I'm using a JVC HD-56G786 with the new Motorola DCT6412 III (phase 3, as they sometimes call it) DVR from Comcast. I have them connected via HDMI. The performance is far from optimal, though, and I want to know which component is to blame or if HDMI as a standard simply behaves this way.
Basically, when I do anything that causes a change in the audio stream, the HDMI connection seems to renegotiate. When this happens, the screen scrambles for a fraction of a second then for another ~2 seconds aligns, scales, and centers the picture. The fact that this happens at all is annoying, but having it happen every time the audio feed changes is unbearable.
If I mute the DVR, it happens since the audio feed stops. If I pause, it happens (again because the DVR doesn't send audio when paused). If I rewind, the DVR cuts the audio, so again it does this freaky renegotiation. If I change from a channel with stereo to one with 5.1, it does it then, too.
Is this because my DVR is stupid and keeps messing with the audio feed unnecessarily? Is it because my TV is stupid and keeps renegotiating the picture just because the audio stream changes? Does my HDMI cable suck and it should be faster, thus less obtrusive? Is HDMI (or JVC's implementation thereof) just afflicted by a delay when a digital stream changes, and this happens to everyone else, too?
If anyone has advice or at least commiseration, please let me know. Ideally I'd like to find that this isn't normal and I can get it fixed... otherwise, knowing I have company in my misery would soften the blow... Thanks in advance.
I have my STB locked to 720P, so that is not my issue. Mine seems to be the audio. Honestly, I don't even want the audio from the HDMI in my current configuration. If I could tell the STB to not send audio at all on HDMI, or tell my TV to ignore it, this issue would likely be gone.
Is this a general problem with HDMI, though, that it takes this time to negotiate a signal? Or to your knowledge is it only JVC's HDMI implementation that is so afflicted? The fact that I don't see many people complaining about this issue makes it seem more isolated to a brand and not an inherent HDMI problem.
I tend to view this as more a HDMI problem, than a JVC brand problem. Check the AVS forums, a lot of people are having problems with HDMI. Sort of reminds me of the old days when USB was first introduced.
As far as you sound goes, I'm not running my audio through HDMI, but using TOS optical to my AV Receiver.