Any 4K A/V Gurus in here?

Trying to watch the all-star game in 4K, and I keep getting an HDCP error. Game plays for a maybe a min, the error. My tv is a fairly top of the line 4K tv. Running from dish network through my receiver to my tv. Using what I assume is an 8K rated cable. So why am I getting this error? Granted, my receiver is pretty old, so it’s for sure a weak link in my setup. But the port I’m using is supposed to be higher end.

Anyway I don’t get why it starts to play and then errors. I don’t see a setting I can change on the tv. Could it be the cable?

Any help/advice would be great, Thanks!

 

Looks like it's happened before and it could be your cable. It might also be your receiver. How old is your receiver? Does it support 4K passthrough?

https://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/intermittent-hdcp-error.391424/

 

Receiver is for sure the oldest piece but does support 4K. I have my PS5 and Xbox series X through it and supports all the different 4K HDR settings and things. Guess I could try a different cable but this one works for those devices as well. So I don’t get it.

 

Yeah, I know what you mean. Sometimes the best thing to do is to turn it off, unplug it and let it sit for 5 minutes or so. Then plug everything back in. Electronics are head scratching.

 

Try first going directly to the tv from the box, bypass the receiver. If that doesn't work, try all hdmi inputs on the tv, reboot box with tv unplugged, once back online, plug in tv. Your gremlin will show itself.

 

If your Dish unit is old then the 4K support is probably through software and not hardware decoding so I would think that is the first issue maybe.

For sure setup the shortest signal path possible and bypass everything except the Dish Box and the TV as your Home Theatre Receiver is ALWAYS trying to rescale the signal and often has issues as you are describing,ALWAYS!

On the other hand it is so simple to try different cables that I would certainly experiment with that as well.
HDCP Standards and implementation are so bizarre that I carry many brands of cables and switches and adapters on the truck always and often just swapping around will fix issues.

 

Well I went back and looked up the HDMI cable I put on it a few months ago and it doesn't list HDCP stuff anywhere in the description. I found a new cable on Amazon that looks better and says HDCP along with the HDR 10 stuff. Think I'll give that a try first and go from there. I really need to update my receiver, but I guess with the chip shortages, they haven't put out new stuff yet. I read a lot of the '19/'20 year models had issues with the HDMI 2.0/1. Hopefully they will be coming soon, ha.

 

Agree with this - generally it's cables first (EVEN IF they say 'HDCP compatible' - I've seen ones that say they are, but....aren't), then looking at other stuff such as receivers. Ours goes straight from our satellite receiver to our TV, and we've never had any issues.

 

HDCP has been a standard since the introduction of the HDMI standards and trust me you use it every time you watch your set.

The HDCP is what differentiates HDMI from the earlier DVI Spec where they were not yet worried too much about us stealing programming and HDMI with HDCP was developed to stop the steal,as it were.

Analog HD via Component Video or RGB also had no issues as there was no HDCP rolled into Analog HD but that ship has long since sailed too.

The real issue is that there are looser and tighter adherence to the"Standards" for each format and resolution and scan rate spec and there is little actual regulation between makers of the chips that let the scaling all work together.

Some cables have booster or repeater chips built in and so do many components and again they are not all compatible in the end and not much is done to fix these issues really.

Price also has little to do with all of this,I use apparent crap at all price levels and there seems to be no real path to getting things that you know will just work.

I tried to buy some Denon Receivers Yesterday and the only ones around were $200 higher priced than they are listed for and I decided to just wait until I can buy again at the list price and tell the customer the truth.
I am sure not going to pay extra for Denon junk that I seem to always have trouble with in the first place?

 

You are indeed right - while I have indeed seen/found cables *so* old they were evidently not HDCP-compatible, the ones I can clearly remember were DVI. (I use a ton of various cables @ work and have come across some seriously old stuff.)

More likely the HDMI cables I know that were 'bad', as you said, were more likely due to a mismatch between standard adherence/application between different manufacturers.

And funny you mention Denon....like the products, but my Denon receiver is what drove me to Sonos. (Used to have everything run through my Denon receiver, and sound quality was great, but I constantly had issues with video.....then realized one day that 99.99% of my sound in the house was either from the TV or from the internet via my iPhone. Replaced my sound system w/a buncha Sonos stuff and I've been super happy.)