topic Re: Question About HDMI Cables in Electronics

Question About HDMI Cables

Jordan2 — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 21:40:06 GMT

So I switched to Verizon Fios back in March from Spectrum. My service was working fine. Back in early May there was a widespread outage from Verizon (a truck pulled some wires down) it left thousands of customers without internet, phone, and tv for over 24 hours. Since then I have had trouble with my service. I have three sets hooked up (one is a multi room DVR which is fine) the other two sets are the exact same make model and year tv. The two same tvs upon putting the tv on, the screen goes black and the sound cuts out, the other set is worse, I get flashing lines that break up the picture, the picture goes out. After a while it stops. I finally got to speak to an actual person after many tries (with Covid-19 it is extremely hard to speak to someone). She was very nice, she walked me throught switching the HDMI cables and I rebooted the boxes. It seems to have helped with one set, but now the set that was worse, when I put it on there is no picture (it flashes) it does come on after a few minutes. I'm not sure when the cableboxes were installed the tech used new HDMI cables, he probably used what was already there. So in my long post, I get to my question, do you think getting a new HDMI cable would help with the connection, if so do I need to buy a certain kind?TIA

Re: Question About HDMI Cables

Mz iMac — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 21:54:19 GMT

@Jordan2 All of my HDMI cables are from Best Buy. They have the gold tips ones. Well, I call it gold. Never an issue w/them.

If there is a Verizon store near you, take the damage HDMI cable there for a FREE replacement.

If you see a Verizon truck in your hood, do the above.

Re: Question About HDMI Cables

hckynut — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 22:02:09 GMT

@Jordan2 wrote:
So I switched to Verizon Fios back in March from Spectrum. My service was working fine. Back in early May there was a widespread outage from Verizon (a truck pulled some wires down) it left thousands of customers without internet, phone, and tv for over 24 hours. Since then I have had trouble with my service.

I have three sets hooked up (one is a multi room DVR which is fine) the other two sets are the exact same make model and year tv. The two same tvs upon putting the tv on, the screen goes black and the sound cuts out, the other set is worse, I get flashing lines that break up the picture, the picture goes out.

After a while it stops. I finally got to speak to an actual person after many tries (with Covid-19 it is extremely hard to speak to someone). She was very nice, she walked me throught switching the HDMI cables and I rebooted the boxes.

It seems to have helped with one set, but now the set that was worse, when I put it on there is no picture (it flashes) it does come on after a few minutes. I'm not sure when the cableboxes were installed the tech used new HDMI cables, he probably used what was already there.

So in my long post, I get to my question, do you think getting a new HDMI cable would help with the connection, if so do I need to buy a certain kind?TIA

Re: Question About HDMI Cables

Pezzie — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 22:02:15 GMT

I read your post to DH, and he offered the following:

He said your cable boxes are the likely culprit, and suggested you ask Verizon for new ones..

But, he suggested doing the following:

Did you try rebooting the cable box?
Also, DH suggested switching cable that is on working TV, to non working one, to see if there is a change. This way you can eliminate or confirm if cable is bad, before requesting new boxes.

Re: Question About HDMI Cables

hckynut — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 22:26:25 GMT

@hckynut wrote:
@Jordan2 wrote:
So I switched to Verizon Fios back in March from Spectrum. My service was working fine. Back in early May there was a widespread outage from Verizon (a truck pulled some wires down) it left thousands of customers without internet, phone, and tv for over 24 hours. Since then I have had trouble with my service.

I have three sets hooked up (one is a multi room DVR which is fine) the other two sets are the exact same make model and year tv. The two same tvs upon putting the tv on, the screen goes black and the sound cuts out, the other set is worse, I get flashing lines that break up the picture, the picture goes out.

After a while it stops. I finally got to speak to an actual person after many tries (with Covid-19 it is extremely hard to speak to someone). She was very nice, she walked me throught switching the HDMI cables and I rebooted the boxes.

It seems to have helped with one set, but now the set that was worse, when I put it on there is no picture (it flashes) it does come on after a few minutes. I'm not sure when the cableboxes were installed the tech used new HDMI cables, he probably used what was already there.

So in my long post, I get to my question, do you think getting a new HDMI cable would help with the connection, if so do I need to buy a certain kind?TIA

@Jordan2

Not exactly sure of what you are asking. Are the 2 TV sets you mention connected directly to the FIOS DVR, or are they some sort of wireless connection?

What source are the HDMI cables coming from, a box or what? HDMI cables have to be coming from some devices "output ports", thus directly connected via HDMI.

It sounds strange to me that 2 different TV sets would have the same problem with bad HDMI cables. Sounds more to me the problem is more related to "the source"(where the cable running to the TV set is coming from).

