Well tonight was a fun night. Wife and I were watching TV, a few rain showers like usual in the evening, and out of no where lightning strikes maybe 150 yards from our house. Scared the crap out of us to say the least. Well the TV/Tivo/Surround Sound all turned off when this happened. After unplugging everything and then restarting everything I had no picture or sound. To cut to the point, after over an hour of screwing around with 4 HDMI wires, bringing out the Component Cables to replace the HDMI for testing purposes, and going through trial and error with the TIVO/PS3/Xbox/Surround Sound I unfortunately lost a few of my friends in the storm....

The Damage:
-All 3 HDMI inputs no longer work on the TV only component works.
-TIVO HDMI output no longer works, only component
-Surround sound receiver (HD receiver so it has HDMI and component input and output and passes the picture through to the TV)...anyways it has no picture output regardless if I use HDMI or Component cables with any device.

Bright side:
-Xbox still works fine
-PS3 still works fine
-Blu Ray Player still works fine.


So when the lightning hit it obviously traveled through the HDMI in the TV/Tivo/and reciever and blew them all. Everything is plugged into a Surge Protector, so I am guessing it came through the Coax Cable into the TIVO, which then traveled through HDMI into the receiver, and then through HDMI to the TV

So right now I am not happy. Looks like I will be giving my insurance company a call. $500 deductible in the end is going to be cheaper than replacing things on my own I guess. We shall see. $500 is still $499 more than I want to spend right now..

I blame getting the GTO..everything was great before that, now everything seems to be breaking (our houses A/C quit last week and needed repairs) and my money seems to be vanishing before it even makes it in my pocket lol.

Ok, I'm done venting...time to get some sleep I guess..I mean whats the point of watching TV if I can't enjoy it through HDMI and Surround Sound, lol.

I would very highly recommend a backup battery for instances like this, like an APC XS-1500.

http://www.amazon.com/POWER-SAVING-B...ata/B002UUTCNE

I have two of them; one for my gaming computer and one for my TV and everything connected to it. It saved my *** more times than I care to mention.

Damn bro, that sucks a ton!

That'* exactly why I have one of these bad boys.



Surge protector WITH coax and RJ-11/RJ-45. I think mine is insured up to $80k so hopefully even if it does fail, I'll still be covered.

This is what i use.. Monster Cable has never let me down.


Last year we had Lightning hit a transformer right next to my apartment. So i know what u mean by it scared the crap out of you.. it was so loud, it rattled our windows, my girlfriend almost fell in the shower when it happened..

LOL Monster.

Over priced **** is overpriced.

No tv?, you can always go for a ride in the GTO

Well I'm even more pissed now. My surge protector does have coax input and output. But I of course dint have it ran through it. Damnit! I suppose the coverage from the strip of course won't cover me now will it.

Well I just went out and bought a new surge protector. The one I had was a Power Sentry 7 plug with Coax...but was only rated to 700 joules which is a joke. Plus I did a little reasearch on them and I guess the company itself is horrible and there are consumer complaints all over the internet with peoples strips caching fire, houses burning down etc... So it is going in the garbage, as I don't even feel safe using it after reading all those stories.

So I bought an 8 outlet Belkin with RJ11 and RJ45 that is rated to 3600 Joules. Probably not the best out there, but anything is better than what I had I am sure.

Time to file a claim with my insurance company and get my stuff fixed or replaced.

Good stuff, now just use it next time!

Damn sorry to hear about al lthat!