Need some help - poor picture with sony str-dh810 AV receiver

by Simon
(Bristol , England)

I've recently purchased a sony str-dh810 av receiver. Its got 4 hdmi inputs on the back which i have the virgin media cable box , xbox, playstation and blu ray player plugged into. I then have another hdmi from the tv out on the receiver to the tv (hdmi4) slot. TV is a samsung led 37" - think it's ue375100.

At first all i could get was sound through the receiver but no picture from any device, then after playing around with the receiver i have now managed to get the blu ray working perfectly with picture and sound but the consoles and virgin media cable box also have sound and picture but the picture has this red dot static interference on it. I've tried using different hdmi outputs on the tv, swapping cables around but nothing - cant get rid of the red dot static.

Just about to tear my hair out, so close yet so far. Any help on ideas or tips to try to get rid of the red dots would be appreciated.

Hi

There's a couple of things I would try (although you may have done this already).

Firstly, try connecting each device directly to the TV, and ignore the AV receiver for the moment. Do you still get the problem?

If you do, then the AV receiver is unlikely to be the cause.

Secondly, disconnect all the devices from the AV receiver, and re-connect one at a time. Start with the Blu-ray player, and remember which ports and cables you connect with. If this still looks ok, disconnect the Blu-ray player and connect another device using the same ports and cables.

This may help you to narrow down where the problem might be coming from.

Hope that helps.

Paul (Site Editor)

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Need some help - poor picture with sony str-dh810 AV receiver

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poor picture with sony str-dh810 AV receiver
by: Simon

thanks for the help paul , when connecting each device just through the tv i have no problems at all. its only when i have everything going through the receiver that i have the static picture (except for the blu ray where the picture is perfect).

would using hdmi v1.4 cables have any affect on the picture quality? or do you think its perhaps a resolution setting on either the tv or receiver that's causing the below par picture?

at the moment i've resolved the issue by plugging everything back into the tv and running just one optical cable from the tv to receiver. so i'm obviously not making the full use of the receiver but im still getting surround sound.

Picture Issues
by: Paul (Site Editor)

Hi

I would still do some more troubleshooting first. It will be easier to find the solution by pinpointing where the problem might be occurring.

It looks like it may be related to the AV receiver if direct to the TV is ok for all devices. However, it might be a hardware fault - or some settings.

So what happens if you unplug the Blu-ray player (which is working) and connect another of the devices via that same HDMI input cable instead? So same connections all the way to the TV, just a different input device at one end. Does the picture go wrong again?

If you connect the Blu-ray player into any of the other HDMI inputs on the AV receiver, is the picture still ok?

There isn't such a thing as a 1.4 HDMI cable, just 'standard' (category 1) and 'high speed' (category 2) - regardless of what you may read on the packaging!

Most new HDMI cables these days will be high speed - and if you are getting a good picture with a high definition Blu-ray signal, then your cables will be fine for the other devices you have mentioned.

All the best.

Paul

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