Comments on: Apple TV and Toshiba HDMI Green Screen of Death

By: Chris D.

Chris D. — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 20:05:25 +0000

Have you tested your TV with other HDMI signals, and similarly have you tested your Apple TV on another HDTV with HDMI? I just wonder if one of the two might be faulty in any way. Would be very unfortunate if this is a widespread problem.

By: Adam

Adam — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 22:07:04 +0000

Does the AppleTV turn off with the remote if you hold down the Play/Pause button like my MacBook does?

By: As you said

As you said — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 00:14:09 +0000

As you stated, this is an HDMI deficiency, not an AppleTV problem. Keep your raging ‘EVERYTHING SHOULD WORK, OR ELSE APPLE!!” crap out of their call center and focus your nerd rage at the consortium of garbage responsible for this HDMI fiasco.

It’s a horrible interface, not well tested, with incompatible revisions and all the makings of being replaced very soon.

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 03:11:08 +0000

@chris d - Unfortunately, I don’t have any other HDMI source devices, nor do I have another set to test against. I might have to poll some of my co-workers and see who has a HDMI set at home that I might be able to try this against. But I don’t think it’s either device individually, I think that only both - in certain combinations - seem to miss the HDMI spec.

@adam - Nope. Holding down the play/pause button only puts the Apple TV to sleep. It’s not a full power-down sequence, so it doesn’t fix the problem

@as you said - Not quite sure where to start with that all, but as I’d said in my post, no one is getting my Apple TV back unless they pry it out of my cold dead hands … even with this bug. I like it too much. But your post raised my curiosity about the HDMI spec in general, and I’m reading up a bit more. Seems as though there’s a bit of controversy. Perhaps you can provide us with some good links to what seems to be wrong with the spec? Interestingly enough, it seems as though the specification was developed by a joint consortium of Hitachi, Panasonic, Philips, Sony and Toshiba Corporation (to name a few). So that makes the question even more interesting - who implemented wrong in this case … Apple, or Toshiba?

By: John

John — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 12:21:09 +0000

I have the aTV, a Toshiba HD DVD, Verizion DVR and a Pioneer DVD all playing
to a Optoma HD81 1080i front projector in my home theater.

I have seen so many issues with HDMI and the power up sequence that I fell
the interface is worthless for most applications. The concept is great - get rid off the cables - but the implementation is really weak. If I power up the Toshiba before the Optoma is ready to accept a signal I get a green screen or sometimes a
noise screen like I have no antenna on an old analog tv.

Only when I power the sources down and back on am I able to get back to watching content.

The issue is HDMI not the manufacturer of the components. Complain to
the jerks who thrust this half baked standard on us all!

By: Nick Catalano

Nick Catalano — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 16:21:13 +0000

Have you tried a new HDMI cable?

By: Cenk

Cenk — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 16:34:13 +0000

You could buy one of those extension-cables for the electricty with a switch, you wouldn’t need to pull out the connector.

By: RaT

RaT — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 18:25:40 +0000

Pressing Menu and ´-´ (volume down) should reboot Apple TV.

By: Ashby

Ashby — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 20:01:14 +0000

Not a problem with my Sony.

By: Jbatzel

Jbatzel — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 05:01:22 +0000

Hey, I have a 42″ Olevia LCD T.V. and I ran into the same problem. At first I thought it was my HDMI port so I switched it to another one and the same thing happende. So I switched cables and still the same thing so I ended up returning it and exchanging it with a new one, but yap you got it the same thing. I’m glad im not the only one running into that problem.

By: Doug

Doug — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 05:43:29 +0000

@John - Yeah, that’s what I’m quickly finding out about HDMI, especially after talking with a few friends that do professional home theater installs … they don’t speak very highly of it. Lesson learned.

@Nick - Haven’t gone out to get a new cable, as the cable obviously works (even through a 2 hour long movie) if I power things up in the right sequence. So I don’t think it’s a cable issue.

@Cenk - Funny you should mention that, that’s exactly what I was thinking of doing.

@RaT - I was hoping that might work, but that puts the Apple TV into a recovery mode. Which, ironically enough, comes up with the black screen just fine. Then when you exit the recovery mode, it goes back to green - this time, even for the Apple TV intro animation. Go figure.

@Jbatzel - Thanks for the feedback, sorry to hear you’re in the same boat as me. Sounds like you’ve swapped out everything but the TV by now … which obviously isn’t really practical for anyone. Oh well, I guess I’m going to have to live with this until I get a better set with more component inputs later this summer.

