Hulp! Games work, Blu Rays don't... quite...

Playas,

I've got the MGS4 40gb PS3. I use it in Australia - my sister lives in the US so I got her to send it over. Anyway, I've had it for over a year with no problems, until now...

Whenever I play a Blu-ray movie the video flashes on and off, as with the sound. It happens every few seconds and flashes out for a few seconds at a time.

I currently have it running to an amp with a HDMI cord and a HDMI cord from the amp to the TV. I also run my 360 (don't hate me) the same way, by switching the HDMI cord between the two.

When I run a HDMI cable (either of them) straight from the PS3 to the TV, the picture shows up but there's no sound from the TV.

Games work absolutely fine with either method, through the amp or straight to the TV. I just finished Uncharted 2 the other day, in fact.

The amp has a HDMI light that switches on when it's receiving a HDMI signal. It flicks on and off with the flashes... so I guess the signal is being interrupted in some way.

I've tried playing a few discs, including a few of the Band of Brothers box set, the Deer Hunter today, and a couple of others. I've watched all of these before on the system with no trouble.

I've done the little video reset power on and configured everything on that, and double checked all my other settings. Really, I'm just having trouble isolating the problem because it shows up differently depending how I connect it. I guess it's on the PS3 side, but it's only started recently and I haven't made any drastic changes to set up.

So... any help?

Every bit of advice is appreciated. :) Thanks guys

i just got this on my ps3 slim wait a few days (2 or 3) and pm me if its not working thats all i did ans it worked

btw make a new topic i doubt you'll get anym0re replies this topic is all the way on page 4

Yeah thanks man, the problem actually started a while ago - like probably a month, and I hadn't tried to play one again until now so I don't think leaving it will work.

Cheers anyway :)

It sounds like you are having HDCP handshake issues. HDCP (high defintion copyright protection) can be used between devices connected with HDMI cables. The HDCP handshake is a communication between the two devices, where the devices approve transmission of the signal. Games do not use HDCP, but Blu-ray movies do, so that may also explain why it's happening in those circumstances.

It's appears that the TV and PS3 are not having any handshake issues, so either the amplifier and TV are, or else the amplifier and the PS3 are, or else the amplifier is having trouble forwarding the PS3 handshake to the TV correctly. Older HDMI devices (with earlier HDMI profiles) seem to have more of these handshake issues than more current products do.

The reason that you don't hear audio when you try connecting the PS3 directly to the TV might be because you are sending audio to the TV that it doesn't support (even though the receiver could support it). You should reset the audio settings when connecting the PS3 to the TV to verify this.

One way to find out if it's a handshake issue would be to connect the PS3 to the receiver using a PS2/PS3 component AV cable instead of HDMI (and reset the PS3 AV settings). This will not affect the resolution of games, but it will limit Blu-ray movies to 1080i and upscaled DVDs to 480p, but at least it does not have to rely on HDCP at all, so you shouldn't have problems with the picture going blank.

You could also test with a PS2/PS3 composite AV cable instead, but I think it would be better to use component so that your can test your system with HD video material. Keep in mind that unless you have an HDMI upconvert receiver, you will also have to run component or composite video cables from the receiver to the TV, and switch the TV input accordingly.

If using component clears up the problem, then that would confirm an HDCP handshake issue. You could try to contact the maker of your receiver to see if there is a firmware upgrade available to solve the problem. I had this issue at home with an HDMI DVD player, and ended up buying a newer player to get around it.