Jitter and blackout caused by Denon AVR-1910 or HDMI cable?

[admin_exported]

Hi all,

As of this week I am a happy owner of a

Denon AVR-1910 and a
Sony BDP-S360 to replace my old NAD T770 receiver and PS3 with faulty BluRay player (grrr).

I have the following HDMI cables:

H1: cable to projector (10m) form HQproducts

H2: cable from BDP-S360 to Denon AVR-1910 (1m); Thatcable (5 GBP; what hifi product 5 star rated cable)

Setup 1
My BDP-S360 is connected w/HDMI #H.2 (video & sound), the Denon is connected via HDMI (#H.1) monitor-out to drive a full HD projector.
I can happily play Foo Fighters' latest LIVE @ Wembley Bluray without hickups.
But when I play Justin Timberlak's 'Future Sex Loveshow' the HDMI loses signals, the video and sound jitters etc.
Not fun to watch

What I did for trial and error to find the source of the problem:

Setup2
play Future Sex Loveshow picture via HDMI and change sound to Optical/coaxial

Still the same problems as described above.
I thought that maybe the bandwidth of the HDMI cable was the problem.

Setup 3

play Future Sex Loveshow via HDMI directly to projector (bypassing Denon for picture) and change sound to Optical/coaxial

Everything is okay, picture, sound 100% pure
However this is not my preferred setup, as you can imagine.

So my question is: What can be the cause of this trouble?

[*]Foo figthers BluRay is excellent across all 3 setups, so I would expect that the cable(s) are okay.[*]JT's BluRay is rubbish with setup 1 & 2
[*]Is there anything special with JT's BluRay that I am not aware of?

Could there be a fault in the Denon AVR-1910?
Or is the HDMI cable from ThatCable not that good?

JT's BluRay also played nicely with my PS3 directy connected to the projector.

Any help is appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[Andrew Everard]

I really don't know what's causing this problem, unless

a) there's something in the encoding or pressing of the JT disc causing the system to lose the digital signall from time to time

or b) the Denon receiver has some kind of musical quality filter built-in

 

[hammill]

Andrew Everard:

I really don't know what's causing this problem, unless

a) there's something in the encoding or pressing of the JT disc causing the system to lose the digital signall from time to time

or b) the Denon receiver has some kind of musical quality filter built-in

If so, the filter is broken as the Foo fighter got through.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Ah yes, perhaps you're right. Maybe the quality filter isn't working properly, or needs recalibrating...

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Andrew,

Allrighty, music taste(s) aside ;-)

If it was the something with the pressing of the disc, how can it have zero effect when I send BDP HDMI out directly into the projector?

Planet Earth BD set also plays excellent in all (my above described) setups.

I just want to be sure there is nothing faulty in the hardware.

Cheers and thanks for the quick response.

 

[Andrew Everard]

It could be momentary drop-outs to which the display device is not so susceptible, but which become compounded when the disc is played through a more complex HDMI chain.

HDMI does that sometimes...

 

[Anonymous]

I was not aware of that. Thanks you.

 

[Anonymous]

The final reply did not satisfy me 100%

So, I hooked up my Mac Book Pro via a DVI-HDMI cable (Sweex) into one of the unused HDMI inputs of the Denon.

Et voila, perfect picture!

(later I discovered that the same ThatCable caused jitter from my PS3 (streaming) and it does no do that with my other 10m HDMI cable (H.1)

My conclusion:

ThatCable 1m with the price 5 GBP pricetag, is not really as good as the magazine let me to believe.

 

[Andrew Everard]

I think the fact you've changed player means you can't really isolate the cable as the source of the problem.

 

[Anonymous]

Maybe. After I get different cables I will retest my setup and post my findings.

Thanks.

 

[Anonymous]

Got a different set of cables... and yes Andrew you were right

(expert++)

No difference. Still audio drop-outs and video Jitter with JT's and Planet Earth BluRay.

Can it be a malfunction in the Denon?

Any other suggestions of what to test to identify the real pain causer?

Thanks.

 

[Anonymous]

I happen to know the JT blu-ray and it's 1080i (not p). Maybe that triggers some strange behaviour in the upscaler algorithm of your Denon or player?.
I'm guessing the Gladiator blu-ray is recorded in 1080p...?

Regards,
~Rob

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Rob,

Thanks for your response.

I found the problem but not sure why it appeared.

During initial setup of Sony BDP, I chose HDMI with Auto selection. The disc inserted was Foo figthers (Full HD 1080p).

The BD played 100% excellent. Next JT and Planet Earth started jitter/audio dropout.

Back to BDP settings:
1. Reset to factory setting

2. HDMI -> 1080i

Now it plays okay (Planet Earth as well, which is also 1080i)
Choosing Auto (in step 2) with JT BD inserted did not present ANY output.

Any ideas why the AUTO function does not work.

Or why 1080i does not upscale to 1080p properly?