How to keep HDMI out "awake" in home theater pc?

[david914]

I've recently put a PC together for my home theater system and have a problem with the HDMI out. The HDMI out from the video card connects to my tv via a 4x2 matrix switch. The problem is, if I switch from the PC to another device (TivO or blue ray player), the video from the PC is gone when I switch back. Sometimes I can coax it back, but more often than not, I just get a black screen.

Any ideas on how to keep the HDMI signal from disappearing?

BTW, it's an Intel Core Duo, Windows 7 Pro, ATi Radeon 4000 series video card

 

[ronintexas]

Do you have power savings (turn monitor off after XXX minutes) turned on? Try disabling it and see if it still happens. Something strange may be happening when you switch between devices and the video card switches the HDMI off....

 

[david914]

I actually did think about that and made sure power savings is turned off and screen saver is disabled. I also made sure the video card drivers are current. I'm at a loss. 🙁

 

[ronintexas]

Have you tried cycling the power on the TV while the connection between the computer and TV is active? This should force an HDMI reconnect handshake. It might work....

 

[david914]

Haven't tried cycling the power on the TV yet. Not sure I'd want to do that every time I switched sources as that can't be good for my tv. I'll give it a shot and let you know though!

 

[david914]

Well, tried the power cycling and no joy. 🙁

I hooked up a VGA monitor simultaneously and as soon as I switch the tv source the desktop shifts to the VGA monitor. Problem is that it won't switch back when I the tv back to the PC.

 

[ronintexas]

I did a little reading on the switch, and according to the forums, the switch should be communicating with the PC as if a monitor/TV were connected, even though you are using a different input (i.e. BluRay, DVD, Cable Box, etc...). I found quite a bit on 3D vs. non-3D issues, but nothing related to the PC and the switch.