Could it be your that your HDMI input on your TV is not synched to the correct port, and/or you possibly selecting the wrong HDMI port when trying to watch it?

The more info you can give me the better. I am not suggesting you are doing anything wrong, I am just trying to get more specific info from you.

All HDMI cables are connected via an "HDMI Output from 1 source" directly to an "HDMI Input on another device", in this case it would be your TV sets.

Best I can do with this info,

hckynut 🏒

Re: Question About HDMI Cables

Jordan2 — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 22:43:40 GMT

@hckynut both tv's are plugged into HDMI2 which is correct. I don't see how it can be the boxes, I only have them since March 17 of this year, they are also the newest boxes they carry. I don't think the cables are new, I'm pretty sure they're the same ones that were there. Like I said my tvs were working fine from March til the beginning of May before the outage. I think I'll get an HDMI cable, they're not that expensive, it can't hurt to try. Also since I didn't purchase the $25 a month protection plan ( my bill is $210 I couldn't really afford the extra $25 a month) if the technician finds the problem isn't theirs, they charge $99 for the call.

Re: Question About HDMI Cables

hckynut — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 23:01:21 GMT

@Jordan2

Power outages are much more likely to destroy electronic devices than they do cables. We have had a lot of power outages since we have lived here.

One of them fried our Dish Network Hopper. It had to be replaced and we lost hours of DVR recordings we had saved on its hard drive. My wife went nuts, me, just not happy.

Someone mentioned to take the HDMI cable that is running to your working TV set, and try it on 1 or both of the non working ones. If you still have the same problem, it more than likely has nothing to do with any cables.

I have had HDMI cables go bad, but it's age had nothing to do with it. One our cats somehow bit through the outer insulation, which caused interference(probably a short)when watching a Bluray DVD. That HDMI cable ran from my Bluray player to the TV set.

hckynut 🏒

Re: Question About HDMI Cables

Mz iMac — Thu, 09 Jul 2020 23:03:00 GMT

@Jordan2

Verizon's FIOS cables are all underground. Their truck more than likely knocked down some electrical type wiring. Anywho.......

"it left thousands of customers without internet, phone, and tv for over 24 hours."

You should call Verizon billing. Give them the date of the outage. You will be credited/not charged for that 1 day. The credit will usualy show within 2 billing cycles. Make sure you get a CASE #. Keep it handy until you get your credit.

"if the technician finds the problem isn't theirs, they charge $99 for the call."

I do not know why they tell people that. No where on my bill statement does it state that.

I have been w/Verizon for over 15 yrs & never paid for no technition. 99.9% of issues that cannot be solved over the phone will be taken care of by an in house tech w/o charge as the fault is always theirs (old equipment, defective boxes & cables, gas company sliced an underground cable etc.)

Re: Question About HDMI Cables

Jordan2 — Fri, 10 Jul 2020 00:12:22 GMT

@hckynut the outage wasn't an electric one, I had power it was an outage of my Verizon services. I'm going to buy a cable, if that doesn't work I'll to have a technician take a look.

Re: Question About HDMI Cables

Nuttmeg — Fri, 10 Jul 2020 01:45:01 GMT

@Jordan2

When you go to Best Buy take an old cable which will help you select the correct size.

The store should have a Dynex brand hdmi cable for fair price. You can check your local store online. The cable come 6 or 12 ft. A 3ft cable is too short.

This should be a simple black cable. Please do not allow BB to sell you an expensive cable.

I buy Amazon Basics cables. This Dynex one looks the same.

Re: Question About HDMI Cables

hckynut — Fri, 10 Jul 2020 01:45:42 GMT

@Jordan2 wrote:
@hckynut the outage wasn't an electric one, I had power it was an outage of my Verizon services. I'm going to buy a cable, if that doesn't work I'll to have a technician take a look.

@Jordan2

Ok, I guess i missed understanding that in your original post. I hope you get it fixed.

I worked for over 30 years making wires and cables, many were used for underground, some even had armor type shielding covering that the typical, regular overhead cables did not. They still failed. Call it an Outage/Resistance/Continuity or a Short. The results were still the same.

hckynut(john)

Re: Question About HDMI Cables

Scooby Doo — Fri, 10 Jul 2020 03:43:58 GMT

I have Xfinity, not verizon, but I've had that issue before. One TV worked fine and another didn't. When I called their service line they somehow manually sent a signal through the box on their end and it reset the box. I first had to unplug all the connections then plug it back in, and then they sent the signal. Maybe you need to call again and try another representative.

