Sky Q V1 to V3 HDMI handshake problems

NathR

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I've read every thread I can find about this far from uncommon problem but wondered if anyone can throw some light on my particular issue.

A couple of months ago I had a 5 year old faulty V1 Sky Q box replaced with a V3 version, ever since I've been having an absolute nightmare with HDMI handshakes. The engineer couldn't get it to work at all so just left me with it which wasn't a great start.

My setup comprises of a Panasonic 50AX802B screen, Pioneer LX701 AVR, Pioneer LX58 BluRay player and a PS4 Pro, everything is connected to the amp with only the screen connected directly to the amp.

Since the new Q box I've been having to wait anywhere between 30 seconds and 10 minutes (seriously!) for it to connect. No pattern of turning things off/on in a certain order or leaving the Sky box on constantly seems to have improved the situation by much if at all. Switching off HDMI control on the Sky box seemed to speed the connection up but then the box kept defaulting to 1080i resolution for some reason (which in itself seems to improve the situation).

The one thing which has helped massively is to leave my Panasonic TVs HDCP setting on 2.2 instead of auto. The only downside with this is if I want to use the amps built in Deezer app or Airplay (something I do regularly) I have to manually change the TV setting to 1.4, which is a pain as I regularly switch between listening to music and viewing the Sky box. It seems like the problem is that my TV goes around in circles and is incredibly slow at working out which setting to use. This was never a particular problem with the V1 box however.

I'm wondering if this scenario is enough to point to a potential cure before I start unnecessarily replacing HDMI leads etc etc. I did read that adding a powered HDMI splitter between the box and the amp can fix it?

Any help greatly appreciated.
 
Could be complicated. Firstly I wouldn't look at using any kind of HDMI splitter, it's not something that you need and I can't see how it would help.

You say that you switched off HDMI CEC on the Sky box, have you disabled it (including Viera Lnk) on everything else? If not, do so. As you have everything connected to the amp, I assume you do not use ARC, so there is no need to use CEC, and it causes all sorts of issues. Your Sky box however should not default to 1080i, and this prevents you viewing any UHD content on Sky so you need to set it to 2160p 8 bit or 10 bit, depending on the TV. Before doing so however, do a hard reboot of the Sky box, switch off at the mains and leave it off for 10 minutes before powering up again.

Other than that, then changing cables is your next option. They don't need to be expensive, you can get inexpensive certified premium high speed cables from Amazon. Ensure that they are <5M.
 
I can't see where you've tried to connect the sky box directly to the tv, have you? The issue may well be with the amp...
 
Many thanks for the input.

The HDMI splitter resolution didn’t fill me with confidence either hence not trying it. I believe the theory is that the amp handshakes with this more reliably than the Sky box. It seemed to have worked mostly for people with Denon AVRs though.

Anyhow, I’ve turned off all things HDMI control/CEC and so far the connection seems faster and more reliable. I occasionally used the ARC function to play USB content from the TV as it seems to support more file types than any other device but I can live without it. It’s a shame to lose the control function for having less remote controls laying around but not the end of the world, I’ve also lost Pioneers PQLS connection to the BD player but not sure if this is of any noticeable value.

Due to my particular layout it’s not an easy job to swap cables so fingers crossed this solution lasts, thanks again.
 
Many thanks for the input.

The HDMI splitter resolution didn’t fill me with confidence either hence not trying it. I believe the theory is that the amp handshakes with this more reliably than the Sky box. It seemed to have worked mostly for people with Denon AVRs though.

Anyhow, I’ve turned off all things HDMI control/CEC and so far the connection seems faster and more reliable. I occasionally used the ARC function to play USB content from the TV as it seems to support more file types than any other device but I can live without it. It’s a shame to lose the control function for having less remote controls laying around but not the end of the world, I’ve also lost Pioneers PQLS connection to the BD player but not sure if this is of any noticeable value.

Due to my particular layout it’s not an easy job to swap cables so fingers crossed this solution lasts, thanks again.
Pleased to hear that has helped. HDMI CEC is the spawn of the devil, and the root of so many issues that people post about on here - if it was up to me I would ban it ! Obviously the functionality to switch everything on/off with one button is very useful, but only if it doesn't cause all sorts of problems!

Personally I have found the introduction of a Harmony remote the solution to the jumble of remotes on the coffee table, and it does much more than just switch everything on and off with one touch.
 
Agreed on both HDMI-CEC and Harmony.
 

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