HDMI stopped working on my HD DVR yet AGAIN!
ak2009
Enthusiast - Level 3

I've been a FiOS Internet customer for years now and I love it! However, it's been less than a month since I signed up for FiOS TV and I'm already repenting for it. I signed up because of the "superior" HD delivered via Fiber Optics etc. Yet from the first day, the technician warned me that the HDMI will not work because of a BUG in the motorola DVR and there is no solution for it. If it works, great, if not, sorry about your luck!

Well, day 2 and the HDMI stopped working, green screen on my 61" Panasonic LCD HDTV and all kinds of messages! FiOS TV support were lame, but they came back to replace the HD DVR. I come home to find the technician replace the box with a similar defective piece and hook up the system using component for video and composite for audio! HORRORS! The sound quality had degraded beyond recognition, and the picture quality on my large screen was noticably bad.

After many hours, and many phone calls with the tech support, I was assured that Verizon/Motorola was releasing a firmware upgrade that would fix the HDMI malfunction. I waited for April 14th, (the upgrade release date) but there was nothing different. Finally, they sent another technician with a "new and improved" box that would work! No such luck. He went on to prove that my HDMI cable that had worked flawlessly with DirecTV for 2 years, was faulty. So he replaced the HDMI cable, got the box to work and was off. 

Well, 2 days later, back to square one. Green screen. HDMI integrity compromised message etc. By now I was so frustrated that I was ready to cancel the stinking "superior" HD from FiOS. More phone calls, no progress. This time round they had the nerve to tell me that my TV was defective and I should contact Panasonic to figure out why HDMI does not work! Talk about shifting blame from this faulty buggy DVR to a TV that has worked flawlessly for years with DirectTV and DVD players etc.

As I read this forum and others on the net, it seems that this issue has bugged customers since 2005! Pretty much every other DVR out there is either superior or has more hard disk space than the verizon motorola box! Has anyone else here had these issues? I've tried looking at the other threads, but the forum does not allow me to reply to those so I can't find if anyone has actually seen Verizon do anything about this defective DVR nonsense. I feel I've been cheated into paying top dollar for an obsolete piece of junk. Please help if you can. A very frustrated and sitting-on-the-fence customer!

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Re: HDMI stopped working on my HD DVR yet AGAIN!
CharlesH
Specialist - Level 1
Getting component cables will fix your issue completely. It also doesn't JUST happen with FiOS TV, it happens to other cable companys that use motorola boxes.
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Re: HDMI stopped working on my HD DVR yet AGAIN!
Jeff1512
Enthusiast - Level 3
For the time being... can't you use component cables for the video.... and optical cable for your audio from the settop to your amplifier?  That will keep the DD 5.1 in digital format.  The component cables vs. HDMI picture quality is not that noticable at all.  for HDMI, the digital video is converted by the TV, and component it is converted by the settop, then sent to the TV.  Not that big a difference.   I agree, Motorola should work to resolve this issue - but for the time being, this will help you.
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Re: HDMI stopped working on my HD DVR yet AGAIN!
CharlesH
Specialist - Level 1

You are right Jeff.  Some customers report that the colors are actually better with component cable (RED, GREEN, BLUE).

If you don't go with optical, you will need additionally the red and the white audio cable in addition to the component cable.

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Re: HDMI stopped working on my HD DVR yet AGAIN!
ak2009
Enthusiast - Level 3

On a scale of 1 to 100 for volume adjustments, I have to crank up the volume to 75 just to hear regular speech with I use the red and white cable for audio. The sound is completely degraded. With HDMI cable I only needed to get the volume up to 50 and I could hear crisp clear audio.

For component video, have you seen how SD quality looks on a 61 inch HDTV? Horrible. With HDMI it converts it so it looks much better. Yes, I would say that component displays RGB better, but at the loss of detailed pixels. You can see the colors but at a loss of finer detail. And believe me, this is very noticable on a really large TV.

I guess, I will have to settle for second best picture quality. And I'll have to get an optical cable for volume. It just seems that Verizon promises to give you the best, and after you signup, you're stuck with compromised quality and Verizon will do nothing about it.

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Re: HDMI stopped working on my HD DVR yet AGAIN!
CharlesH
Specialist - Level 1
It's still 1080i, don't confuse component with composite. 
Message Edited by CharlesH on 04-23-2009 10:45 AM
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Re: HDMI stopped working on my HD DVR yet AGAIN!
mrcolon
Newbie

This is a common problem that has been shown to be a problem with the Motorola chips used in the DVRs. The problem just happens to be exacerbated with Samsung TV’s.

 

The use of switching receivers (HDMI home theaters) is going up so the problem is showing up more with those now.

 

I have been searching for a new receiver and this problem is in my list of requirements.

Note that it is too expensive for Verizon to replace all the DVRs so it is up to us users to buy compatible equipment.

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Re: HDMI stopped working on my HD DVR yet AGAIN!
ak2009
Enthusiast - Level 3
Also, blaming Mototola for the issue is not the solution to the problem. If Verizon is using Motorola DVR's and charging it's customers for those boxes, then it's Verizon's problem. Verizon should push motorola to get their crap working. I'm not a motorola customer. I'm a FiOS TV customer. As far as I'm concerned it's Verizon that's supplying us defective DVR's and causing us heartburn over the issue. It's not our job to get mororola to fix the DVR, it's Verizon's job to do that.
Re: HDMI stopped working on my HD DVR yet AGAIN!
ak2009
Enthusiast - Level 3

@mrcolon wrote:

This is a common problem that has been shown to be a problem with the Motorola chips used in the DVRs. The problem just happens to be exacerbated with Samsung TV’s.

 

The use of switching receivers (HDMI home theaters) is going up so the problem is showing up more with those now.

 

I have been searching for a new receiver and this problem is in my list of requirements.

Note that it is too expensive for Verizon to replace all the DVRs so it is up to us users to buy compatible equipment.


Mr.Colon, you note that it's too expensive for Verizon to replace all the DVR's so it's up to us users to buy compatible equipment! Come on man, are you suggesting that we should throw away our Panasonic HDTV's that cost us $2000 and our Onkyo 5.1 Home Theaters that cost us $1000 and that its not expensive for us to replace our equipment? Just because Verizon/Motorola cannot get their act together?

Please. I beg to differ. If anyone needs to replace/repair equipment, it's Verizon/Mototola, no one else! That DVR probably only cost a hundred bucks to manufacture. We have invested thousands of dollars in buying industry standard and up-to-date equipment. Yet Verizon/motorola keep selling obsolete technology. I'm sorry, this is VERIZON's problem and they are the only one's who need to fix it!

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Re: HDMI stopped working on my HD DVR yet AGAIN!
mrcolon
Newbie

I agree with you completely.

I am just stating what the reality will be as there are too few of us with problems and Verizon does not acknowledge the problem (and has not for over a year).

It is always the TV or receiver that has the problem. 

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