Audio/Video Chat → Netflix / TV sync problem

I've recently started using Netflix streaming (yeah, yeah, not exactly a "first adopter"). The best Netflix-capable device that is permanently connected to the TV seems to be my Samsung BD-2500 bluray player.

With the quality control setting on the Netflix site at the middle setting, everything is fine. If I select "best" and stream something that claims to be HD, then it's a crapshoot.

There are two failure scenarios: (1) the TV image blanks and says "mode not supported". (2) the TV screeen flashes green. Either of these may happen immediately or after a few seconds of viewing. Neither is recoverable.

Equipment is Verizon FIOS -> Samsung BD-2500 -> Marantz SR5007 av receiver -> Samsung TV whose model number I forget. HDMI throughout.

Does this sound more like a data-rate problem or an HDCP handshake problem? I suspect the latter, since I suppose there is no need for the handshake on sub-HD material. On the other hand, the bluray player has never exhibited any problems when playing discs.

To be clear: it's intermittent; I have watched at least 1 hour of material without trouble. And then replaying the same thing the next day has issues.

I think the player unavoidably upscales, so if it's a data rate problem, I'd expect to see laggy images (if the player is slow; this is what I get when using a cheap Atom PC to stream Netflix to the TV) or visual artifacts (if Netflix throttles the bit-rate to me). I wouldn't expect to present a different video mode outward.

Potentially sounds like bad HDMI cables or a bad HDMI port somewhere. Try swapping things around (with a new HDMI cable it possible) one thing at a time and see if that helps.

Before you drive yourself crazy trying to troubleshoot the entire setup, start with the basics first. I would first bypass the receiver, with an HDMI connection directly from the BR player to the TV. Next, make sure that your BR player has the latest version of the Netflix app. Netflix changes the client from time to time, which can cause strange stuff if you aren't on the current version.

(Also, I've read that software support for many BR players ends when a newer model comes out, leaving you with a less-useful device over time. If that is the case for yours then you may need to look for a deal on a new Roku box as they seem to keep their updates current.)

You could also test with a PC or laptop that has HDMI-out. Connect it to your setup and stream Netflix via the browser. If this works then you're back to a problem with the app on the BR player.

Alas, this BluRay player isn't getting any firmware updates: it's too old. That presumably includes the Netflix app. (I guess it's worth my while to do a manual check on the Samsung site; the player itself thinks it is up-to-date).

I don't have any convenient powerful PCs with HDMI output that I can test with (the portables are too old, and the desktop machines are too heavily entrenched in their habitat). There is an Atom-powered Asus eeebox that runs Windows Media Center connected; it will stream Netflix HD content to the same av receiver, but the video evntually lags minutes behind the audio, presumbly because of the low-powered CPU and the lack of hardware support for the codec.

I'll hook the BluRay directly to the TV, but I'm pretty sure that's going to act the same way.

Edit: Well, damn it, today it's working just fine in its regular BD -> AVR -> TV configuration, so A/B comparison hasn't got very far.

Gripe: Life would be a lot simpler if the #%@*ing TV (1) didn't have the same error message for security handshake failures as for true unsupported modes, (2) gave some hint about what unsupported mode I was trying to use. We're now in the realm of software, and a crappy software error message is still a crappy software error message.

Is the BR player hardwired for networking or using wireless? HD streaming over wireless can be a crap shoot, depending on other devices that are on the same frequency.

wired, not sure of the speed on the BD player (internal net is 100Mb/s-capable)

Wired is good. That eliminates the chance that any of the oddball behavior is from dropped wireless packets. I was thinking that could explain why it works today but didn't work yesterday.

what HarryH3 said.
its been my experience that anything HDMI passing through a receiver, especially a Marantz, may introduce HDCP handshake issues.