ASUS Monitor + Pioneer AVR = Wonky HDMI connections?

[Darlos9D]

Recently I got a Pioneer VSX-90 A/V Receiver, to manage all my various entertainment devices. One of the major devices I'm outputting to is an Asus MX279H monitor. They interact... strangely, when it comes to video. The monitor has two HDMI inputs. One I'm using to take input from my PC, and the other I'm using to take input from the receiver. The problem is when I try to switch the monitor from the PC input to the receiver input, the monitor just gives me a "NO SIGNAL" display for a few moments, and then it returns to the PC input. Oddly, if I remove BOTH HDMI connections, and then only plug in the receiver cable, after some moments, the monitor will finally display the video from the receiver. After that, if I plug in the PC cable, the video from the receiver still works. Up until I switch the monitor between inputs, that is, at which point the monitor no longer registers the receiver input if I try to switch back to it.

That's the gist of the problem. Now a list of things I've tried and am sure of:

• 
  ■ Plugged source devices (PS4, XBox, etc) directly into the monitor. Switching monitor between inputs works fine.
  ■ Plugged the output HDMI cable from the receiver into a separate TV. Video shows up fine on TV, even when switching TV between different inputs.
  ■ Swapped cables between the two inputs on the monitor. Problem still persisted.
  ■ Receiver has two outputs. Tried the other output. Problem still persisted.
  ■ Restarted receiver, completely unplugging the power cable and plugging it back in again. Problem still persisted.
  ■ Tried different input connections on the receiver, from different source devices. Problem persisted with all of them.
  ■ Turned monitor off and then on again, to see if maybe it would "hit" the receiver input first upon turning on. Tried this with both configurations. It always went to the PC input.
  ■ Pulled out only the PC cable from the monitor, leaving the receiver cable remaining. Monitor acts as if there is nothing plugged in at all, no matter how long I wait.
  ■ All individual constituent cables and devices appear to work fine, as the above points imply.
  ■ All audio input/output involving the receiver works fine.

Ruling out the malfunctioning of any piece of electronics individually, the only conclusion I can come to is that my receiver and monitor simply don't play nice together, and I don't know why. It's a very specific problem. Now, something I'm aware of is that HDMI cables have some kind of "handshake" thing they have to do, for the two connected devices to communicate properly. Something I noticed when outputting from the receiver to the TV, or to the monitor when the receiver was its only input, was that it seems to take a rather long time for the video to finally pop up. Conversely, when I've got two inputs going into my monitor and I try to switch between them, the monitor doesn't seem to wait very long before deciding that there is no input and auto-switching back to the previous input. I have to wonder if the problem lies in there somewhere. However, if that's the case, I have no clue what to do about it.

This is a frustrating problem, as the whole point of getting this receiver is so I WOULDN'T have to constantly swap cables in and out. Unplugging and replugging the HDMI cables that are connected to my monitor is a work-around, sure, but its a dumb one that I shouldn't have to deal with. However, considering the fact that everything else works perfectly, I'd hate to have to bring any device back over this one specific problem. So, any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ssddx]

yep, definitely sounds like a hdmi handshake issue. i've noted that it affects pc more than any other device.

why are you not using pc->receiver->monitor? if you route everything through the receiver you should have less problems. sometimes there are still some issues but normally less with this method.

 

[Darlos9D]

yep, definitely sounds like a hdmi handshake issue. i've noted that it affects pc more than any other device.

why are you not using pc->receiver->monitor? if you route everything through the receiver you should have less problems. sometimes there are still some issues but normally less with this method.

Uh, yeah, that's a good question. I think you got the right idea, heh. Only problem is my current dvi-to-hdmi cable isn't long enough. That's easily solved though, I suppose, either by getting a longer one of those, or maybe taking advantage of one of these DisplayPort outputs.

One more trip to best buy and I might finally have this all figured out.

 

[ssddx]

i'm using a dvi-hdmi cable myself and pc-receiver-tv and that cuts down on most of the issues. now, i still do get an issue once in awhile when the pc goes into sleep mode (i disable sleep mode for this reason) but otherwise i can swap between two sources easy enough. generally even if i do have one of the rare spouts of handshake issues a restart of the pc fixes that (my other sources never have issues). hdmi handshake issues can also happen if you turn the pc on before the tv and receiver. i've noted that the only issues i've ever had with hdmi handshake has always been pc never anything else.. odd

 

[Darlos9D]

i'm using a dvi-hdmi cable myself and pc-receiver-tv and that cuts down on most of the issues. now, i still do get an issue once in awhile when the pc goes into sleep mode (i disable sleep mode for this reason) but otherwise i can swap between two sources easy enough. generally even if i do have one of the rare spouts of handshake issues a restart of the pc fixes that (my other sources never have issues). hdmi handshake issues can also happen if you turn the pc on before the tv and receiver. i've noted that the only issues i've ever had with hdmi handshake has always been pc never anything else.. odd

Well, actually, I feel like the PC ISN'T the problem in this case. Like, its more just the communication being slow between the receiver and monitor. I could be wrong though. I could try, like, plugging in one game console into the monitor directly, and another game console through the receiver, and see if the monitor still "favors" the direct connection, with no PC involvement.

If I plug the pc into the receiver, I'll have a single cable coming from my receiver to the monitor, which should alleviate any problems with switching monitor inputs since there'd only be one. The only potential snag is if it still needs me to unplug and plug back in sometimes, at which point I'll be at a complete loss. We'll see I guess.

I've got a second output going from my pc directly to my tv so I can see whats going on with my computer even while I play games on my monitor. The reason I don't do it the other way around is because my tv is old and laggy, and my monitor is a new super gaming deal with basically no lag. It's important for all my twitchy competitive games.

Anyway, tonight after work I'll grab a new cable and then maybe fiddle with the setup a bit more for posterity's sake, and then call this a case closed. So, stay tuned.

 

[Darlos9D]

Alright, good news: just routing my PC through the receiver and only having 1 input going into the monitor works great. If I switch inputs on the receiver, the monitor handles the switch just fine.

Also, for posterity's sake, I tried connecting one console directly to the monitor, and routing another through the receiver to the monitor, with no PC connection involvement. The monitor still "favored" the directly connected console, with the same problem as before. So the PC definitely had nothing to do with it. It seems to have to do entirely with my monitor being "impatient" and not waiting long enough for slow handshakes, if there's another available connection. Ultimately this is a good thing though, since my monitor has these dumb tiny touch-sensitive buttons that make switching its inputs a pain, and now I don't have to do that at all anymore.

@ssdx: I'd mark your first response as "the solution," but to be honest the actual problem this thread is about wasn't really solved as much as it was circumvented. Then again I don't know if it CAN be solved outside of circumvention. How should we close this out?

 

[ssddx]

if your monitor has an issue with switching between two different inputs (regardless of what they are) i'm not sure if theres a real fix for that other than removing the input switch in the monitor from the whole equation.