Colour bars interference when copying TV shows.
 

I've been transferring TV programmes from a Sky Q box to a Panasonic Blu-ray TV recorder, model DMR-BS850 for years successfully completing 100s of videos, editing them and copying to Blu-ray. The Panasonic has both an HDD for storage and a Blu-ray/DVD player/recorder built in. So I copy across video from the Sky's HDD to the Pana's HDD, then edit it using its own software, then burn that master edit onto the Pana's Blu-ray recorder.
But just recently I'm getting vertical colour bars appearing during the first copying stage to the Pana. They are not visible during copying, but only seen at playback through the Pana. They come and go every few seconds for the entire length of the transfer and the audio cuts out while they are on screen. The bars last between one second and ten seconds, it varies. The word PAL shows at top left. The bars seems to act like an insert edit, cutting picture and sound, momentarily. There are no error messages.

I use a Panasonic TV to monitor the picture and an HDMI splitter cable to send the signal to the TV and the Pana recorder via the Pana's scart socket. Cables and connections all checked, ok. Oddly it's not consistent and some days works perfectly with no bars. Then without me touching anything they show up again days later.
I've tried re-starting all the units, disconnecting and re-connecting the cables, and the cables are good quality.
Any ideas anyone? Thanks in advance.

I'd say the issue lies with the splitter and/or converter you must have between the Sky Q box HDMI ouput and the Pana DMR-BS850 SCART input.

Those colour bars and system OSD indications ("PAL" in your case) are typical of cheaper converters when they 'lose grip' of the signal or HDMI handshake.

A drop in current can also cause these symptoms. If your splitter and/or converter can be powered externally, do it. If you are already powering them, change the AC adapter(s).

If what you're experiencing is similar to what's shown in the attached video, it's the splitter and/or converter for sure.

Colour bars interference - reply.
 

Thank you very much for that full reply.
The splitter box is by EOTECH in China and it looks and feels sturdy enough while being cheap. It's mains powered by a 5 volt adapter/plug with an undamaged thin 2-strand cable. There's a red pilot light on the splitter that works, as well as a PAL & NTSC toggle switch set to PAL. The scart cable is heavy-duty and very tough, and was expensive.
I'll try testing the setup for a bit and if it still proves faulty I'll change the adapter first, then buy another splitter if the adapter makes no difference, and report back. It'll take a few days.

Thanks again, very much.

Colour bars, etc.
 

I had not seen your attachments when I replied a few minutes ago, but they look exactly like what I'm getting. Thanks for those - very useful. The weird thing is that I also ran a test on BBC News with the same presenter - even the news topic was the same, I believe. What's the chance of that ever happening again!?

Those AC adapters are very prone to failure*. And the HDMI sockets on those Chinese converters very finicky. That "dropout example" I recorded was me simply jiggling the HDMI and power cables a bit.

Also... don't be fooled by that "red light": it can come on even without a power supply connected, just with the current provided by HDMI.

So, first things to try: another HDMI cable and a new power supply. :wink2:






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(*) Internally, whilst looking perfectly OK — at some point their voltage or amperage output drops, making the connected appliance malfunction.