Leaving Pi plugged in to TV messes with AV devices!

[chrigil]

If I leave my Pi plugged into my TV via HDMI but unplugged from the mains, one of my other HDMI devices (Sony Blu-Ray player) simply refuses to start for more than a couple of seconds.

I realise this isn't necessarily a Pi issue as such aside from the fact that if the Pi is plugged in, the Blu-Ray player won't start but as soon as I unplug the HDMI cable from the Pi, everything works fine!

Does any one have any suggestions as to what the cause of this might be so that I can have both connected at the same time.

Thanks

Chris

[tawalker]

Not sure what could cause this issue (esp. as the Pi was powered off), but at home we use one of these Duronic HDMI switches (Amazon link). (It's not to avoid issues like the one you describe - our TV only has two HDMI ports, so the switch is basically necessary to avoid unplugging HDMI-capable devices.)

This particular HDMI switch is mostly fine for the Pi and a Blu-ray player - I've read that Sky boxes can cause difficulties, but we don't have one The switch automatically switches to the most recent device to power-on, but if you want to switch source manually, you have to get up and press the manual switch button on the box. (Duronic has a more expensive model which features a remote-control for selecting sources.)

I don't know if this switch would solve the problem you report, but if you're really stuck, it might be worth a try?

[itsonlyme]

I do not know the cause of this isue, but like chrigil i use an HDMI switch, with a remote.

I have been mystified by the behavoiur of the switch when it is powered off. If another device, the pi, a tv recording box, or a media streamer, is still switched on the power light on the switch shows on and the switch shows the HDMI feed from the device as active.

It must be that the switch is receiving power through the HDMI connection from the device, not from the TV as it is still lit if power to the TV is switched off.

But unlike chrigil for me everything works as it should. The switch I use is
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Basic-HDMI-Swit ... B005XABIUS

[BigAl1452]

Does this happen if you change which hdmi socket the pi is plugged into?

I'm aware that you can set the priorty setting in some tv's, the system will check that hdmi socket first before allowing anything else to connect to the system.

[TheEponymousBob]

No advice, but I can confirm that the same issue exists on my Sony Bravia and Virgin V+ box. I was completely nonplussed until I decided to try switching the HDMI cables and the telly came back as soon as I unplugged the Pi!

[AndrewS]

This isn't 100% relevant but... I have both a (non-HD) VirginMedia SetTopBox connected via scart to my Sony bravia TV, and a PS3 connected via HDMI. I'd originally set the VM STB up to "auto switch" via the SCART, so that if the STB was switched on, the TV would auto-switch to that input. However (really annoyingly) this 'feature' would occasionally activate itself, even with the STB switched off. Which was really annoying if you were in the middle of playing a game on the PS3 at the time!!! So I turned off the "auto switch" in the STB's settings menus (didn't change any TV settings), and it's been well behaved ever since - just means I have to manually select the TV input when required.

Moral of the story - sometimes the auto-switching is buggy, or "too clever for it's own good"