1570 and TiVo

[Chris Williams]

Hate to join the "my 1570 and HDMI don't play well together club", but I'm having real issues. I have a HR-10-250 HD TiVo connected via nothing but an an HDMI cable to my brand new RSP-1570. A good 50% of the time I get no audio. Reset all kinds of poop, reboot the TiVo, turn all kinds of things on and off on the Rotel, and sometimes I get sound back. But not today. Nothing seems to work.

It's got V18 of the Main and V12 of the software, so that's not likely it. Any ideas anyone?

[hifiguymi]

We used to have problems with the HR10-250 in the past with a number of different brands. We would loose HDMI sync, video drop outs, audio drop outs, HDD lock ups, you name it. It may be an incompatibility with that DVR and the RSP-1570. Do you have any other DirecTV HD receivers in the house with an HDMI output? If you do, try that to see if the problem persists. If not, see if the dealer has another RSP-1570 that you can borrow, like their demo, and give that a try.

Eric

[Chris Williams]

Thanks for the reply, but I just gave up. Connected it with component cables for video and optical for audio, and it works. Every time.

Funny, I have two other TiVos of the exact same model, both are connected to TVs (not AV gear) with nothing but an HDMI cable, and both have never once failed to work perfectly.

Clearly the Rotel has HDMI issues... I'll talk to my dealer, but given the torrent of posts here and elsewhere with people having HDMI issues with this piece, I doubt there is anything the dealer can do about it.

[hifiguymi]

I will be the first to admit that Rotel has had some HDMI difficulties with their preamps and receivers. Most of it has been addressed so far and they continue to do so if a problem arises. I would encourage you to try one of the other TiVos and see if the issue is still there. In my experience, one HR10-250 will work fine the the same system that a different one would not. I'm not trying to beat that piece up, but it has caused my installation department a lot of headaches. The non TiVo DVRs that DirecTV has now have been much better and when the new TiVo/DirecTV comes out in 2010 it should be better yet.

Eric

[Chris Williams]

But as you know, "try another TiVo" is anything but easy. I have to rip it out of some other (working) system, schlep it to the new place, crawl behind the gear, screw around with wiring, etc. All to prove who's at fault. And why? To tell Rotel they have HDMI problems? Don't they know that? Or to find out that my HR10-250 needs a new (expensive and hard to locate) HDMI board?

I have a workable setup, component and optical. DirecTV's highly compressed HD signal doesn't lend itself to anything more anyway.

As you note, I (and about a million other people) are anxiously awaiting the new HD DirecTV TiVo due out soon. I'll snap up 5 of them they minute they're available...

I guess the point of this thread is now to tell Rotel (if they see this) that I'm another in the crowd of "your HDMI stuff needs work" folks. I'll tell my dealer too.

Thanks for the reply.

[1oldguy]

i am thinking about the 1570 my dealers has on sale,but this thread has me thinking twice i admit.

[Chris Williams]

Overall, I really like the unit, the sound/video performance is great. The remote is difficult/cumbersome/ugly, and the HDMI issues are there to be sure. None of the devices I have that are new(er) have HDMI issues (a Pioneer Elite BluRay player and an XBox 360). Switchover between sources is slow, but not unbearable to me. Heck, you can age waiting for a BluRay disk to load in even the best players...

So it may just be older HDMI spec handling that the Rotel has issues with.

[1oldguy]

One thing that concerns me a little is the hdmi spec is about to change to 1.4 I believe.
i have the pioneer 09fd blue ray player which is also 1.3..so I guess I shouldn't be to concerned I guess If go with the Rotel.

[hifiguymi]

I wouldn't be too concerned about HDMI 1.4. It adds a spec for an Ethernet channel by increasing the gauge of a twisted pair in the cable (so that means all new cables) so if all components are HDMI 1.4 and have internet capability you only need to connect one to your network (theoretically). It also includes a second channel for doing 3D in the home and a little more bandwidth to make that work.

As I said, I wouldn't be too concerned.

Eric

[1oldguy]

will I decided for the price it was to good to let go.I went for it.

[1oldguy]

Silly question maybe but here goes.IS this unit THX certified?If not what kind of problems if any would or could I encounter?

[hifiguymi]

It's not THX certified and that won't cause you any problems that I can think of.

Eric