FIOS DVR/STB set to 1080P, occasionally TV will start displaying it in 480P

[jt710]

Have had the same FIOS STB and TV since I moved.. about 8 months ago.

No issues for 7+ months... have had the STB set to 1080p, TV set to 1080p.  No changes.

About a week or two ago, I noticed the TV picture was skewed.  Saw the TV was displaying in 480p.  I checked the FIOS STB... it was still set to 1080p.  I changed the STB to 1080i, back to 1080p.. and voila, TV is now broadcasting in 1080p... until it isn't.  Upon power up, the issue will return -- but not always.

I've seen some people reference an HDMI handshake issue where one thing (STB/TV) powers on/off before the other.  Any idea why this would start recently?

Is the TV on its way out?  Is the STB on its way out?  Did Verizon change something?  Could it be as simple as the remote batteries getting weak, thus causing a slower power on/off for the two devices?  I have changed the HDMI cable.. so I suppose changing the remote batteries is next.

Any thoughts?

[CRobGauth]

What model STB do you have?

Do you turn it off or leave it on all the time?

[jt710]

STB is VMS1100

Always turn both TV/STB off.

[CRobGauth]

No reason to turn VMS off.

Try leaving it on.

[jt710]

I do run analog sound to external speakers.. so it'd be a **bleep** to turn them off seperately as they have no remote support and Verizon removed the secondary power outlet capability from the STB.

Still doesn't explain why this started happening out of the blue.

[jt710]

Changing the remote batteries didn't do squat.  Neither did changing the HDMI cable or rebooting the STB.  TV firmware is latest and greatest.  Found some odd "link" setting on the TV for the HDMI, unsure if that was on/off before.. it was on, so turned it off... thinking maybe it was accidentally switched.

I suppose I can try a different HDMI input on the TV next.  Outside of that, unsure what else there is to do... I have to assume Verizon changed something or am having a gradual hardware failure.

[jt710]

So I stumbled upon a forum post w/ reference to a "hidden" menu... hold the 'D' button the remote down for 5 seconds...  Allows you to access a "User Settings" menu with some additional HDMI settings, which I assume are auto generated.

Some of them didn't make sense... it had DVI for DVI/HDMI instead of HDMI... and some other weird settings... I set that DVI/HDMI to HDMI and the color mode to RGB.. Not sure if this will help or even save.

Edit:  Nevermind, this seems like a backdoor into the basic settings.. which resets upon powerup.. probably.

[jt710]

Still haven't gotten anywhere w/ this... the issue presented itself today.

Using the hidden "D" menu, I surfed around the diagnostics and saw that the EDID modes for 1080p were correctly reported while the box was outputting HD channels in 480p... while the issue was present.

This leads me to believe the problem is the box and not the TV, but I'm really not sure.

How can I get anyone at Verizon support to understand this?  Is there anything else I can do to try and diagnose / troubleshoot?

[jt710]

Anyway, I gave in and called Verizon support.  Amazingly, I got someone in the states that was actually helpful.

Was walked through a "Cold initialization" which seems like a factory reset.. so we'll see if this fixes the problem.

[jt710]

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@F_PK wrote:

Verizon Support!  Ya gotta be kiddin!

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Got a better idea?  Would love to hear it.

Anyway, the cold init didn't help.  I have a callback sched on Wed evening... will be demanding a new box.