# Sharp SE94U + TiVoHD + HDMI = Bad news



## Caesarv (Apr 5, 2008)

I have a new Sharp 52SE94U TV and a new HD TiVo. When I use HDMI to connect the two, occasionally the TV blanks out for a bit, displays a message of "Receiving auto control signal now" and then finally the video returns. This happens when changing channels, or just after fast forwarding/backing up TiVo. The delay is about 5 seconds. This is very annoying when you just want to back up a few seconds.

However, *this is not the worst part!* About a third of the time, the audio will completely disappear and never return until I change channels or make other changes. Of course, it works just fine using the component video, and yes, I have tried another HDMI cable.

I took my TiVo to the store where I bought the TV and tried it on their 46-inch version of the same TV and saw the same results. I then plugged the HDMI cable into another TV and it worked just fine.

I assume this is an HDMI handshake issue. I have reported this to both TiVo and Sharp but both tend to (somewhat) blame the other. I am not sure who to blame, but I tend towards Sharp as this TV has just hit the streets in the last month. I would love to hear from another person with a similar setup. Alternately, it would be nice to find someone in the Santa Rosa, CA area that can loan me (or swap) their TiVo for a few minutes to see if it just my particular TiVo that is bad.

Anybody have any other ideas? You can even see a 1 minute video of this happening: http://64.142.124.30/tivo


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## worachj (Oct 14, 2006)

What output format are you using on the TiVo? Native, 1080I, 720P? Try using a different output format and see if that helps.


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## acvthree (Jan 17, 2004)

Double check that you have the latest firmware for the TV. If that is the one that has the Ethernet connection, supposedly engineers can download the latest.

Also, just for grins, you might want to try one of the other HDMI ports, but I would suspect firmware on a newly released TV like that.

Al


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

HAve you tried a different HDMI cable to rule it out? I've had a couple of bad HDMI cables in the past that caused some handshaking and audio issues. Once the bad HDMI cable was replaced the problems disappeared.


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## Caesarv (Apr 5, 2008)

I still need to try another cable. I have tried two, but they were both the same brand. 

This problem happens on both Native and 480i (although the message is only displayed when using 480i). I think it happens in all modes....the audio just occasionally gets lost.

I hope they release new firmware, but I am afraid I am on version 1.0 and there is no update.....yet. I have already found 2 or 3 bugs.


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## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

Does your Sharp support 480i over HDMI? Mine doesn't but it is an older model. Try 1080i or 720p fixed.

The only time I've seen the behavior you mentioned on my older Sharp and an S3 is with an HDMI switch in between. It wouldn't happen frequently, but it was annoying when it happened. With the switch in place, I found if I had the TV on a non-HDMI input when I turned it on, then switched the TV to the HDMI input (that had the HDMI switch attached), then all the negotiations would go through properly.

I simply added a command to my shutdown sequence to switch to the component input prior to sending discrete off and I've never seen the issue again.

Also do not discount the theory that your cable is bad or that particular HDMI input is bad. The same bad cable can work fine for one setup but not another because the receiving equipment has different circuitry to account for marginal signals. Also obviously some HDMI ports can be bad, even though it is rare.


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## acvthree (Jan 17, 2004)

You might want to check, if you haven't, on www.avsforum.com in the flat screen section and ask if anyone knows anything about the firmware on that TV.

Al


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## Caesarv (Apr 5, 2008)

Yes.... I have tried all 3 HDMI inputs; all are the same....besides, it also happens on another similar model.
I will try to borrow another HDMI cable today.
I have posted *many *messages on the AVS forum that deals with this particular model, but have yet to find anyone using it with an HD TiVo. The TV is just too new! I have talked to Sharp and they have confirmed that there is no new firmware. I made sure that they know about this issue, so I am hoping that they will fix it. It would be nice if someone else can confirm this since a single source is always questionable.

I deal with firmware issues every day. I would never recommend revision 1.0 of anything. However, this is the price we pay for being on the leading/bleeding edge.


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## Lrscpa (Apr 20, 2003)

I have a similar setup - an HD TiVo and a Sharp 52D64U set. I recently changed my TiVo resolution from 1080i to Native, and I see the info in the upper right corner when switching channels with different resolutions - say from 1080i to 720p to 480i.

