Frustation with HD300 and analog connections

[Hunter69]

So I purchased and received the HD300. I started a thread about the change in the way the HD300 outputs video. It will only either digital or analog. So I had to move back to component from HDMI (because I share one box with multiple tv's). So now I am trying to get this to work.

I have the HD300 on a closet away from the TV (app 25 ft). So I bought a 25 ft component wire from monoprice. I hooked it up to the TV and HD300. Here is where I am having the difficulty. The HD300 has a breakout. The ends are male. The ends to the 25 ft wire that I purchased are male. So now I needed a couple (this is turning into a pain in the A**). So I go to radio shack and purchase a coupler intended for composite (thinking they would be interchangable). I turned on the HD300 and got video but it was very unstable. I actually observed the tv scanning between 30hz and 60 hz. So I am wondering if anyone knows if this could be being caused by that composite coupler? I have searched on the internet and found component couplers but in the back of my mind I still thing the coupler would be interchangable.

I would greatly appreciate any info regarding this problem.
Bill

[Tiki]

The only difference between component and composite cables is how many you need (1 for composite, 3 for component). They both use the same sort of wire and connectors, so I wouldn't think there would be anything inherently wrong with using "composite" couplers with "component" cable.

But, you could have a bad cable or connector or something. OR it could be a bad video file that your were testing with, or a setup issue, or ?? I don't know if there are any length restrictions with component video, but I would think 25 feet would work.

For troubleshooting purposes, could you move the TV and the extender closer together temporarily and just use the cable that Sage provided (without the couplers and extensions)? That should help you to isolate the problem a little more. If your problems go away, you can blame it on the extension cables and/or couplers.

[Hunter69]

So I have continued to troubleshoot this issue, here is what I have discovered:
I figured out a way to eliminate the composite coupler. Still same result, picture is unstable and not watchable.

I hooked up the HD200 via the 25 ft component cable purchased at monoprice. The picture was beautiful (as it should).

I attached the HD300 directly to the bedroom TV via the component breakout. The picture was unstable.

So now I was to the point I thought the HD300 might be defective. I attached it to my living room tv via the component breakout. Picture was stable as it should. So that blew the defective HD300.

The bedroom TV is a Samsung LN37B650 and the living room tv is a Samsung LN46A650. I checked for a firmware update on the LN37B650. There was no update. Any ideas as to what could cause this type of issue?

Thanks in advance for anyone willing to share any ideas
Bill

[Hunter69]

I finally figured this out. I tried adjusting the settings in the tv, with no luck. Out of desperation, I started looking in the settings of the hd300, nothing there. So I told it to output to composite. The picture stabilized, weird. I told it to output to component, it remained stable.

Then I returned to extender mode and everything was stable. I noticed the resolution was only at 480i. I entered setup in sagetv and adjusted the output resolution for the gui to 1080.

So I am happy to report this issue seems resolved. Hopefully this will help someone that experiences a similar issue in the future.