In article ,
Sofa Slug wrote:

Although AT&T SHOULD be able to provide you with a problem free HDMI
connection, this may actually end up being a non-issue. Both HDMI and
Component inputs (not composite - that connection is for SD only) will
provide you with an HD picture. Component connections use 3 RCA cables,
color coded red-green-blue, and/or labeled Y-Pb-Pr.

HDMI is technically capable of a better picture than Component, but
because U-Verse (& other cable providers) typically deliver a compressed
picture, the source material may not be of high enough quality to where
HDMI will make a difference over Component. You may actually get a
higher quality picture via the Component connections, since the
Motorola/Cisco boxes apparently have a black level problem with HDMI.

Three thoughts he

(1) It's not all that uncommon for some HDCP source devices (e.g.
cable boxes) to have difficulty negotiating properly with some
HDCP sink devices (e.g. TV sets) - a particular combination of
source and sink can fail to work, even though the same source box
works with different sink devices just fine (and vice versa).

Try exchanging the cable boxes (or TVs) between den and living
room, at least temporarily. See whether the problem goes away
entirely, or moves with one device or the other. If a U-Verse
box fails to work with more than one TV model, then you should
ask/insist that AT&T replace it.

(2) Switching to component video may result in a loss of some HD
programming. There are an increasing number of programs being
sent over cable and satellite which have DRM restrictions flagged
in them, which mean "No unprotected high-definition output of this
program is permitted". A program which can be shown in high-def
on a properly-secured HDCP device may be barred from display over
component video... or, the set-top box may display it after
down-sampling it to standard definition.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
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