Re: Question About HDMI Cables

debfau — Fri, 10 Jul 2020 03:57:34 GMT

@Jordan2

With Verizon Fios, they can trouble shoot thru the App on your phone (My Fios), I had to do this back in March when I tried to figure out why my internet & cable weren't working (turns out when the Tech came to hook up my new downstairs neighbors Fios, there weren't any open spaces in the box so he decided to unplug mine instead of calling and get a new line installed (but I did finally get a live person and got over a week's worth of credit for the time my service was out) - sorry I digressed you should be able to run the App and see if it shows everything is working.

Re: Question About HDMI Cables

gardenman — Fri, 10 Jul 2020 10:51:32 GMT

It's possible it's the HDMI cables as there are HDMI cables and then there are better HDMI cables. Older HDMI cables are typically the 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, etc. cables. The newer 2.0 cables and up handle 4k and other higher end signals. If while reconnecting everything they upgraded the amount of data they're sending, the older cables could be the bottleneck that's slowing everything down.

Re: Question About HDMI Cables

Jordan2 — Fri, 10 Jul 2020 13:50:04 GMT

@gardenman wrote:
It's possible it's the HDMI cables as there are HDMI cables and then there are better HDMI cables. Older HDMI cables are typically the 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, etc. cables. The newer 2.0 cables and up handle 4k and other higher end signals. If while reconnecting everything they upgraded the amount of data they're sending, the older cables could be the bottleneck that's slowing everything down.

@gardenman my sets are HD, but not 4k, will the newer 2.0 still work for me?

Re: Question About HDMI Cables

gardenman — Fri, 10 Jul 2020 14:23:51 GMT

@Jordan2 wrote:
@gardenman wrote:
It's possible it's the HDMI cables as there are HDMI cables and then there are better HDMI cables. Older HDMI cables are typically the 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, etc. cables. The newer 2.0 cables and up handle 4k and other higher end signals. If while reconnecting everything they upgraded the amount of data they're sending, the older cables could be the bottleneck that's slowing everything down.
@gardenman my sets are HD, but not 4k, will the newer 2.0 still work for me?

Yeah, the newer cables are backward compatible so that shouldn't be an issue. This may not even be a cable issue at all. A lot of what people say about the HDMI cables is more marketing based than reality-based. I've never had an issue with any HDMI cable not being able to keep up but it's supposed to be possible. Supposedly some cables let more data flow faster than others but the speed of light is the speed of light, so I'm not sure how credible those claims are.

Re: Question About HDMI Cables

hckynut — Fri, 10 Jul 2020 20:50:24 GMT

@gardenman my sets are HD, but not 4k, will the newer 2.0 still work for me?

Yeah, the newer cables are backward compatible so that shouldn't be an issue. This may not even be a cable issue at all. A lot of what people say about the HDMI cables is more marketing based than reality-based. I've never had an issue with any HDMI cable not being able to keep up but it's supposed to be possible. Supposedly some cables let more data flow faster than others but the speed of light is the speed of light, so I'm not sure how credible those claims are.

@gardenman

Thank you! My HDMI cabled are the same as yours. Cables going bad? Miniscule! Stressed this a couple of my posts, but they seemed to fall on deaf ears.

This cable is better than that one, and on and on. I made insulated wires and cables for 30 years. Sure, back then they were all copper, but the main differences were the size(gauge)of the wires/the amount of insulation covering them/the types of insulation covering them/the wall thickness of the insulation covering them/the eccentricity of the insulation covering them. And I could add a few more.

Sure, wires and cables fail, that was part of my jobs. Was an operator and a Quality Control Technician, way different jobs. My QC job was finding these before these products went out the door.

Unless someone is running 24 gauge paired wires 200 feet, or an HDMI cable 50 feet, chances are slim many issues fall back on those things failing.

hckynut 🏒

Re: Question About HDMI Cables

glb613 — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 10:31:49 GMT

Your cables are the same as when the service was working properly. I doubt this has anything to do with the HDMI cables. It has to do with your service. Contact you provider.

Re: Question About HDMI Cables

I am still oxox — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 11:11:26 GMT

Get a cable on Amazon. Pul and replace plug s do not pull all cables and expect to figure out where they go.

Re: Question About HDMI Cables

Jordan2 — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 15:23:55 GMT

So, this is weird, the same day I did the reboot and switching of the cables my tv was on ABC (channel 7). When I put the tv on I had the problem of blank screen, but it did come on after a minute or two. I left the tv on NBC (channel 4) for two nights in a row. When I turned on the tv the picture came on immediately. I'm wondering if the problem lies with ABC 's signal? I have had problems with ABC before (I live in NYC I don't know why I would have a problem with them). I have a portable type of tv I just bought. I scanned for all channels I can receive, ABC was not one of them that I could get. At this point I may hold back on buying new HDMI cables.