Onkyo NR807 Issue

[Diego Garcia]

For several years I've been running Sage through an Onkyo NR807 receiver via an HDMI connection. Throughout that time I consistently ran into odd problems (e.g., Sage showing up only as a black/blank screen, sometimes full screen sometimes not, intermittent audio connection problems, etc.)

I always assumed it was something flaky in Sage. But I lived with it because it was annoying rather than fatal.

The other week, however, the Onkyo suddenly "forgot" it had speakers attached to it, and could not be reconfigured to "remember" them. Researching this online I learned about widespread HDMI problems with this particular Onkyo model. So widespread, in fact, that Onkyo is offering "courtesy one time" out of warranty repairs (my unit died about six months after the warranty expired; others have had worse experiences).

While I await an RMA number I switched my setup so Sage displays directly to my LCD TV. After I did this those odd problems were significantly reduced (maybe even eliminated, as I didn't notice right away when they stopped occurring).

Is it possible that a flaky HDMI interface could cause Sage to act wonky? Has anyone else experienced these types of problems?

[crusing]

Pretty sure everything you mentioned could be caused by the bad HDMI on the receiver. I had an HDMI port go bad on my Onkyo as well, a TX-SR606, it was less subtle then yours. Been great since they fixed it. There was some stuff that just didn't work like it was supposed to and it was all caused by the bad HDMI board in the receiver.

[ccsmoke]

I have an Integra 8.8 think I paid 2k for, equal to an onkyo 905. I haven't had those issues but certainly sounds like a bad hdmi board or cable. One of the things I noticed is the weight of the hdmi cable really put a strain on the hdmi board. So much so, that over a period of time the ends on my hdmi cable began to bend down a little bit.

I generally run thicker cables as you can run them farther than say the thin guage cables the HD300 ships with. To combat this issue I highly recommend the 90 degree port savers from monoprice as well as zip tying up the cables up to keep the weight off of the board.

As far as odd issues with sage and hdmi without the receiver in the mix. I have noticed when I unpluged the extenders sometimes it would be a green splash screen background instead of black..however when it connects to the server the colors would go back to normal. Though rare.

[Diego Garcia]

Thanx for the input. It'll be interesting to see if the Onkyo repair also fixes my Sage problems.

[panteragstk]

Those older onkyo receivers have HDMI handshake issues. Especially if you have an ATI card in the 4 or 5 series (can't remember which) that have EDID issues.

Good luck.

[Diego Garcia]

Which, as "luck" would have it, is exactly the setup I have...

Sounds like I should get a new ATI card as well as a repaired Onkyo. Thanks for the input!

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by Diego Garcia

Which, as "luck" would have it, is exactly the setup I have...

Sounds like I should get a new ATI card as well as a repaired Onkyo. Thanks for the input!

You don't need a new card. Go here and get one for your combination. It is only for the 5xxx series.

[bmh]

I have had the exact same issues and just installed an Hdmi Detective. It is suppose to store the EDID information to fix the handshake problem with HTPC's. So far, it's working great!

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by bmh

I have had the exact same issues and just installed an Hdmi Detective. It is suppose to store the EDID information to fix the handshake problem with HTPC's. So far, it's working great!

Even better. Where did you find that?

EDIT: Never mind. I was thinking it was software.