TV LED BACKLIGHT - HDMI SYNC BOX

[Nïcholas]

Wondering if anyone might have any thoughts on the below scenario? 

I purchased a generic LED sync box (3rd party manufactured) which is a piece of equipment that connects to LED light strips that you can install to run around the edge of the back of the tv to replicate the colours on the screen. This set up works by using a HDMI input such as a google chrome cast. I’ve previously used this successfully with my ChromeCast with googleTV 4K to replicate the colours which are on screen to sync with the LED lights installed on the back of my tv. But something has changed in the last couple of months and it no longer works. 

Now, when I’m using the set up, the HDMI sync box interprets pretty much all colours displayed by the chromecast as Red, Purple or Pink (despite the image on the screen displaying correctly and having varying other colours on the screen not being synced to the LED sync box) 

The other abnormalities which have arisen is I can no longer access the resolution options in the menu settings. This menu no longer gives me any options to switch or change to a different resolution, the menu is now blank. This menu option will return if I plug the ChromeCast directly into the TV but doesn’t show when connected to the sync box. 

The other abnormality is if the ChromeCast goes to sleep due to inactivity, when woken again, the screen does not display correctly. The google tv menu is all pixilated. There is also a vivid green overlay that displays on the screen as well. This is corrected by selecting restart from the system menu settings. 

I hope my post makes sense. It’s challenging to describe and I can’t find any posts relating to help for the HDMI sync box. Trying my luck here because previously, this set up worked flawlessly with my chrome cast and now something seems to have changed and it no longer works.

I have tested other HDMI input in the sync box, they all work fine. I have factory reset the ChromeCast about 4 times, it doesn’t work. I’ve reset my sync box, that didn’t work either. Does anyone have any idea about what might have changed on the ChromeCast to cause it to stop syncing with an external LED sync box and only display red and pink LED lights instead of syncing to the colours on the TV screen?  

[Nïcholas]

Edit: I have a feeling that the chrome cast behaves in this way due to believing the hdmi sync box is instead attempting to make a video recording of the hdmi output. Might I be experiencing these results due to ChromeCast attempting to copyright protect the content? 

[JenniferV]

Hello Nïcholas,

Thanks for reaching out. You may try to check the firmware version of your sync box. If it's not updated, please update it. If you're not familiar with how to do this, you can reach out to your sync box manufacturer. Also, you may use a different sync box device to isolate the issue.

Regards,

Jennifer

[JenniferV]

Hi there,

It's me again. I want to check if you still need help or if you have other questions and concerns. Feel free to reach back if you do.

Thanks,

Jennifer

[Nïcholas]

after months of trying to figure it out, I finally found a solution. I believe the errors were being triggered by the ChromeCast display settings. I had to remove the ChromeCast from the sync box and plug it directly into my tv. Doing this first was the only way to get the menu options relating to the screen resolution settings to show up on the ChromeCast. I had to disable all of the Dolby video settings and force the default to be HDR10. Only then could I plug the ChromeCast back into the sync box and have it work. There still seems to be something unusual happening with the ChromeCast though. These settings should have been visible on the device when it was connected directly to sync box. I shouldn’t have had to disconnect from the sync box and reconnect to a direct tv input to be able to access the display settings. 

[JenniferV]

Hello Nïcholas,

Understood. The resolution settings may be visible when you initially connect your Chromecast with Google TV (4K) to your sync box however, it is still recommended to plug in the Chromecast directly to the HDMI port of the TV so you can fully use its features and settings. 

I'd suggest you send feedback about this via Google TV as we're always looking for ways to improve our products and its features. Let me know if you still have questions and concerns otherwise, I'll be locking this thread after 24 hours.

Thanks,

Jennifer