TV vs DVD signal difference.

TinkerTrouble · September 8th, 2009, 09:50 PM

For about a year I have been running a DVD player through a HDMI cable to a HDMI-DVI adapter into the DVI port of a Niko monitor. Worked fine.

Today I set up Verizon FIOS TV box in place of the DVD player. It also uses a HDMI cable to a HDMI-DVI adapter into the DVI port of the Niko monitor. But this does not work.

It shows the TV picture for about a second and then shows Noise for about 2-3 seconds; and just cycles between the two.

I expected this work. So what's the difference between the video signal from the DVD vs that from the TV box?

BTW, the audio is not affected. The audio does not come in via the DVI port, of course; I have L/R audio feeds out of the TV box to the Niko monitor's audio input port - sounds good enough. Just the video is messed up.

evereddie · September 8th, 2009, 10:26 PM

I guess you do not have an HDMI input on the TV? The reason it doesn't work it due to the fact that the cable box wants to 'shake hands' with the TV. HDMI cables do much more than send video. It talks back and forth and the cable box must not like being plugged into the dvi adapter. One of the units is probably trying to set resolution and the other is not cooperating. Can you run component video to the TV. RED,BLUE, GREEN wires?

TinkerTrouble · September 9th, 2009, 12:26 PM

The Niko monitor has only vga and dvi ports. The DVD Player supported none of those, but it did have an HDMI output port. Using the HDMI - DBI adapter worked, evidently, because I had a dumb box talking to a dumb monitor.

I brought in 2 different monitors; 1 using a coaxial connection and the other Yellow/Red/White RCA plugs. Both of these worked fine. It's a shame neither of these is the monitor I prefer to use (large enough, LCD thin, and already mounted). Any idea whether or not I could find an adapter to go from coaxial or RCA to vga or dvi?

Thank you, evereddie, for your insight into HDMI functionality.

evereddie · September 9th, 2009, 12:49 PM

What cable box do you have. There might be a way to force the box to stay at a fixed resolution and play nice. There is a good chance of this actually.