Mystery - TV With No Sound

[Latexman]

Mrs. Latexman called me yesterday at 9 a.m. No sound on the family room TV. That's never happened before. It was fine the night before. I told her call the cable company and see if they are having issues. That's usually the problem. That afternoon, she said still no sound, and I've tried everything the cable company said, three times. "Please look at this when you get home" in her SWMBO'd voice.

When I get home, no sound. I check the settings, the volume, the connections, everything. All good. I grab a small TV from the guest BR and bring it in right beside the problem TV. Plug in the small TV AC, unplug the HDMI from no-sound TV and plug it into small TV. Sound! Ah ha, problem with TV. Out of curiosity, I unplug the HDMI from small TV and plug it into no-sound TV. Sound! Now I'm lost. That HDMI had been in and out of it's connection a dozen times today. The wife did it, My youngest son did it. I did it. What the hell just happened? It had sound all night.

Good luck,
Latexman

To a ChE, the glass is always full - 1/2 air and 1/2 water.

 

[MintJulep]

What does the other end of the HDMI plug into?

 

[ivymike]

I don't know about your TV, but I had a very similar problem with my desktop PC and a Jongo S3 speaker. In the end I took the speaker to the garage and spiked it against the floor like a football. It made some sound when I did that, but I didn't bring it back into the house.

 

[LittleInch]

As it's a cable box providing the audio you might just have accidentally told the box to mute. There is a single pin for what they call CEC - basically a comms port between your TV and the cable box. When you switched TVs is somehow reset itself?

That's the mystery of infrequent faults - you just can't work it out, but now you know the work around...

How many remotes do you have / use? One for the TV and cable box combined or two different ones?

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[Latexman]

MJ - The cable box.

IM - that will definitely end the problem.

LI - The mute button on the cable box was toggled/pushed/mashed/etc. a few dozen times before the sound mysteriously reappeared. Two remotes - one for TV and one multipurpose one for cable box and TV. Both remotes were used repeatedly to mute and unmute. Nothing worked. I'll go with it somehow reset itself. Maybe connection to a different impedance did it.

SWMBO just shook her head when I told her I didn't know how I fixed it.

Good luck,
Latexman

To a ChE, the glass is always full - 1/2 air and 1/2 water.

 

[IRstuff]

Take the win...

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

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[MintJulep]

I guess the cable co suggested rebooting the cable box.

HDMI seems to actually be two-way communication. TV's actually tell the HDMI source "I'm on and listening to your input, wake up and send me something".

In your case it seems the audio portion of that communication went awry.

If and when it happens again you might try just plugging in to a different HDMI input on the same TV.

 

[dgallup]

I had nearly the same thing with my cable box & AVR on Sunday. I had added another pair of speakers to make it a 7.1.2 setup. While doing that the entire system (~10 different components) had been disconnected from power. Then I ran the Audyssey room correction software so I knew every single speaker was working. While I was prepping dinner I had FM music on, it played from every speaker and in zone 2 & 3 (dining room & bed room). When I tried to watch the Sunday night football game there was NO sound. I got the picture on the TV, I could switch back to FM and play music but the football announcers were completely mute. Some might call that a good thing but I wanted the sound. I went through all the menus looking for something I fouled up. I powered things on & off, switched inputs, eventually switched the cable box from live feed to replay a show I had DVR'd and bingo the sound came on. Switched back to the game & I had sound. Why? I have no freaking idea. Something in the HDMI handshake didn't work until it had to "renegotiate" is all I can think of.

----------------------------------------

The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.

 

[waross]

If it wasn't a bug it may have been a gremlin.

Bill
--------------------
"Why not the best?"
Jimmy Carter

 

[Latexman]

MJ - good advice. The TV has 4 HDMI's. Thanks.

Good luck,
Latexman

To a ChE, the glass is always full - 1/2 air and 1/2 water.

 

[Latexman]

Just don't get the gremlin wet, right?

Good luck,
Latexman

To a ChE, the glass is always full - 1/2 air and 1/2 water.

 

[dik]

or feed it late at night...

Dik

 

[LionelHutz]

HDMI does have a bunch of background 2-way communications stuff that happens. So, likely a bug in the negotiations that happen.

 

[Latexman]

Thanks. When I plugged it into a new TV, it started anew at step 1 and cleared the bug. Next time, I'll try a different HDMI port on the Family Room TV.

Good luck,
Latexman

To a ChE, the glass is always full - 1/2 air and 1/2 water.

 

[itsmoked]

Most of the time I pump the video from my laptop into our Samsung flat screen via HDMI. Every couple of nights while watching the tube, up will pop this annoying box that covers the middle third of the screen proclaiming 'WEAK OR NO SIGNAL' while the screen continues showing the content perfectly clearly. That $&*@#%@ box will stay there until I fetch the TV control and cycle thru all the video inputs back to the one I'm using.

It's not clear to me that you tried this particular solution but it might work for you too.

Oh, and the cable box is a complete pile of logical vacuum and frequently needs its power cord unplugged for 60 seconds to get it back on track. You might try that next time too, as that is completely different from a box "reset".

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[IRstuff]

I Chromecast anything from my laptop that I want to see on the TV.

Last night, it was Alma Deutscher, who is an amazing young lady whose latest version of her opera based on the Cinderella story will premiere in December. She's ONLY(!!) 12 years old, plays piano and violin, sings, composes, AND has perfect pitch.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

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[Latexman]

I cycled through some of the inputs, maybe not all them. SWMBO rebooted by cutting power, that's the easiest way for us. Just push the off switch on the surge protector.

Good luck,
Latexman

To a ChE, the glass is always full - 1/2 air and 1/2 water.

 

[GregLocock]

One catch with longer HDMI cables is that you may have to plug the right end into the TV. We had one cable that appeared to kill the TV, then I read the instructions (hot tip for experts) and found that there was a source end and a TV end.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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[Artisi]

sometimes I wish mine didn't make any sound, would save me a lot of breath and less stress on the vocal cords.

It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. (Sherlock Holmes - A Scandal in Bohemia.)

 

[Latexman]

Good to know. The end on the cable box is hardwired into it.

Good luck,
Latexman

To a ChE, the glass is always full - 1/2 air and 1/2 water.