we have a Plasma HDTV and HD DVR STB set-up, hooked up together with an HDMI cable. After about 1 week of this set up, the TV and cable box shorted out (out of no where!) there was a horrible smell of course, the electricity frying and all. it also tripped the main circuit breaker. The TV guy came and wanted to give us a replacement TV while he was replacing the "boards" in ours. I'm not sure why but he plugged the HDMI cable into the replacement TV and boom!- that TV shorted out (without the TV or STB being plugged into the wall). Verizon came and gave us a new box. TV guy came back with our repaired TV but didn't plug it into the wall. I plugged everything back together (with a new HDMI cable) and even ran the coaxial cable through my new surge protector, once i plugged it into the wall it tripped the circuit. i unplugged all the AC and just tried the surge protector with the coaxial cable through it and it still tripped the circuit. i opened the faceplate on the wall and none of the wires look shorted or touching. i ran a regular house fan off the wall socket just fine. i individually tried the TV, STB, VCR, DVD with the surge protector AC and each were fine. i then plugged them in one by one, all running fine. then i connected the HDMI cable from the TV to the STB and almost electrocuted myself, big sparks inside the STB and both the TV and STB are dead again- but didn't trip the main circuit breaker this time. neither verizon or the TV repair man can figure this out...any ideas?
My guess is the outlet the STB or TV is connect too is miswired. The STB plugs into a polarized plug, rather than a 3 prong grounded outlet. I suspect the hot and Neutral in one of the plugs has been reversed, or ground isn't connected properly.
A tech should be able to detect the problem by looking for voltage between the Neutral contact on one plug, and the Neutral lead on the other plug. Neutral and Ground are connected together at the building service entrance. So connecting two devices where one has Neutral and Hot reversed on the outlet is generally catastrophic, and is potentially LETHAL!!
When the insulation between the what should electrical ground and signal ground fails, or is inadvertently connected (what the HDMI cable probably does), you are shorting out the outlet. This results in a catastrophic (and usually spectacular) failure, as 120VAC appears where Ground is expected.
In short call an Electrician, not next week, first thing tomorrow....
The HDMI port went out on my tv shortley after I started using Verizon's DVR I thought it was a problem with my tv, now I'm wondering if it wasn't the DVR that caused it. Hmmm.... another reason why to stay away from these inferior DVRs.
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