[amducious]

I'm new to Raspberry Pi. The problem that I'm having is no video once XBMC loads. I get the big R boot screen but that goes away and all I get is a black screen. I am still getting audio from the HDMI. I also had to use the "hdmi_safe=1" to get any video. The tv I'm using is an older 720p 32" Sansui LCD

[dandnsmith]

Does the TV have an HDMI input, or are you using a converter (to VGA or DVI)?
Can you SSH to the system over your local network?

[ijsbeer79]

The same question is asked here: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=202630
So seems to be more people with the same issue. Probably a hickup in the latest RaspBMC distro? Try to ask on the RaspBMC forums or try for example OpenElec

[amducious]

@dandnsmith - Yes I am using the HDMI input on the TV. and Yes I can SSH into the system. also it works perfect using the composite video. I also tyed a HDMI->DVI adapter on a lcd monitor and it booted perfectly.

@ijsbeer79 - thank you for the link but it sounds like im having a different issue then the other post. My system boots fully up but once xbmc start. my tv goes to a black screen. nothing showes up at all. (other post sounds like he boots to the comand line)

[amducious]

I lied, the sound was coming from my sony reciver. I plugged the pi directly into the TV hdmi and all I get is the big red R and then it goes to no signal. Any ideas why this is happening

[dandnsmith]

It sounds as if the TV isn't reporting it's capabilities (correctly), and raspbmc is then proceeding to use a set of values which result in no signal displayable.
That hdmi-safe = 1 forces a set of minimal parameters which are listed in the raspberry pi wiki, and doesn't include the transfer of audio to the TV.
If that produces a visible (but not very good) result on the TV, then we can go to something which gets a better result.
I suggest that, for a start, you have a look at this posting which could help, and then I may be able to suggest some more steps to take.

[amducious]

so I was able to finally get xbmc to start. I added hdmi_drive=1 into the /boot/config.txt but as you can guess now I have no sound. What would cause my tv to show no signal if sound is being passed?

[dandnsmith]

For a start, I suggest you post your config.txt so we can see exactly what those settings are.