New ATV problem: is it the device or my setup?

[BigMacIain]

I bought a new ATV today to replace my 1G, which has been showing signs of being on its way out (GPU problems).

My set up is a Samsung plasma 1080i, not 1080p, and a Pioneer AV Receiver. My old ATV was connected via HDMI to the receiver, so I simply unplugged the HDMI cable from the old ATV and connected it to the new one.

The first thing I noticed was that blank screens, between selections where there is no signal coming from the ATV, would flicker. Not black to white but black to dark grey. Then I noticed there was no sound from the clicker when using the remote. Finally, when playing a movie I saw both symptoms together. There was no sound and when scenes changed and the screen should have been completely black, it was flickering black/grey again.

The ATV is re-boxed and ready to go back to the store but something is niggling at me that it may not be the ATV itself but something in my setup that doesn't like the new device.

Anyone recognize any of this at all?

 

[balamw]

Does it do the same thing if you connect it directly to the TV?

It's possible the receiver or one of the HDMI cables isn't compatible in some way.

B

 

[xraydoc]

There's been some reports of trouble with certain TV models. Google should have some info for you. I think the ATV2 software update helped with some of these; make sure yours is up-to-date. Plug it into another TV if you can to verify it's working and the software is updated.

 

[BigMacIain]

My TV only has a single DVI input, so all my devices connect by HDMI to the receiver and the receiver connects via an HDMI-DVI cable. I have access to another ATV2, so I think I will try that to see if the same problem exhibits itself.

 

[maclook]

You've run into a popular problem regarding HDMI to DVI connections. Some have tried this switch and said it worked:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10110&cs_id=1011002&p_id=4088&seq=1&format=2
I have yet to make the plunge to find out if it works or not. My 1G ATV works flawlessly with an HDMI-DVI connection so it's disappointing my new 2G doesn't. Some people said that a December software update fixed their issue so I'm hoping for a future update to fix my problem.

Here are some links to Apple discussions
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2656697&start=0&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2597397&tstart=30

Hopefully this is the same issue since your blank/black/grey screen seems to be fairly unique.

 

[BigMacIain]

Here are some links to Apple discussions
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2656697&start=0&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2597397&tstart=30

Hopefully this is the same issue since your blank/black/grey screen seems to be fairly unique.

Those don't look like they're related to my problem. When the ATV is processing video, the image is crystal clear. It's only when hitting those blank interludes that the flicker happens. A good example id the Adjustment Bureau trailer. There are short fragments of scenes with momentary gaps between them. It's during those gaps that the flickering happens.
Also, none of this explains the lack of audio.

 

[Hammie]

My TV only has a single DVI input, so all my devices connect by HDMI to the receiver and the receiver connects via an HDMI-DVI cable. I have access to another ATV2, so I think I will try that to see if the same problem exhibits itself.

Try using the HDMI-DVI cable directly to the TV to see if the flicker issue gets resolved. As far as sound, go to Settings > Audio & Video and make sure the Sound Effects is turned on as well as Dolby Digital is set to either Auto or On.

The last thing I would try is a different cable. Just to rule things out. Maybe even a re-seating of the cable will work. I doubt that it has anything to do with HDCP, but that may also be something.

Oh, one other thing. Do you know what version of HDMI your receiver is. There is a slight possibility that it may be a version compatibility issue, i.e., v1.2 and v1.3.