DVD Player pulses dark then light?

Question

When i watch dvd's on my HDTV. The picture fades in and out...dark then light. My dvd player is not a blue ray or anything and is not HD. waht could be the problem?

Answer 1

Go to Radio Shack and buy a modulator. Unfortunately we're in a transition stage right now between analog and digital. If you have an HD TV set, it has every connection available on the back. Unfortunately most modulators work only with a "compound" system. Video is fed by the yellow cable and audio by the red (left) and white (red). Your alternative is the "S" video output from the modulator if it has one. That gives a sharper picture. The remaining problem is the modulators only have an analog output which has to be connected to the antenna input of your HDTV. Pure analog co-ax. Current technology has once again out stripped available product. I work for Radio Shack. I know. Your best bet is to get a new DVD player that will "up-convert". You won't have High Definition, but the player will take any HD and convert it to a format your TV can handle. Blue Ray is another problem. Back when VCR's were introduced, Sony had Beta. Totally non-compatible. So if you buy a new DVD player, it might not be able to cope with Blue-Ray! Nasty. We're going through it again with Blue-Ray and HD-DVD.  For now just check your TV to see if it has the yellow, red and white inputs. then connect the special cable between your DVD player and the TV and hope for the best. Regardless, if your old DVD player can't handle HD, you can't play an HD disk  unless it can convert. Stick with standard analog DVDs. Right now it looks like Blue-Ray is winning. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

P.S. Sorry Bob, you may be wrong. Regardless, the best rout for the signal flow is from the DVD player to the TV with nothing in between.

Answer 2

This is a symptom of Macrovision copy protection. Are you running your DVD player through a VCR? If so, that is your problem: the copy protection in the DVD is causing the VCR to cut in and out. You should run the DVD player straight to your TV.