Panasonic Time-warner Scientific-atlanta
Panasonic hdtv hdmi connection doesn't work with time-warner cable

I recently bought the panasonic TX-42px60U HDTV. My cable tv provider is Time-Warner.
The cable box I rent from Time-Warner is a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300 HD.
This is all new equipment.

I was disappointed to find that the hdmi connection did not work reliably. That means the high def picture is not as high def as it should be. The service folks were pretty much clueless.

Time-Warner sent someone to the house with component video wires to hook me up and make me happy.
That didn't make me happy. I already had it hooked up with component video. But I'm a computer programmer and understand that requires a transformation from digital to analog back to digital. I can see the difference in the picture quality. I want the HDMI connection to work reliably.

I called Panasonic support. They offered to come pick up the TV at my house to take it back to their lab to troubleshoot the problem. I told them it was not my particular TV.
It was the entire line of TVs. They could shoot the problem without taking my new TV away from me.

Eventually the Time Warner technician and I found a diagnostic that indicated its a copy protection issue.
The cable box reports that its blocking hdmi because HDCP authorization failed.
HDCP is a new protocol that enforces copy protection.

Eventually I reached someone at Scientific Atlanta who indicated it was a known problem.
He didn't know when a fix might be available. I was running the latest software for the cable box.
Other people I spoke to at Scientific Atlanta were unaware of the 'known' problem.

Time Warner and Panasonic are both unaware of the problem even though I reported it to both of them.
Its nasty because you have 3 companies all claiming their product works and its someone else's fault.

I'm basically very annoyed that I'm paying extra for digital cable and not getting the full service
I signed up for. I'm also annoyed that I payed a lot for the hdmi cable and it doesn't work.

Its been a few months and there's no fix available yet. There's not even general acknowledgement that the products are flawed.

I hope that if you publicize this they'll feel the need to fix it. As it stands, the cable operator is a monopoly and doesn't feel the need to respond by fixing the problem.

Company: Panasonic Time-warner Scientific-atlanta
Country: USA
State: North Carolina
City: Raleigh
Phone: 8664892669
Site: panasonic.com timewarnercable.com scientificatlanta.com

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