I will occaisionally get the "Receiving auto control signal now", but never does it lock out the sound or cause the screen go black. Since the 52SE94U is a pretty new set (part of me wishes I waited for it), it may be a firmware issue with the TV. 

I second the recommendation that you check out avsfourm.com.


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## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

Caesarv said:


> Yes.... I have tried all 3 HDMI inputs; all are the same....besides, it also happens on another similar model.
> I will try to borrow another HDMI cable today.


Have you tried having the TV on a non-HDMI input when you are turning it on, then switching to the HDMI input? ie change the input to component when you shutdown. Turn off the TV for 30 seconds (so it goes into real shutdown), then turn on the TV (should still be on component input), then switch to HDMI input?

As I mentioned above, this completely bypassed a similar issue I was having when my S3 TiVo was connected using an HDMI switch. It forces a full HDMI auto config.


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## Caesarv (Apr 5, 2008)

Okay....tried a third HDMI cable (different brand); no change.
I also tried what sfhub suggested; also no change. 
bummer.
I agree with lrscpa....I think this is a firmware bug


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## Joybob (Oct 2, 2007)

Go component and never look back.


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## Gregor (Feb 18, 2002)

acvthree said:


> You might want to check, if you haven't, on www.avsforum.com in the flat screen section and ask if anyone knows anything about the firmware on that TV.
> 
> Al


http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1016274

Similar problem reported here with the TV and a DVD player.


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## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

That's (relatively) good news IMO. If it doesn't work for both a BluRay player and HD TiVo, that will get things moving even quicker at Sharp.


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## Caesarv (Apr 5, 2008)

Joyboy, 
While component works fine, it means that I no longer have those inputs available for my DVD player. So that has to now go onto S-Video. What was going to go onto S-Video now has to go onto composite. Etc.

While the TV has two component inputs, the other one is on the side and I (read wife) do not want the cables sticking out the side. 
Besides, I bought this because it has 3 HDMI inputs and I expect them to work!

Gregor....thanks for that link...I will join in.


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## Gregor (Feb 18, 2002)

Caesarv said:


> Joyboy,
> While component works fine, it means that I no longer have those inputs available for my DVD player. So that has to now go onto S-Video. What was going to go onto S-Video now has to go onto composite. Etc.
> 
> While the TV has two component inputs, the other one is on the side and I (read wife) do not want the cables sticking out the side.
> ...


Glad I could help, you might want to link this thread over at AVS, too.

Good luck!


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

what if you leave the tivo to output fixed resolution?

I have a 3 year old aquos and if I let the tivo switch resolutions i sometimes get that lag, but I just put it on fixed 720p to match my display and I'm all set.

(my tv is smaller so the quality of the tivo scaler compared to the tv scaler is pretty irrelevent at my viewing distance)


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## acvthree (Jan 17, 2004)

The Tivo scaler is not bad. I think for most people, they would not be able to see the difference.

Al


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## Ed_Hunt (Jan 2, 2004)

I have a Toshiba 62" DLP and have many of the same issues you describe. I switched to Component and havn't had any problems at all. Leads me to think it might be the HD Tivo rather than different make TVs doing the same things. Just an observation.


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## Caesarv (Apr 5, 2008)

Michaelk,
That was a good suggestion. I did not know I could set it to a fixed output at the resolution I wanted (I failed to scroll down enough.)
I tried it, but sadly, I still have the same problem.  The audio still disappears occasionally.


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

Caesarv said:


> Michaelk,
> That was a good suggestion. I did not know I could set it to a fixed output at the resolution I wanted (I failed to scroll down enough.)
> I tried it, but sadly, I still have the same problem.  The audio still disappears occasionally.


there's a setting for audio that might help that-

someone help me out.

I think its that you can set the output audio to pcm or DD 5.1. My aquos like one flavor and not the other. I'm vaguely recalling that the aguos likes pcm and can't decode 5.1 on it's own (the speculation when i found the issue was since it doesn't have 6 speakers they didn't bother to put in a decoder to make so many channels). The tivo will output pcm (which I guess is stereo?) except when it gets DD5.1 it will send that to the aquos and the aquos chokes on it.

