HDMI carries picture, sound and a copy-protection handshake (HDCP) between decoder and TV, all on one cable. When it works you never think about it; when it fails it produces symptoms that look far more serious than they are — total black screen, intermittent dropouts, or sound with no picture.
Cable quality is not marketing
For runs under about two metres almost anything works. Beyond five metres, and especially for 4K on an Explora Ultra, cheap cable genuinely fails — usually as sparkles, flicker, or a picture that drops out when the room warms up. For long runs behind a wall-mounted TV we fit an active or optical HDMI cable, because replacing a failed cable inside a wall is a job nobody enjoys twice.
HDCP errors
An HDCP handshake failure shows as a black screen with audio, or a "content protected" style message. It is nearly always fixed by power-cycling both devices in the right order, reseating the cable, or bypassing a soundbar or HDMI switch that is not passing the handshake correctly.
Resolution mismatch
Set a decoder to an output resolution the TV cannot accept and you get a blank screen with no way to see the menu that would fix it. There is a front-panel reset sequence for exactly this, and knowing it is the difference between a phone call and a callout.
Brands we fit and service
The hdmi & tv connection market splits into hardware built for South African conditions and lookalikes that fail at the first hard season. These are the manufacturers we trust on our installations:
- Samsung
- LG
- Hisense
- TCL
- Sony (TV side)
See our brand guides for how these manufacturers compare.
When the hdmi & tv connection goes wrong
These are the failures we're called to most often — each with its symptoms, causes and our fix on the dedicated problems page:
- HDCP error or black screen with soundHDCP — Sound plays normally but the screen stays black, or an on-screen message about protected content appears.
- Black screen after a resolution change — The screen went black after a settings change or a software update and there is no way to see the menu to change it back…
- TV shows "No signal" on the HDMI input — The TV reports no signal on the HDMI input, while the decoder is clearly powered on and responding to its remote.
Need this fixed or installed?
Our TV Wall Mounting service covers hdmi & tv connection work — from R520, quoted upfront and backed by our 12-month workmanship warranty.