Still Getting a Picture After You Turn Your AV Receiver Off? We’ve Got the Answer!
Home theater can be very confusing. Sometimes you press buttons and either nothing happens, or something completely unexpected happens. Take the power button for example. You expect, when you press it, for the power to the device you are controlling to either turn on or off depending on the current state of the device. If you are controlling your AV receiver, powering it off should stop any signal from passing through from your sources to your TV. That means when you turn off your AV receiver, you shouldn’t still get a picture on your TV. But you do! Why? Let’s discuss!
Welcome to the Wonderful World of HDMI Weirdness!
Whenever someone complains about their home theater doing something seemingly on its own, it is nearly always HDMI. HDMI has a bunch of functions that are baked in that are designed to do stuff for you that you may or may not want. On of these is called Standby Pass Through. The idea behind HDMI Standby Pass Through is simple: People sometimes want to watch TV without using their full home theater system. This is usually for nighttime use when people will use their lower volume (and lower bass) TV speakers.
You can see where this is going.
If you are still getting a picture when you power off your AV receiver, it is because Standby Pass Through is enabled. It is sending the signal from your current source (whatever source you were last using) and passing it through to your display. Your next step is clear. We’d recommend looking up your user manual online. There are usually PDF versions of your manual available. When you find it, it is easy enough to use the search function to find the correct menu to disable the Pass Through function.
Take Away
Sometimes the hardest part of fixing a problem is knowing how to find the solution. If you aren’t familiar with HDMI Pass Through, it is hard to know how to search for what you are experiencing. Now that you have the right function, finding the solution should be easy. As a general rule, remember this: If it seems like your system is doing things on its own, it is probably HDMI. Or ghosts. But probably HDMI.