By: D W

D W — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 16:38:16 +0000

There’s a similar issue with my Sony XBR2 40″. In my case at random intervals, the whole picture flickers to a black screen and back again. I suspect that’s probably the same HDCP timing problem but in my case it can start happening at any time…

By: Zandr

Zandr — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 05:33:19 +0000

Post in the HDMI forum on AVSforum. HDMI_Org is the standards/licensing body, and they take this stuff seriously.

By: Cypherz

Cypherz — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 11:41:02 +0000

Does changing the Apple TV resolution fix it? LIke
going to atv settings and changing the resolution from 1080i to 720p
and back again fix the problem?

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 18:49:18 +0000

Hi,
I have the same problem with HDMI.
If I press the play/pause button 6 seconds to make aTV go to sleep.. then watch TV..
After a while, I can switch back to HDMI(aTV), I get a green screen. then I press play/pause button to make the aTV interface back on… still green…

The easly way to fix it with out rebooting aTV, is to go to your setting screen.
pick a different screen resolution. The HDMI will talk to each other and will fix the green screen. It will promote you the new res and ask if it’s ok or cancel. Just click cancel and aTV won’t switch resolution for you. Everything is back to normal without rebooting.

By: Apple TV - First Ten Days Review - doug - toombs - dot - com

Apple TV - First Ten Days Review - doug - toombs - dot - com — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 18:27:00 +0000

[…] the great news - I seem to have found a work-around for my HDMI green-screen bug, that I discussed in my last blog entry. I had mentioned in the video recording that I’d made […]

By: Doug

Doug — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 18:38:44 +0000

Just wanted to let everyone know who might be interested, that I’ve found a work-around to this problem for now… you can read about it at my 10-day review here:

http://dougtoombs.com/2007/04/01/apple-tv-first-ten-days-review/

Thanks to everyone for the comments and suggestions on how to fix this problem!

By: Blaine

Blaine — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 02:00:44 +0000

I’m wondering if John, who left a message in March, has had any more luck with his Optoma HD81. I have one and I’ve had a few problems with HDMI. I have a Direct TV H-20, a Toshiba A20 HD DVD, and a Samsung BDP1000 Blue Ray. The signal on my Direct TV kept cutting out on me every 15 minutes or so until I switched to component video, my HD DVD signal only has issues cutting out every once in a while and it only happens when I play non-HD DVD content, and my Blue Ray never has any problems whatsoever. Optoma told me to purchase an HDMI repeater, which I did and it did nothing but improve my picture quality slightly. John, you’ve had your projector a little longer than I have and if you’ve found a fix then I would love to hear what you’ve managed to find out.

By: doc

doc — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:59:16 +0000

I am a professional AV installer and we have tones of problems with HDMI. There is a large lie that HDMi provides reacher blacks better picture etc.

HDMI needs handshaking and was invented to help with DRM. REgular component cables can send 720 p & 180i no problem. Really does anyone need 1080p? NO not unless you are using a very large screen and projector.

We have buckets of problems with HDMI. Not defending Apple. THere are lots of combinations of TV, Video device and cable that cause the same problem or worse.

Scrap the HDMI and go back to component. Unless Apple only send 720p over HDMI then you are fine.

By: MB

MB — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 17:22:17 +0000

To call HDMI a “standard” is quite a stretch. Right now, HDMI is more of a cesspit of incompatible junk. The fact that this horrible mess is “the future” of AV components is pretty disheartening. Maybe they’ll get this ironed out after awhile, but I recommend a large amount of caution before buying any HDMI devices right now. I haven’t found a single component out there that doesn’t leave some rather important part of the spec (audio, 1080p, bitstream output, etc.) unimplemented. The pooch has been bought dinner and a movie and thoroughly screwed on this one.

By: Justin

Justin — Sun, 04 May 2008 12:19:19 +0000

NEED HELP!!! I have the same death green screen on my Samsung 50 Plasma when connecting to my Nvidia 8600 GT through DVI output - HDMI. Turning on the TV first, then the PC didn´t work out. The opposite neither. I guess there really is a handshaking on the hdmi connections because at first I got perfect image. Some days later, after turning off the pc, the green screen appeared and nothing could change it ( I´ve tried changing resolution, color output, horiz/vert sync, power on/ off…). I guess that if I could get a total reset on my TV, probably would help, but this also isn´t possible. Does anyone have any ideal on how to solve this puzzle. Many thxs in advance.

By: cam

cam — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 01:53:56 +0000

thanks a lot i had the same problem

By: cam

cam — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 01:55:37 +0000

i just turned on my playstaion first then my tv