So after about a 100 tries and alot of frustration, all of a sudden I got the video back on my HD Cable box, NO DVD video though!! So my sister came back later and we sat there and brain stormed. I ended up putting the Monitor Out to HDMI--YES (because that's what it is) and then I switched the resolution off of "Pass Through" and put it in "AUTO" instead. Well I had already tried hooking up rhe DVD player to AUX 1 earlier and still no picture, but as soon as I put the resolution into "AUTO" like I just said, there was my dvd playing nice clean video and of course the audio was fine as usual. In my original post about HDMI concerns, I had mentioned that I had noticed a drop off in video ever since passing my cable box through the 875 and then to the Samsung FPT6374 HDTV, when everything seemed a bit sharper before when the Cable box went directly into the TV on it's own before. I'm still wondering whether the new "Blue Jeans" custom Made 50 footer(HDMI cable) is worth the effort and headache right now. (would have to go through the inside walls again)The 50 footer(HDMI) that connects my 875 to my plasma right now, was ran a little over a year ago, can this make that much of a difference now?? (hell! the 875 is HDMI 1.3 x 4 imputs)
Okay, sorry for the LLLLLOOOOONNNG e-mail. A little help please, if you can. Thanks! Joe B. Warwick, NY I feel so damn exhausted over this. Thanks!!

 

[Davemcc]

I'm glad to see that it was just a simple setting issue. If everything is working well now, I'm not sure you want to use the 50' HDMI. If I have it right, you have about a 30' run pre-installed and is working? The thing about the 50' cable is that is about the limit of good signal before having to use an HDMI repeater. If it's working now, well...don't fix what ain't broke.

 

[Gatsby191]

Thanks! and a little more...

I am figuring almost the same thing: Just keep the current HDMI cable as the out cable to the plasma, and be done with it already. BUT..., since the plasma has a front side connection available for another HDMI imput, I can run a simple test by just plugging that new Blue Jeans HDMI cable into the back of the Onkyo 875's HDMI OUT, and then just walk the other end over to the front of the plasma and connect it to the extra HDMI imput it has on it's left side, no? May as well be sure after the hassle I've had to deal with. I don't know which outcome to hope for since I'm going to be getting the new Sammy UP5000 HD-BD player as soon as it's available. I really don't want to lose out on any quality in the video (obviously) when that new player is running. Know what I mean? Thanks again!! Joe B.

 

[BMXTRIX]

I would say, the most important less you can take from all of this is that you REALLY WANT TO INSTALL CONDUIT RIGHT NOW!

1.5" conduit from the head end to the display location - or anywhere else you may want access to later on. It's gonna cost you all of 150 bucks or so and you will never 'dread' something not working again. I can't emphasize enough how often I have walked into poorly wired rooms and told someone that I would have to open their ceiling back up to get the wiring in place and because I had lousy access, I would not be able to run conduit.

Run conduit, then you should be happy.

One of the more obvious tests of a long cable is to make sure you run the cable directly into the device. Easy to see if the issues is the receiver or the cable if you had hooked the cable box right up to the cable and saw a perfect image, then put the Onkyo back in line, you would know right away that the Onkyo was the issue, not the cable... or cable box.