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Toshiba TV vs TVOnics Freeview PVR


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Old 10-12-2015, 13:56
cp2
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My cousin, who is in her 80s has a Toshiba TV and a TVOnics Z500HD Freeview PVR that do not seem to always get along.
Occasionally she switches on the pvr and then the tv and the tv picture cycles between blue and black screens as it attempts to establish a connection. I have assumed that this is a hdmi handshaking problem and if you leave it long enough (!) it would get there.

She has tried changing the order in which she switches things on, and switching mains power off and on, but the problem recurs apparently at random. Once communication is established things are OK though.
Unfortunately I live too far away to just pop around when this happens.
I have fitted a scart lead as an emergency connection but the picture blinks on and off slowly, not a good sign.

When it comes to such things I probably know enough to be dangerous. She has mentioned looking in Yellow Pages and calling someone in to look at it but I don't think that this will help.
To my mind if she finds this unmanagable the only solution is to change either the pvr or the tv but pick the wrong one and you have wasted the money.

Has anyone got any suggestions as to possible reasons for this and things to try?
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Old 10-12-2015, 14:05
AlanO
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My cousin, who is in her 80s has a Toshiba TV and a TVOnics Z500HD Freeview PVR that do not seem to always get along.
Occasionally she switches on the pvr and then the tv and the tv picture cycles between blue and black screens as it attempts to establish a connection. I have assumed that this is a hdmi handshaking problem and if you leave it long enough (!) it would get there.

She has tried changing the order in which she switches things on, and switching mains power off and on, but the problem recurs apparently at random. Once communication is established things are OK though.
Unfortunately I live too far away to just pop around when this happens.
I have fitted a scart lead as an emergency connection but the picture blinks on and off slowly, not a good sign.

When it comes to such things I probably know enough to be dangerous. She has mentioned looking in Yellow Pages and calling someone in to look at it but I don't think that this will help.
To my mind if she finds this unmanagable the only solution is to change either the pvr or the tv but pick the wrong one and you have wasted the money.

Has anyone got any suggestions as to possible reasons for this and things to try?
I'd suspect the TVonics is failing - possibly a PSU problem as they were fairly notorious for that. Given you've changed the connection to a SCART one and there's still a problem, it suggests one of the sources is at fault.

I had a Toshiba PVR (which was a Tvonics rebadge) and it suffered a hardware failure after about 3 years.

I'd suggest replacing the PVR with a Humax (which is what I did) and has been fine.

Humax sell their refurbs directly for £90 they currently have a Freeview HD with 500gb hard drive. http://www.humaxdirect.co.uk/hdr-200...gb-22351a.html

The TV, incidentally, is probably a rebadged Vestel (as most Toshibas seem to be).

The only other thing I'd ask is whether there is a Blu Ray / DVD player attached and if there's any problem when using that - if that works OK, they you can probably assume it's not the TV (as it will be accepting a signal OK from another source) and increases the likelihood it's the PVR.
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Old 10-12-2015, 14:07
Will_Bee
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Is HD cable damaged?

Is HD socket on box or TV slightly faulty.
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Old 10-12-2015, 14:08
Philip Wales
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I would also tell her to stop unplugging things, leave the things plugged in and in sleep/stand by
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Old 10-12-2015, 14:24
cp2
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I am aware of the TVOnics psu problem which is usually gives a message about the hard drive. I recently changed the psu anyway because of this message. I have also changed the hdmi cable just in case.
There is also a bluray player attached which I think works ok but I haven't always been there to test it at the time of "failure".
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Old 10-12-2015, 14:47
chrisjr
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HDMI handshaking can be a pain. It is often better to turn the TV on first and let that sort itself out then switch on the peripheral device(s). Handshaking seems to work better that way round but there are no guarantees. But in my experience switching the peripheral device on first then the TV is more likely to give problems.

I presume the TV has it's own tuner and can receive Freeview independently? In which case try and get her to wait until the TV is showing a picture from whatever channel it was last on then switch on the PVR. It could be that switching the PVR on too early before the TV has sorted itself out properly could be contributing to the problem.
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Old 10-12-2015, 15:40
AlanO
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Is HD cable damaged?

Is HD socket on box or TV slightly faulty.
The OP already mentioned he'd connected them by SCART to workaround but it was still causing problems - which is why I suspected the PVR as the likely culprit and asked whether there was also a DVD / BR player attached.
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Old 10-12-2015, 16:38
cp2
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Thanks for your efforts so far but, as I feared, there is no obvious answer. I would agree that a disciplined approach to the order in which equipment is turned on would probably reduce the chances of the "failure" occurring but any disruption in viewing is a concern to her.
I have the same model of pvr connected to my tv without problem but this means little.
In the meantime I have decided to try a different make of pvr to see whether the problem persists - a Humax as previously recommended in this thread.
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