SOLUTION: no picture with PS3 / PS4 / Chromecast on BV7-40 MK2

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BeoMotion Posted: Sun, Jan 31 2016 1:14 AM

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Hi all,

after about two years I finally found a solution for a problem with my BV7 MK2 and several HDMI devices.

My setup that worked for a longer time without any problems:
BV7-40 MK2 -> HDMI switch 3x1 -> STB + ATV3 + PS3 (mainly used for watching BR's)

Suddenly from one day to the other there was no picture from the PS3 anymore.
I tried really everything. The PS3 worked on all other TV's and monitors I could find. I changed the cables several times. Resetted the TV through the service menu to factory default more often than I can remember, tried all settings regarding the HDTV input. Even flashed the TV software a couple of times... NOTHING. 

I thought the PS3 was defective so I bought a PS4. Same problem. Even with a Google Chromecast. NO PICTURE. Surprisingly the STB and the ATV2 worked all the time.

Today I wanted to give it a last try.

I hooked up a Raspberry Pi and tried to read out the EDID of the TV. 
NO VALID EDID!
The bcm binary "tvservice" reported something like "no valid display data".

Okay, digging a little deeper I found out that it is possible to talk to the HDMI I2C subsystem from userspace.

The EDID should be stored on an EEPROM at 0x50.
I was able to find it using i2cdetect and dumped its contend.
Again, no valid EDID data.

Luckily there is a second EEPROM at 0x57. I dumped the contend too and surprisingly there was a valid EDID configuration stored.

Now I though "all-or-nothing" and just copied the contend from 0x57 to 0x50.

Connected the PS3, switched it on AND I HAD A PICTURE IMMEDIATELY.
Same goes for the Chromecast and most likely for the PS4 too (but not tested at the moment).

Also tried copy-protected contend from both the ATV2 and the Chromecast to confirm that HDCP is still working. No problems.

Well, why some devices worked without valid EDID information on 0x50 and some not?
I can't say for sure. Maybe some are depending more on this than others.

Why was my EDID broken from one day to the other?
I really don't know. Maybe static discharge or a problem on the I2C bus that lead to data corruption...

I'm very happy that I found a solution for this problem and just wanted to let you know.
Maybe this will give somebody with the same problem a good starting point.

Since flashing EDID EEPROMs is really risky if you don't know what you are doing I have decided to not post a guide.

This really should be the very last thing you try before giving up. Chances are really good that you end up with a not working DVI/HDMI input at all.

BR,
BeoMotion. 

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BeoMotion replied on Sun, Jan 31 2016 9:13 AM

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If anyone thinks he has the same problem...
Connect a Raspberry Pi to your DVI input and type in the following commands:

sudo /opt/vc/bin/tvservice -n 
It should print out: "device_name=BNO-BeoVision_7" 

AND

sudo /opt/vc/bin/tvservice -m DMT
This should print out the supported resolutions with 1366x768 marked as preferred.

AND

sudo /opt/vc/bin/tvservice -d edid_dump
Will dump all EDID information to the file /opt/vc/bin/edid_dump
You can use e.g. "cat /opt/vc/bin/edid_dump" to print this file to console. 
A valid EDID always starts with: 00 ff ff ff ff ff ff 00 and ends with a checksum. 

All of the commands gave negative feedbacks like "no valid display connected" and "nothing written" before I copied the contend from the 0x57 to the 0x50 EEPROM. Afterwards everything was working as expected.

If your TV reports back valid values: Don't go any further in this direction! 

BR,
Beomotion.