DVD player brightness problem - help!

Gibs

Apologies in advance if this is too basic a question....
I just bought a DVD player from argos recently, a Philips 625. Its at the lower end of the market but a little bit above the really cheap stuff.

I'm having a problem with the brightness when I play certain DVDs. The strange thing is that some DVDs play perfectly while others have a problem whereby the brightness seems to increase and then decrease, alternating between being ok for about 2 seconds and then getting too dark for about 2 seconds. This cycle continues all the way through for some films but is non-existent for others.

I first thought it was the local DVD rental shop using dodgy copies but the problem also occurs with "bought" DVDs. Also, some of the DVDs from the local shop are fine while others have the brightness problem.

My question is, has anyone else experienced this problem and is the problem likely to be with the discs or the player? I can't figure it out because of the variability between discs.

I'd like to know who to give a bollocking to - the rental shop or Argos.
Any suggestions from those more technically-minded than me would be really appreciated.

Cheers!

robbie1876

I've seen the problem you described before. In my scenario it was with an Arcam DVD player running into a 43" Pioneer plasma (wasn't my stuff unfortunately!)

On certain DVDs the brightness was alternating in roughly 2 second cycles, exactly the way you described. My first thought was that it was a PAL/NTSC problem, but that turned out not to be the case after I tested a few discs.

The DVD player was being video switched through an amplifier, ie composite video out of the DVD into the amp, along with composite video from Sky and a VCR. Then from the composite monitor out of the amp into the plasma. Is this the way you have your system set up?

What sorted it for me in the end was switching video signal formats. The plasma accepted a component video signal, so I connected the DVD directly to the plasma using component video and the problem went away just like that.

To this day I still don't know what caused the problem. When watching another source that was swithced through the amp in the same way (Sky or VCR) there was no problems with the brightness. Also it happened on certain DVDs frequently and other discs infrequently. The worst offender for me was Saving Private Ryan (region 2 edition).

So I would recommend that you try connecting to your TV in a different way. If you are using a Scart, either try connecting with an S-Video lead if you have one, or else go into the settings on your DVD setup menu and either turn on or off RGB output depending on what you have it set to already.

Let me know what happens when you try this.

Robbie.

Gibs

Thanks for the excellent suggestion !! - I do have a setup something similar to what you described. I'll try to alter it and let you know how I get on. Really appreciate your help. Have a good christmas!!

robbie1876

No problem! Good luck with it, hope you get the problem sorted.

Robbie

ST

Do you have the output of the DVD connected through a VCR? If so it could be the Macrovision Copy Protection affecting the picture. It causes the brightness of the picture to vary. The DVD's that playback OK probably don't have copy protection.

Connecting the DVD directly to the TV should rectify the problem.

shabbyroad

ST is spot on. What Gibs describes is a classic Macrovision problem.
If you have RGB output on your DVD and your TV will accept RGB then try to use that as it will give the best possible image quality and, with no vcr in line, will avoid Macrovision.

DMT

I have this same problem (DVD Recorder connected through VCR), but the difference is that it happens all the time, even with no DVD in the DVD recorder, it's especially noticable in menus..

sceptre

I've a 625, connected directly via scart. Haven't experienced any of the problems you've described & I've tried it with quite a few discs.

Nice little player. 20 euros cheaper in Dixons than Argos, slightly cheaper again via Amazon by the way.