I am sitting here beside myself as I come to the realization that my entire reference system has been taken down by a projector. That’s right! Today Clint came by to setup my new Epson 1080UB projector so I could bask in 1080p glory. After the installation was completed, we struggled to get video to the projector from any source (ie. DVD player, HD DVD player, Xbox 360). After lunch we turned the system on and were happy to see XBOX 360 working via component video. Clint enjoyed a brief jam session in guitar hero until I decided it was a good idea to try another video source. Little to our knowledge this would be the end of my reference system as we knew it. The room went black and after a moment of dead silence, erupted a few NY Italian colorful metaphors out of my mouth. After bypassing my venerable Denon AVR-5805 receiver, we successfully passed video to the projector.

Later that night, I did some additional troubleshooting and found that it was in fact the HDMI connection between my Denon AVR-5805 and Epson 1080UB projector that was hosing video through my AVR-5805. Once I engaged HDMI, it froze the OSD via composite video out and produced no signal via HDMI out to my display. it took a power cycle and switching the projector to another input to restore the OSD via composite output. Reconnecting my trusty Yamaha LPX-510 projector, I successfully passed HDMI video to it from my AVR-5805.

Needless to say, no matter what I did, I could no longer get any video signal out via component video from my AVR-5805. How the $@ck could an HDMI issue hose my component video of my receiver? Good question and when I have an answer I will be sure to follow up.

I decided to go for broke tonight and engage in a processor reset in hopes that by some miracle, I would restore all video functionality of my receiver. Instead I was rewarded with the same video disfunctionality and now a lack of audio since the entire receiver configuration and power amp assignability has been wiped out.

Suffice it to say this is a lesson learned for:
1. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Seriously my old projector worked just fine but as an Audioholic I always feel compelled to upgrade.
2. Buyer beware when acquiring a first sample of a new product. In this case, I was one of the first in the country to get my hands on an AVR-5805.
3. Assuming your receiver has one, NEVER hit processor RESET unless the entire unit is frozen
4. Never do #3 after 11pm regardless of the state of your receiver. Come back with a clear head the next morning.

So now I sit here with a broken home theater and a mess of cables, ladders, screwdrivers and test discs. I guess this gives me more time to play my Roland electric drum kit I recently purchased….

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