The little weekend project last week was in the pile of electronics we now call a “TV”.  Tivo has replaced the need for the VCR.  iPod has replaced the need for the jukebox.  The new TV has aboiut 5 signal inputs, so running everything to the receiver first seemed silly.  It seemed like time to recable everything after removing the now obsolete components.  And, those HDMI cables replace about 5 other cables in the wiring scheme (3 video, 2 audio) so I thought I’d give them a try.

HDMI cables were a big waste of time.  While the concept is good, the problem is the HDMI interface also includes some kind of digital handshaking between the components connected in an effort to prevent copying of content illegally.  While I have no need to copy illegally (plus, it’s illegal), I ran into some kind of problem with this digital rights management handshaking which shut down Tivo.  There are no tools on either the TV or the Tivo box to monitor or control the HDMI channels – if the handshaking fails it disables them.

In the end I dumped the HDMI cables and used the component video and stero audio.  The picture and sound are just as good so it isn’t worth trying to debug the digital channel.