Home Cinema/HDMI - Catastrophic System Failure!!!

[admin_exported]

OMG!!! Where to start?

I called home to my wife (I work abroad) and she gave me the bad news... a lightening strike caused a black out and killed the phone switchbox for the whole neighborhood. Our DSL/Phone/TV box was also fried, it is one unit that handles all three functions (called FreeBox, a major provider in France).

She tells me there's no TV/Bluray/DVD/M-Media HDD/AV reciever... Nothing is working. ARGGGHHH!!!!

Ever try to explain troubleshooting to your wife over the phone??? Well... It wasn't easy, but we finally were able to establish that the TV, Bluray player, DVD player & M-Media HDD are all functioning correctly with analogue connections.

The TV is NOT recognizing any HDMI signals. The Yamaha RXV3800 is not playing any audio when connected via HDMI, but our generic DVD player has an HDMI out and when connected to the Yamaha we have audio... which led me to believe the HDMI cables were screwed.

She re-tested everything with a good HDMI cable (borrowed from a friends Home Cinema) same results. Reset all equipment to factory settings... same results.

The RXV3800 audio and video HDMI inputs signal flows only to HDMI out so I can't really do much more testing (she can't).

But, based on the fact that the Yamaha is recieving and playing HDMI audio from one source... and the fact that the TV is NOT recognizing ANY HDMI inputs, I am assuming the problem is limited to the TV's HDMI interface.

Does this seem right? How come the HDMI is the only thing having problems after what must have been a hell of a jolt! (although none of the breakers or fuses in the house blew???)

I'm also troubled by the Bluray not playing back on the Yamaha. We should at least have audio... Nope, not even with a CD...

I will be back home next week and will be working on this... All the equipment is under waranty, but since it doesn't all come from the same vendor, I want to avoid the possibility of each one saying the problem is the other guy's...

Any ideas, comments, suggestions will be appreciated.

Kit list is in signature block.

Thanks everybody

 

[The_Lhc]

You're going to try claiming for a lighting strike under warranty? Good luck...

I think you need to be looking at your house contents insurance.

 

[Anonymous]

Well... since nothing is black & smoldering... and it seems like the only problems are HDMI related... I won't be running to the insurance company yet.

I am wondering if anyone has any troubleshooting suggestions or even an explanation why a power spike would only affect HDMI & not the analogues?

Any ideas?

 

[Anonymous]

Oh, I forgot to mention that the DSL/Phone/TV box was replaced and all that stuff is working now.

Also the the lightening strike was not to my home, but rather to the phone company's equipment down the street, which blew everybody's phones out.

Like I said in the OP, no breakers or fuses were tripped (including the ones in the power strips) so I still can't understand how it would have only affected the HDMI connections?