Loose component cables causing HDMI video problems
- by jwir3
I'm not sure this is the correct forum, but I'll ask anyway.
I have an A/V setup at home that has something like the following:
Five Components (actually a few more, like a CD player, but they don't really relate to this question):
Older Pioneer Receiver
Digital Set Top Box
Sony BluRay Player
Samsung Plasma TV
Speakers
The reason for the receiver is so that all the sound can go through the speakers, rather than some going to the TV speakers and some to the external speakers.
They are connected as follows:
Digital Set Top Box connects via component video to Samsung TV directly via Component 2 (audio goes to Older Pioneer Receiver).
Sony BluRay player is connected via HDMI 1 to TV, but audio goes to the receiver.
Now, the problem I'm having is that when I have the digital set top box connected, there are times when the Netflix or Hulu streams I watch through the Sony BluRay player (it's connected to a router for internet access) will lose video. What I mean by this is that the sound of the episode will keep playing, but the screen will go black. If I jiggle the component cables, it will often come back. If I disconnect the component cables, it will always come back.
I've noticed that one of the connections (the red component cable) doesn't like to sit very well in the component socket in the back of the digital set top box. It seems like there is a bad connection here, but it doesn't seem like this should be affecting the HDMI input at all.
What I've noticed, though, is that when I disconnect the digital set top box completely (i.e. remove the component cable from the back of the TV), the problem seems to resolve itself. I'm not talking about actually removing the cable physically, because I thought perhaps the cables were mashing against one another, and possibly jiggling each other loose. To correct this possible problem, I took the component cable completely out of the cable ties it was in in the back of my entertainment center, as well as pulled the digital set top box out from the entertainment center altogether. It's now connected directly to the TV, without any other cables touching it to cause some kind of weird interference or just physical pulling on the cable. Same problem. If, however, I disconnect the component cable and just leave it sitting behind the TV, then the problem goes away.
So, my question is this - what could be causing this? Is it a case where it's an improperly shielded component cable that's causing interference with the HDMI input, or something that's wrong with the TV? It's an intermittent problem, so it's difficult to track down.
The TV isn't that old, so it's probably still under warranty. I'm just wondering if there is something else I can do that might reduce this problem without having to haul a massive television set out of my house to get repaired/replaced.
