My HDTV adventure...Scientific Atlanta 8300HD DVR and HDMI

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I wanted the digital cable signal to be passed through the SA 8300HD DVR directly to my Sony KDL46XBR2 using HDMI. The component connection forces the 8300HD to convert the digital signal to an analog signal. The reason I wanted to use the Sony's XBR processor to perform the conversion is that the Sony's Bravia Engine Pro should do a better job than the 8300HD. After I got HDMI to work, I can vouch that the picture is noticeably crisper that with the component connection.

The 8300HD has a very nice wizard which lets you setup how you want it to send output to your TV. It even helps you validate if your TV can handle the signal. The wizard is accessed by powering the 8300HD off and pressing the Guide and Info button simultaneously on the front panel. The wizard is easy to use and self explanatory, however if you want additional information a user guide is available here.  The unfortunate thing is that the in order for the media industry to accept the transmission of a pure digital signal from one component to another (HDMI), they wanted copy protection. This copy protection was added and is called HDCP. The problem is that there does not seem to be an easy way for vendors to test HDMI and HDCP  interopability between components (how about a WIFI type certification...). I went ahead and used the wizard using my HDMI connection to my TV. All the settings seem to work during the wizard process, but once I exited the 8300HD reverted back to 480i (Standard Definition) even for HD content. After a long Sunday scouring the forums, I came to the conclusion that I may be forced to use a component connection which has no copy protection, however there was one post on the AVS forum which pointed me in the right direction. Going through the wizard process using the component connection and then using the HDMI connection for normal viewing. I setup a component connection, performed the setup and the HDMI connection worked. It was allowing the TV to view the native resolution of the video being received by the 8300HD. SD channels were being viewed at 480, HD channels were being viewed at 720p or 1080i. The were however two noticeable problems:

1. Every time their was a resolution switch,s the channel switching was very slow. It seems the HDCP handshake between the 8300HD and the TV is not smooth.
2. Sometimes during the resolution switch from SD (480) to HD (720 or 1080), it looks like the TV rejects the HDCP handshake and displays snow. The weird thing is that by switching the TV off and on, the video displays correctly at the right resolution.

The wizard provides 6 different pass through settings(1080i, 720p, 480p Wide, 480i Wide, 480p, 480i), to reduce the display lag time between channels switches, I just picked 1080i, and 480i. I chose 480i since Comcast transmits all SD channels in 480i. I will let the TV perform the wide screen adjustments. ABC and Fox transmit in 720p, I chose to let the 8300HD upconvert them to 1080i. This is a digital to digital conversion and the quality of the image should not be affected. The snowy screen does not always happen and although it is inconvenient, I can live with it for now. Especially since I am not even sure I want to keep Comcast.

Another issue is that the component and HDMI outputs do not work simultaneously, although I have read that some individuals have it working. This presents a problem with my SlingBox which I connected with component inputs. I can't use it if the TV is on. I may have to switch back to S-Video, more on that tomorrow.

Comments

[rockstar]

I have been dealing with the same issues, with one more. The sound through my tv won't pass through to my stereo unless i use HDMI. Generally the 8300hd is passable, but the res change thing is a pain and the fact that it is running the pioneer software refuses to allow it to passthrough untouched as you mentioned. The SARA software from scientific atlanta which does run on some of these boxes does allow that, pity all the providers don't let it happen.

[Stephen Skarlatos]

It is pretty clear that they never tested the box or the software with high end setups. That is pretty sad, hopefully Cisco can be bring some testing discipline to Scientific Atlanta, although you then have to rely on the cable companies to release the software updates and that is a whole other story...