Poke around in the audio settings on the tivo for something like that. I might be forgetting completely the facts or confusing things but there is a setting on the tivo for audio that makes it play better with my aquos at least.

i think on other sets people have used hdmi to dvi converters to strip the audio off the hdmi cable and then used an alternate audio input also. So that's another option if your tv has inputs to handle that.

it took me a few days, maybe a week, to figure it out but since i got the right settings I've not had any significant problems with hdmi at all. Maybe 3 times in the past year I've had switch inputs to re-sync but that's it. So unless Sharp went backwards (i guess a possibility) then you should be able to get it to work.


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## Caesarv (Apr 5, 2008)

MichaelK said:


> ....So unless Sharp went backwards (i guess a possibility) then you should be able to get it to work.


*Well, this suggestion seemed highly unlikely, but damn if that didn't solve all my problems!* I would kiss you but I don't go that way!

The setting to use is "Dolby Digital to PCM". Not only did that solve the lost audio, it also eliminated the 3-5 second black screen. I tried for 15 minutes to get it to hiccup, but it was solid.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I will report this back to Sharp; maybe that will help them to solve this issue...since it should work on either format. If nothing else, you have probably saved countless others from similar headaches. Lets just hope they can search on the right words to find this post. I will also mention this in the Sharp forum on AVSForums.

You are a god!

Keywords: Sharp Tivo 46SE94U 52SE94U 65SE94U Audio lost


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## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

Caesarv said:


> *Well, this suggestion seemed highly unlikely, but damn if that didn't solve all my problems!* I would kiss you but I don't go that way!
> 
> The setting to use is "Dolby Digital to PCM". Not only did that solve the lost audio, it also eliminated the 3-5 second black screen. I tried for 15 minutes to get it to hiccup, but it was solid.
> 
> Thank you, thank you, thank you! I will report this back to Sharp; maybe that will help them to solve this issue...since it should work on either format.


That sounds like a bug in the HDMI autoconfiguration. The way it is supposed to work is the TV indicates what audio it is able to accept over HDMI. TiVo is supposed to take that list and select audio that is compatible.

So either the TV is saying I only accept PCM and TiVo is ignoring it, or the TV is saying I accept DD5.1 incorrectly (since it doesn't accept it), or it does accept DD5.1 and DD5.1 processing is broken. Most TVs will not accept DD5.1 over HDMI.


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## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

MichaelK said:


> i think on other sets people have used hdmi to dvi converters to strip the audio off the hdmi cable and then used an alternate audio input also. So that's another option if your tv has inputs to handle that.


A passive HDMI->DVI converter wouldn't strip audio since audio is embedded with the video on the same data lines.

If you are talking about pure cables and adapters, HDMI->DVI->HDMI looks no different than a straight HDMI cable. Exact same lines are connected.


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

Caesarv said:


> *Well, this suggestion seemed highly unlikely, but damn if that didn't solve all my problems!* I would kiss you but I don't go that way!
> 
> The setting to use is "Dolby Digital to PCM". Not only did that solve the lost audio, it also eliminated the 3-5 second black screen. I tried for 15 minutes to get it to hiccup, but it was solid.
> 
> ...


it's always nice when my ramblings actually help someone.

glad it worked for you.


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## modelbauer (Apr 27, 2005)

I'm getting the same message (receiving auto control signal) when changing
channels. Using Sharp TV and Directv Satellite.


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## victtoria (Feb 2, 2011)

If I use an hdmi cable for my monitor how do i get rid of the sound? I have seperate speakers and an HDMI cable which I know is not just video but also sound... So how would I get rid of the sound that comes with attaching the HDMI cable to only enjoy my speakers?


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## victtoria (Feb 2, 2011)

If I use an hdmi cable for my monitor how do i get rid of the sound? I have seperate speakers and an HDMI cable which I know is not just video but also sound... So how would I get rid of the sound that comes with attaching the HDMI cable to only enjoy my speakers?


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## evanborkow (Mar 17, 2008)

victtoria said:


> If I use an hdmi cable for my monitor how do i get rid of the sound? I have seperate speakers and an HDMI cable which I know is not just video but also sound... So how would I get rid of the sound that comes with attaching the HDMI cable to only enjoy my speakers?


There should be a setting on your monitor to turn off or mute the speakers.


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