I have a Samsung 50" HD Plasma - HPS5053
I had a Motorola Comcast HD digital cable box and ran component cables from the cable box to the plasma with zero issues. I then purchased a Monster HDMI Ultra 1000 cable and after swapping it out with the component cables I started having problems. ALL the HD programming came in perfectly fine but any non-HD channels now had vertical letterbox lines. So instead of the black boxes on the top and bottom I now had them on the left and right side of the picture. It's basically a 4:3 picture on a 16:9 screen without the stretch. I switched the cable box between 720p and 1080i yet the black boxes never left. So I reverted back to the component cables yet the black boxes stayed!! I called Comcast and they did some lame testing and naturally passed the buck and told me it was my plasma. I have read my plasma's manual front to back and gone through all settings without any luck. I watched TV like this for the next month.
I then decided to upgrade to a Comcast HD DVR this week. I hooked up the DVR cable box (Motorola again) via component cables and suddenly I had full screen on my non-HD channels again!!! The new DVR box however did not have DVI to HDMI so my Ultra 1000 cable would no longer work without an adapter and I am not a fan of adapters. I went and purchased a Monster Ultra 800 HDMI cable for the new DVR cable box. I plug it in and like magic the vertical black lines show up again. I then put the component cables back in and the vertical black boxes are still there no matter if you are 720p or 1080i.
Why on earth does the cable box give me the black lines only after plugging in HDMI? and why can't I go backwards to component? Once I plug in HDMI I seem to be done for. Can I reset the cable box? I was hoping someone had an answer on this forum before I called Comcast yet again. I'm sure they will blame my plasma again.
Thanks
I had a Motorola Comcast HD digital cable box and ran component cables from the cable box to the plasma with zero issues. I then purchased a Monster HDMI Ultra 1000 cable and after swapping it out with the component cables I started having problems. ALL the HD programming came in perfectly fine but any non-HD channels now had vertical letterbox lines. So instead of the black boxes on the top and bottom I now had them on the left and right side of the picture. It's basically a 4:3 picture on a 16:9 screen without the stretch. I switched the cable box between 720p and 1080i yet the black boxes never left. So I reverted back to the component cables yet the black boxes stayed!! I called Comcast and they did some lame testing and naturally passed the buck and told me it was my plasma. I have read my plasma's manual front to back and gone through all settings without any luck. I watched TV like this for the next month.
I then decided to upgrade to a Comcast HD DVR this week. I hooked up the DVR cable box (Motorola again) via component cables and suddenly I had full screen on my non-HD channels again!!! The new DVR box however did not have DVI to HDMI so my Ultra 1000 cable would no longer work without an adapter and I am not a fan of adapters. I went and purchased a Monster Ultra 800 HDMI cable for the new DVR cable box. I plug it in and like magic the vertical black lines show up again. I then put the component cables back in and the vertical black boxes are still there no matter if you are 720p or 1080i.
Why on earth does the cable box give me the black lines only after plugging in HDMI? and why can't I go backwards to component? Once I plug in HDMI I seem to be done for. Can I reset the cable box? I was hoping someone had an answer on this forum before I called Comcast yet again. I'm sure they will blame my plasma again.
Thanks
