Blu-Ray/Receiver firmware issues... Novice. Please help.

[Canes305]

First time poster. Thrilled to find a site of this caliber, though letting everyone know I am in WAY over my head here. The A/V world got way too complicated for me in the early 90s and I usually rely on a friend in the business to help me. A career change has him unable to walk me through my latest issue, so I'm turning here for some expertise.


I purchased a Sony Blu-Ray player today and attempted to set it up. I have a Harmon Kardon AVR 347 receiver and was running a HK DVD player through one of the HDMI ports. Seemed a simple switch, so I swapped out the players.

Went through the Blu-Ray set up process, updated the firmware and thought all was going swimmingly.

Somewhere along the way I hit a wall and not only did the Blu-Ray not work, but the cable box crapped out as well. When I set the receiver to HDMI I for cable, it's choppy and the receiver display flickers between different audio options - as if it's searching for something, but can't find it.

When I switch to HDMI II for Blu-Ray, I get a screen full of static and the DVD player doesn't register.

From what research I've done, my guess is that the firmware on the AVR 347 is a few years old and needs to be updated. I checked the version I have the display read:

20-03-2007 02
HFW V2.2.3.2

Again, I'm a novice and have never updated a receiver. From what I read I need a RS-232 cable with D-sub connectors on each end, need to download the updates somewhere online, plug the laptop into the receiver and update. I checked the HK site and didn't seen any firmware or software downloads. Is there place where folks in the know go for the latest updates?

From what I've explained, does this sound like a compatibility issue with the receiver and Blu-Ray player? Could the firmware upgrade to the player have screwed up the cable box's compatibility with the receiver too?

If you're in my shoes what do you do?

Oh yeah, time is of the essence on Saturday morn as the wife and I invited a slew of friends over to watch NFL Playoff games and we're officially TV-less. Great timing on my part.

Appreciate the advice for a newbie and novice like myself. Feel free to post replies here or to email me.

Thanks in advance for your help. - CB

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Welcome to the Forum, Chris!

I don't have blue ray or a system new enough for HDMI, but it sounds to me like you're a victim if the unfortunate "handshake" problem, i.e., newer and older HDMI gear not fully recognizing each other. Not sure if there's anything that can be done about it, short of upgrading your receiver, but hopefully someone more knowledgeable in this topic will weigh in.

In the mean time, you always have the component video/optical or coaxial digital audio option. Not as convenient as a one-cable solution like HDMI for sure, but I recall reading on one of the home theater forums back when HDMI first came out that component video was as good as HDMI for all high-def video except for live HD broadcasts. Don't know if that's still the case or not...

Regards,
Wayne

[Canes305]

Wayne - Thanks for the news. Hopefully that's not the case.

I bought this Harmon Kardon set maybe a year ago or so. Came with a receiver, a DVD player and some speakers. A bundled set at Costco. Maybe $1,000.

Blu-Ray and HD DVD were obviously out at the time and Blu-Ray had already 'won' the war. I can't see how this set would be incompatible with Blu-Ray. I'm running HDMI for my cable box and it worked fine until last night.

Wouldn't a software/firmware upgrade for the receiver cover any changes for the sake of Blu-Ray? I can't see how the many folk who bought the same set as we would be up a river if the bought a Blu-Ray player. This is still a relatively new piece of equipment.

Also, when I unplug the HDMI cable from the Blu-Ray player and just try to go back to my cable box set up, I can't even get cable anymore. I've tried to reset the receiver, first by unplugging for three minutes and then by doing a full-on reset (holding some button down five seconds, etc.) and still nothing. Doesn't make sense.

[tonyvdb]

Hello Chris, Welcome to the Shack.

HDMI can be flaky, here is what I suggest. I am assuming that you are running HDMI from the BluRay player to the receiver first and then to the dispaly? Have you tried to run HDMI directly to the display just to see if that works?
Another issue may be that when you did the firmware upgrade on the BluRay player it defaulted to output 1080p and your receiver or display cant accept it. What is your displays native resolution? Try hooking up your bluRay player directly to the display using S-Video or composite (RCA), go into the BluRays menu and select a lower output resolution like 720p and see if that works using HDMI.

[tonyvdb]

I forgot to mention on more thing to check. Make sure that the receiver is set to output video through HDMI usually it will default to HDMI output "off"