HDMI and Lightning Surge

[Gearhead]

I took a lightning hit a few days ago that completely trashed our HVAC systems.  Now that we are finally getting some chill going again, I'm digging into other problems.  I had to competely replace my M1, router, and almost everything that was connected to my wired LAN. Forturnately, my Synology NAS drives and PC somehow survived.
 
Now, I'm trying to troublshoot my home theatre.  Most components were connected to the wired LAN and all are interconnected via HDMI.  The heart of my system is an Integra DHC9.9 pre-amp.  I have a DirecTV DVR and a Pioneer Blueray as HDMI sources to the pre-amp.  Finally, I have a Pioneer Elite 60" plasma connected to the pre-amp. 
 
It seems that all of the components power up and the analog section of the pre-amp works just fine.  The plasma powers up and the setup options are available so it is not totally dead.  But, sadly the HDMI section of every component is dead.  I have 2 other HD DirecTV boxes that are known good HDMI sources and the pre-amp and plasma do nothing when directly connected to this good source. 
 
Anyway, just wondering if anyone has seen  an HDMI failure like this before.  The Integra pre-amp and Pioneer Blueray are easily replaceable,  But, I hate to lose the Pioneer plasma.

 

[Waynedb]

I lost HDMI ports in a lightning storm before, it seems to be a common problem.

 

[pete_c]

I have a friend who lost one HDMI port on his Panasonic TV.  That was all that happened to his TV.  Throughout the home though there was much damage relating to the lightning strike / surge.  I helped him redo the RG-6 cable runs in his home. 
 
It appeared that the lighting came in via a whole house RG-6 cable which for whatever reason came into his home from one roof vent coming up the side of the house.  There was no lighting ground stuff set up on the ingress of the cable.
 
I had never seen incandescent light bulbs burst from a lighting strike before.  That said we redid all of the RG-6 cabling in the attic, second floor, main floor and basement.   BTW he tripped in his attic and fell over the hallway on his second floor when we were doing this.  We actually used the new opening to help pull new cable.  (very low on the WAF).  Personally I kept my walking around up there to one side of his attic as he had no catwalks and it was mostly walking on the framing.
 
The electric in the home was an accident waiting to happen and I suggested he redo it.  IE: he had a recliner in front of the TV in the "great room" / family room.  He wanted a table and lamp next to it.  He just ran an extension cord in the basement from some outlet some 40 feet (multiples); drilled a hole large enough through the floor and carpeting for his lamp and used that.
 
He had run multiple cheap extenstion cords above the acoustic tiles in his basement to number locations on the main floor of the home to extend his electric a bit.  He did the same for outside electric running cables (HV and LV) out of his garage across walkways above the ground.  I did recommend that he purchase a surge protector and also told him that if he didn't fix his electrical a surge protector would be of no use to him.
 
Lighting is a bit magical but always seeks the closest path to ground wherever that might be. Surge protection offers a "vent" somewhat to protection and ground but doesn't always work. 
 
I had an inhouse surge maybe not related to lighting last year which tripped a bunch of breakers and simultanously "broke" a number of HA switches and the HVAC in the house but no appliances. 
 
I do recall hearing the "buzz" of electric for a period of time accompanied by a dimming of all of the lighting, a loud pop sound and a smoldering electrical fire on the side of the house and it was raining and there was a thunderstorm happening while we were just relaxing watching a movie one night last year.  Relating to WAF I did have to purchase little window AC units and use them for about a week as the temps outside were in the 90's.  I never had put one in a window and I kept thinking I was going to drop it a couple of floors down while installing it.