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roboniko · 05-16-2010, 08:07 AM

Still picking apart the Zephyr. But now I am stumped. The coach came with 4 Panasonic TV's and a Panasonic home theater DVD player. When paying a DVD it works on all TV's. Everything is connected with HDMI cables and uses a HDMI distribution unit of some kind. Well, I am a BluRay freak so I bought an LG BluRay home theater player. Basically same thing as Panasonic just different brand. Hooked up via the HDMI output to feed the coach. Here is the problem now.... When turning on the player I get the boot up picture on all tv's but as soon as that goes away and the menu comes up it ONLY shows up on the main coach TV and no picture on any of the others! Now this was with a standard DVD. Why does it work on the boot up screen but no further picture?? This does not make any sense. Will call Tiffin on Monday but thought I would check here first.

FlyingDiver · 05-16-2010, 08:51 AM

I'm guessing the BD player outputs 480i or 480p during bootup, then switches to either 720 or 1080 when it gets to the menu stage. And that the other TVs are locked to 480, or maybe the HDM switcher unit can only do 480. Try setting your BD player to only output 480p and see what happens.

joe

roboniko · 05-16-2010, 03:16 PM

Thanks, will give it a try, but the main tv is playing movies just fine.

SCVJeff · 05-18-2010, 01:12 AM

This is gonna sound strange, but bare with me..

I just found out that HDMI is not just a digital distribution mode, it is a duplex communication between the host (Blu-Ray, DSS, etc.) and the client (the TV). When you turn the system on or plug things together, there is a handshake that goes on with the Host asking the Client what it is. Client says "Hi, I am a Panasonic model (whatever), here are my display modes, etc. If there is a HDCP Compliant splitter, it too will check in and let the Host know what it is.

SO... It it POSSIBLE that your new system is HDCP compliant to DRM rules (Google these acronyms), and the old system is not, which is why it worked. Try each TV direct into the DVD and see what you get?

I Just ran into this situation with a CATV box at a TV station last week when trying to do what you are doing, and this box recognized that there was something not compliant to the Digital Rights Management rules plugged in, and winked out several seconds later. IF this is whats going on with your system, you're out of luck

roboniko · 05-18-2010, 01:47 PM

Thanks, will check into that as well. Leave it up to someone to make something WAY too complicated for such a simple task.........I will post what I find.

roboniko · 05-19-2010, 06:55 AM

Spoke to Triple H Electronics yesterday. They supply Tiffin for their electronics stuff. They said that I amy need to add a HDMI Booster as the cable runs are pretty long and splitting between 4 TV's. Will give it a try and post the results. Makes sense so I hope that is it.

SCVJeff · 05-19-2010, 10:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roboniko

Spoke to Triple H Electronics yesterday. They supply Tiffin for their electronics stuff. They said that I amy need to add a HDMI Booster as the cable runs are pretty long and splitting between 4 TV's. Will give it a try and post the results. Makes sense so I hope that is it.

How did it work in the 1st place?

roboniko · 05-19-2010, 05:52 PM

With factory original equipment the DVD output was on ALL TV's, no problem..However, being the movie buff that I am and that the majority of my movies are now BluRay I chose to upgrade to a BluRay player. Unfortunately, now I only get movie output to the main TV. When first turning on the unit I do get a "Boot Up"screen that will show up on all TV's but as soon as the menu screen comes up I lose the picture on all other TV's except for the MAIN TV.

FlyingDiver · 05-19-2010, 05:57 PM

I still think it's a problem with it switching to a resolution the other TVs can't handle. Like it's going to 1080i or 1080p, but the other TVs can only do 720p, so they go blank. Change the BD player to output 720p and see what happens.

joe

JimM68 · 05-19-2010, 07:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlyingDiver

I still think it's a problem with it switching to a resolution the other TVs can't handle. Like it's going to 1080i or 1080p, but the other TVs can only do 720p, so they go blank. Change the BD player to output 720p and see what happens.

joe

I like this idea...

Where do they put 4 TV's in a motorhome?

FlyingDiver · 05-19-2010, 08:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JimM68

I like this idea...

Where do they put 4 TV's in a motorhome?

One in the front overhead, one in the living room somewhere, one in the bedroom, one in the basement. We didn't take the option for the front overhead in our coach, but we have the other three.

The HD distribution in our unit is component video, not HDMI, but it could still happen with ours.

joe

SCVJeff · 05-19-2010, 11:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roboniko

With factory original equipment the DVD output was on ALL TV's, no problem..However, being the movie buff that I am and that the majority of my movies are now BluRay I chose to upgrade to a BluRay player. Unfortunately, now I only get movie output to the main TV. When first turning on the unit I do get a "Boot Up"screen that will show up on all TV's but as soon as the menu screen comes up I lose the picture on all other TV's except for the MAIN TV.

What happens when you plug any other TV in directly?

roboniko · 05-23-2010, 03:01 PM

This is what I have found so far. Per troubleshooting form the main supplier to Tiffin, I reduced the output resolution of the Bluray player to 480i and ALL TV's worked. My next step is to add the HDMI Booster (Extender) just before the HDMI Splitter to increase the signal strength. I am confident that this will resolve the issue. As the tech stated that since there are 4 HDMI outs and coupled with the distance of all 4 the signal loss was too great and therefore not enough for the TV's to decode and display. I am just glad that I found the solution. Thanks everyone!!

Theberrys · 05-23-2010, 03:43 PM

Tim

Adding a booster right before the splitter doesn't make sense to me. The splitter is also a repeater and your boosted signals won't get any further than the splitter inputs. If one TV works after the splitter than they all should work after the splitter unless there is a lot of signal loss in the cables going to three of the sets and not the set that works and that’s just unlikely.
I have a BD player hooked up to a ViewSonic TV and with some of my old DVD disks the Menu does not show at all until I change the input from HDMI to anything else and back to HDMI. They talk to each other and must have completed the dialog in order to work. Your player isn't programmed to pole through multi sets to establish communication.

If and when your booster doesn't work.... start everything up and get the picture on the one set, then go to the other sets and change the source to something else and then back to HDMI and see if they will show the picture then.

The 480 resolution was made for progressive scan DVD players and doesn't go through the same protocols as 1080 HDMI. Signal streath is the same just the data changes.

It sounds to me more like your splitter isn't doing the four handshakes required, that's it's job. All you may have here is a bad splitter or one that isn't designed correctly.

Dick