Lost our 720 & 1080

[MelBay]

We have a Sony Bravia KLV-40U100M television. Several days ago, I noticed the picture on the HD channels didn't look great, and discovered we don't have anything above 480, even on all the HD channels, were we used to be on 1080 i or p or whatever it is....

I called Comcast, and we checked the cable box - it's set properly. Checked all the cables and they're all good & tight. Apparently it's the TV, and these 50-something idiots cannot figure out how to check and/or change the TV settings.

I called Sony and got something who did not live on the same continent as I do, and she just could not even grasp our issue. The manual says nothing about the HDMI settings (can you believe it?).

So I turned to Google and am not finding anything. What magic words should I be using?

If push comes to shove, we'll exercise our extended warranty and call the guy out to make us look even dumber when he casually flips some switch and makes everything fine again.

Any suggestions for what to look for via Google would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Timeshare Von]

You lost me on the title of the thread . . . I have no idea.

Chalk it up to another clueless 50-something!

 

[hvsteve1]

When you go into the main menu, there is sometimes a choice between 720 and 1080. Look for that.

You may also find a similar choice of settings on your cable box.

Now, let's get down to the nitty gritty. You are getting 480. That is not HD. Also, if you get HD it is normally 720p as only a Blue Ray or premium movie rental channel would have 1080. Somewhere along the line you have lost the HD. Again, the difference between standard definition (SD) and HD may be in the menu of your TV or cable box. Also, in order to get HD, you need to use an HDMI cable. I assume that is what you are using. If you cannot find any solutions in the menu, here is what I would do:

1. Call Comcast again and ask them to make sure you are still signed up for HD service. These boxes are addressable and the computer may have taken you off the HD tier.

2. If you have a blue ray player or know someone who can loan you one, hook it up to the TV and see if that gets you HD. Your laptop, if new, may also have HD video and a HDMI output which will let you hook that up to the TV.

3. Take your cable box back to Comcast and exchange it for a new one and see if that fixes the problem.

4. If both your TV and Cable Box test out as OK, have comcast check your line from the pole. A hole in the cable could be reducing your signal (just a guess). I had a similar problem that effected my internet modem and they were able to find the damaged line by putting a tester on it.

 

[Makai Guy]

You lost me on the title of the thread . . . I have no idea.

The old NTSC analog broadcast standards use 480 lines of image resolution. Standard definition on analog cable still uses this.

The current digital ATSC standards use the same 480 lines of resolution for "standard definition" pictures, and 720 or 1080 lines of resolution, depending on what is being used by the broadcaster, for "high definition".

She's saying she's lost her 720 and 1080 displays, so everything is apparently being "down-rezzed" to 480 standard definition by her TV.

 

[Talent312]

What magic words should I be using?

"Abracadabra" or "Open Sesame?"

My thought is to question whether you are feeding a HD signal to the TV.
My cable box itself shows what format is being fed to my TV - AV Receiver.
The channels are still mostly 480 with only channels in the 10-- range being HD.

Perhaps running the set-up menu on the cable box will yield a clue.
The box itself may be at fault. I've traded in two of 'em in the last few years.

 

[hvsteve1]

As a follow up...

I have DirecTV, so my box is similar but not the same as cable. Even DirecTV has a variety of boxes, depending on when you got them. On one of my boxes, you toggle between HD and SD by holding down the "exit button" on the remote. On the newer one, there are a series of lights on the front that indicate whether the box is on 480, 720i, 720p, 1080i or 1080p. To move the light, you tap a button on the front of the box. Is it possible you did something on the remote or box to change the definition without realizing it? It's not hard to hold down the wrong button on the remote or touch the wrong place o the box. You might also try a Comcast user forum at http://forums.comcast.com/ When I had Cablevision, the user forum was really valuable in solving problems. DirecTV has a similar forum. Some of the people on there are real techies.

 

[isisdave]

If you haven't, reboot the cable box by unplugging it for 30 seconds.
Also, try playing a DVD from a DVD player through the same input if you can.

 

[frankhi]

I had a similar thing happen to me and I discovered it was the hdmi input that did not work. Others did, for example component input, but did not yield as good a picutue, I thought.... the hdmi printed circuit card was about $200, if I did it myself and my diagonosis was correct. My Samsung was about 5 years old so I just bot a new one...

 

[pedro47]

I would you ask Comcast to reboot and test your cable box to see if they are working properly ?

 

[Talent312]

I had a similar thing happen to me and I discovered it was the hdmi input that did not work.

The input on the TV?
If that was the only connection, then there would be no picture at all.
In that case, usually the TV is all snow or says, "No signal."

But the OP could try a component cable connection to see if it helps.

 

[MelBay]

Well, we confirmed with Best Buy that there is no setting on this model for the HDMI - it should do an auto detect, and it isn't. In other words, if we go to an HD channel, it should be smart enough to show it to us in the right format. So we can't blame it all on our 50-something lack of smarts.

Just popped in a DVD and it popped up as 720p.

We're going to take the cable box back to Comcast tomorrow and swap it out. If there's no improvement after that, we'll utilize the extended warranty, which paid for itself long ago when the whole TV went dark 10 months after we bought it.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I always tell DH that you can ask TUGgers virtually anything and someone will have an answer.

 

[frankhi]

The input on the TV?
If that was the only connection, then there would be no picture at all.
In that case, usually the TV is all snow or says, "No signal."

But the OP could try a component cable connection to see if it helps.

yes input on the tv...the input on the Comcast cable box would be coaxial

 

[MelBay]

To close the loop, Comcast pushed out a software upgrade which caused our cable box (obscure) settings to revert to 480. Tech was here 3 minutes and it was back to normal. It's good to get confirmation you aren't losing your mind.

 

[pedro47]

I would you ask Comcast to reboot and test your cable box to see if they are working properly ?

A service visit by Comcast solved the problem. Great news!!!