My 15 yr old Floor Model Died...The Roller Coaster Ride I Have Been On, Please HELP

First, let me say by reading this, I THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. I was directed here from another forum. As a near last resort, I am seeking help from anyone here that can help.

It all started Sunday. I was watching the game on my 15 year old wooden floor model TV. Say what you want, but I LOVE my tube tv. The picture was dynamic! I have digital cable connected to the floor model, and that is split onto another tube TV in the kitchen. I also have a tube tv in my bedroom connected to over the air DTV. Picture looks GREAT!

So the floor model died. I always said, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Since it broke, I finally decided to get a LCD HDTV. Did some research and decided on the Vizio VO370M 37" 1080P. Looked great in the store, great reviews, and great price. SOLD! I get it home, plug it in, turn it on, and...

It looks TERRIBLE! The picture is fuzzy, dull. My over the air free digital looks better than this! I was told I needed better connections and HD cable.

I pick up an HDMI cable and Cox Cable gave me the Motorola DCX3200 cable box (I reserved the componet cables Cox gave me for my DVD player). I set it all up and call Cox to "activate" the cable/HD channels. The regular stations came in much better, and the 700s (all the HD channels) came in BEAUTIFULLY!!! I was so happy! I got up to pee and when I can back in the room...

the screen turned blue and it flashed "no signal"

:crying:

What happened? Suddenly I went from having HD quality channels on every channel, back to the dull fuzzy channels.

So I pressed the input button on the remote, went to HDMI and after it searches for a signal, it comes back saying "no signal" with that evil blue screen.

Now, I do get all my cable channels. And I *do* get the 700 HD channels. Only, they are ALL coming in like CRAP! :banghead:

I rebooted the TV, cable box. Tried turning on the TV first, then cable box and vice versa. Tried a new cable box and a new HDMI cable. Still nothing. Called Cox Cable and they are sending out a tech tomorrow. :huh:huh:huh

I *know* the TV can play better. I hooked up my DVD player with the component cables to the TV and after pressing the component input on my remote, the dvds play flawlessly.

Could there be something wrong with my HDMI ports on the TV itself? The TV is 2 days old. It was working when I initially installed the HDMI. :what:

I am so at a loss right now. I am still mourning my poor floor model TV, and now I have to deal with this TV that is not living up to its potential. :crying::crying::crying:

:helpme

Wait and see what the cable tech finds out tomorrow. It sounds like a bad cable box/connection. You can always just use component like you are using with your DVD player. Just as good of HD/SD picture as HDMI in most cases without the handshake issues. Hopefuly it is not the TV, but if it is, at least it is under exchange/warranty. Good luck and let us know what the cable guy says/did.

HDMI cables and Cable boxes are a bad match. I have Sammy HD tvs and I use red/green/blue component cables on all the the tvs with the boxes. Picture quality is equal to HDMI as broadcast tv maxes out at 1080i and component is fine with that, and you will avoid all the HDMI handshake, security, encryption problems inherent with HDMI.

Just go switch over to component cables, calibrate your tv to how you like it and enjoy.

UPDATE:

Well my friends, I just watched Law & Order SVU in HD!!

I stayed up late last night, doing alot of research on the HDCP protocol/HDMI handshake issue. I came to the conclusion, at 2AM, that my problem was the cable box and HDTV were not "handshaking". This morning, I called Vizio and explained everything, how I changed cables, boxes, etc and still were not getting HD. He told me that it definately sounded like an HDCP issue. The only remedy would be to use component cables or change the cable box.

Fast forward to this afternoon. Cox Cable came by and gave me a new HD/DVR box. Nice box, by the way. When it still wasn't working, I told him, "Don't you have to adjust the output on the box to at least 720p?" He changed it to 1080, but there was a green stripe. I was told cable does not output in 1080 yet, the highest you can even get was 720p.

The picture is GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!!! When the cable guy left, I changed the output to 1080 and was able to get rid of the green stripe by simply adjusting the h/v position.

I hooked up the DVD player via component, but now I have to pick up some RCA cables tomorrow in order to output to the TV so I can record television on DVD.

I was able to keep both new component cables from the old HD boxes, and I have the new ones set up with HDMI. I am VERY happy!

The funeral for my floor model Magnavox will be held on Sunday, exactly one week from the day of its death.

Thanks for all your input, guys!