Mike says that Blu-ray players have dual HDMI ports because some legacy receivers don't support the higher bit rate HDMI 2.0a standard. So you can plug into the older HDMI port instead. But then you lose 4K capability.
Vino has a problem with his TV not getting the signal from DirecTV. Leo says it sounds like a bad handshake via HDMI. The settings may be wrong. He may have to change out the HDMI cable, though. Vino should also check to see if he has the most recent firmware.
Steve can't seem to get his Amazon Fire Stick to work on his TV, but it works fine in his other TV. Leo says that the older TV may not have the latest HDMI standard and so the Fire Stick can't "handshake" with the TV. There could be a firmware update to his TV, so he should look into that. He could also try unplugging his TV, let it set for a minute, then plug in his Fire Stick and turn it back on. That way it could handshake from scratch. The other issue may be copy protection. If his TV is old enough that it isn't HDCP compliant, it could be that the Fire Stick won't support it.
Kent bought a sound bar for his older Samsung TV. He uses a Chromecast and Roku Stick with it, but he can't get audio to work. Scott Wilkinson says that the optical out for the old Samsung is probably only for the TV's internal tuner since it's older than the advent of streaming media. There could be a setting in the menus, but he's better off going with HDMI input.
Matt has a newer sound bar, and he wants to connect multiple devices to it. Leo says that the best option here is to connect it to an AV receiver, but because his sound bar is powered, it was fighting with it. He also doesn't have an optical port on his TV, so he needs to have a way to connect that to the sound bar also.
Scott Wilkinson says that he'll need to be looking for an HDMI switch as his solution. Matt should check MonoPrice.com or Amazon Basics.
Dan got a new cable box with Spectrum, but after a week he started to get an HDMI error because his connection has been "compromised." Scott says that the first thing to try is to power cycle the cable box. That will reload all the standard default settings. It could also be a faulty cable. So replacing the HDMI cable could solve the issue. Scott also says that being an older TV, the connection could be choking. Or maybe the HDMI connector could be failing.
Randy has a production company working on doing live streaming through Vmix software. It will see his USB laptop cameras, but not his regular cameras because they require HDMI out. Leo says that the Blackmagic WebPresenter is a new product designed to do live streaming from a variety of cameras. At $500, it's not all that expensive either. He should check out MonoPrice. They may also have a low cost converter.
Ryan connects his sound bar to his TV through the headphone jack and over time, it gets harder to hear. He can have it turned up to 90% and it sounds like it's barely on. Leo says that he should try changing the sound on the TV, not the sound bar. It should raise or lower it.
There may be a setting in the TV's sound settings to treat it as a line out. That could fix it. Connecting to the optical jack is the solution, if he can, because it's a fixed level.
Patrick has a PS4 Pro and he would like to know how to play those games on his computer. Leo says he can link his computer to his PS4 with an HDMI cable, but he shouldn't go over 30 feet to do it. There may not be degradation issues, but spanning an HDMI cable over 30 feet can cause more interference problems.
Miles' HDTV suffered a power outage and now his HDMI port isn't working. Leo says a power surge likely wiped out the HDMI ports. He should check if he has another HDMI input that he can use. Leo says there may be a fuse that has blown and a repair man could replace it. That could restore his HDMI. If not, it's not an easy or affordably fixable thing. A 64" plasma is worth at least trying to get fixed. The chatroom says to make sure the polarity and grounding is correct on his plugs. An electrician can test for that.
