Regarding the the picture blinking on and off sometimes: It might be the that HDMI cable you are using is bad. The HDMI connectors might be too loose going into the components you're plugging them into.

I had the same problem with my receiver. I bought a few HDMI cables from Target because I didn't feel like waiting for shipping from an online retailer. Well, the cables were causing the picture to randomly blink on and off sometimes. I bought a few HDMI cables from PartsExpress.com to replace them, and the problem went away.

I'm new here.