FiOS, Onkyo and the Green Screen of Death

So I had FiOS installed a couple of weeks ago, and so far the experience has been mostly positive.  The only major issue I had was an HDMI incompatibility bug between the Motorola QIP 7216 1 set-top box that Verizon issued me and my Onkyo TX-SR606 receiver.  I wanted to use HDMI to connect the STB to my Onkyo and then use HDMI to connect the Onkyo to my Samsung HDTV.  This pass-through mode is fairly common, and it’s how I had my old Cox Scientific Atlantic STB hooked up.  Unfortunately, with the 7216, this configuration results in a ‘green screen of death’ after a few seconds of viewing.  I noted this problem during installation and asked the technician if he had another box on the truck that I could try.  He had me plug the Motorola box directly into the Samsung, and of course the GSOD did not occur.  The tech told me that if the box worked with the TV, then there was nothing he could do.  As soon as the tech left, I did some quick googling and learned that I’m not the only with this problem.  I decided to try using component video cables and a coaxial audio connection to connect the STB to my Onkyo and see if I could live with it.

A few days later, I lost TV service (it ended up being an asshat from Cox unplugging my cable, but that’s another blog post), and Verizon sent me out a new box.  This one was a Motorola QIP 6416-2 and appears to have a similar feature set to the 7216.  On a hunch, I tried connecting it to my Onkyo with HDMI to see if they were compatible.  Thus far,  they have played well together without any GSODs.  According to a Verizon messageboard, they are rolling out updates to STBs throughout March, so maybe the new box they sent out has the latest firmwre.