V+ box vs HDMI

Technology 1 Sleepypete 2

This one's an additional to the post below ... Got my HDMI leads today and hooked them both up. Turned the V+ box back on - instant trouble ...

I could get a picture through to the telly but the picture would blank to black screen every 5 seconds or so. Just as if the lead was connecting-disconnecting. Cue the logical problem solving step sequence ...

Blu-ray player through HDMI - ok. This proves that one lead and that input into the telly are ok.
Swap the leads over, use that lead&socket for V+ - no joy
Put Blu-ray into the HDMI socket & lead I'd first used for the V+. Blu-ray happy.

Try hooking the laptop up to the telly via the HDMI leads, this is happy too. A little fuzzy though when watching Day of Triffids Part 1, possibly because I was watching in the laptop's native resolution of 1600x900 instead of 1080p which is 1920x1080, there's always a little mushyness that comes in when you upscale an image.

This proves that the telly is ok and the two leads are ok, so the problem is with the V+ box. I then have a peek online for V+ box problems with HDMI, not as much reported as you'd think but there's still reports out there telling of faulty HDMI sockets in the Scientific American V+ boxes. Ho hum.

Time for Plan B ...

Which involves going for the Component Video solution I mention in the original post. 5 leads instead of 1, which is a bit of a pain to wire up but when it's done you can hide the wires out of sight. It does sadly mean I don't get the full 1080p thing but 1080i ain't so bad. Looks pretty darn good at the moment cos I'm halfway through the second episode of Day of the Triffids. It's better than watching it from the laptop iPlayer, sharper and much more detailed.

(Plan B should really be ringing up the Cable Guy to get me a 100% working order cable box but that's not really an option cos it'll take me a few days to clear what's recorded on it)

So - Technology 1 Sleepypete 2 and I have a spare HDMI lead I can use for hooking up laptops to tellies which will go in the laptop bag.

PS Another "additional" to the post below - Star Trek dvd quite happily plays back at 1080p through an HDMI lead, so that's a confirmation on Component being limited to 576p only due to DRM restrictions.