Rullz 4K splitter showing snow

Hi all,

I have a Rullz 4k splitter from AliExpress:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001266503369.html

It's mostly working fine. I power my ws2818 leds (100 of them) with a 5v 15A supply. My rpi3b+ is powered by a separate USB brick. I've tied the ground on both together.

I also have a 1000 uF capacitor between +5v and GND before the power supply hits the led strip along with a 470 Ohm resistor between GPIO 18 and the data line on the led strip.

I have two USB cables running from the rpi to the Rullz splitter, one for power and one for the input.

Most of the time the set up works fine. But once in a while, the split only shows snow to Hyperion and makes the leds go nuts. However, the image from the Chromecast passes through fine to the TV.

I am running Hyperbian on 2.0.0-alpha.9

I've tried the following:

1) setting dtparam=audio=off - no luck

2) unplugging both USB cables and plugging them back in - sometimes this will work, but annoying to do

3) disabling the instance and re-enabling in UI - sometimes this will also work, but shouldn't have to do this.

Anyway seen anything like this?

Thanks in advanced!

edit: only plugging in the input from the Rullz and the rpi (ie no power cable) also runs fine for the most part. But it also runs into this issue. Originally I thought it was because the Rullz splitter wasn't getting enough power so I plugged the extra usb power cable in.

What would HDCP issue mean? How would I go about resolving something like that?

I have already set the fps/resolution low and selected the specific camera etc; and it doesn't seem to prevent it.

I'm on rpi 3b+ with 1280x720 resolution, decimation of 6, and 15 fps. It seems it mostly needs me to unplug the hdmi input and replug that in. Weird...

Do you have a US brand you would recommend. Feintech doesn't seem to ship outside of Germany.

Ambientheater77 did you mean to link something? I didn't find a topic call tips and tricks using the search section and the only pinned thread is talking about LEDs.

Ok yeah I followed that, and it seems that for whatever reason. The device sometimes works better than other times lol. I can't figure out any rhyme or reason. Literally toggled on and off a bunch of times...

So my next question is that if I get a proper splitter, which I found some decent ones. But those seem to output to HDMI. What's the recommended way to connect the HDMI output to the Raspberry Pi 3b+?

Thanks!