Dvd player - brightness fades out and in

Question

i have a dvd player

sony i think, not an off brand

on *some* dvds, the brightness will slowly fade up and down

it goes from too bright with colors washed out, to too dim and

colors muted with too much red

it does this constantly - EVEN WITH THE PICTURE PAUSED!

and it;s only some discs

and it;s not the tv

is this macrovision or some copy protect scheme?

it doesn;t have RF output so i run the direct video signal to a VCR

and the vcr then modulates to channel 3 for my tv, which doesn;t have a direct input.

thx

wle.

Answer 1

Sounds like macrovision to me. Can you connect the DVD directly to the TV, bypassing the VCR? Maybe that could be a part of the problem too.

Answer 2

You are using the worst possible way to transmit video. It is no surprise you do not get a stable picture. In order of preference there is HDMI (digital transmission), component (high quality analog), S-video (medium quality analog), baseband video (the yellow cable), and the worst possible quality is an RF modulator which is no longer used in any modern system.

And so we get to the bottom of the problem. You have hopelessly outdated equipment. If you were to upgrade your TV set you would at least be able to use the video output (baseband video) on your VCR and the component output or HDMI output on your DVD player. Without upgrading your TV there is no way you will get an acceptable picture. Sorry.

BTW Macrovision is one of about 10 possible different copy protection schemes. Any and all of them can and do affect picture quality. Until Hollywood wises up and goes without copy protection (like the music industry has finally done) there will always be issues.

Answer 3

Someone needs to buy a new tv.

Answer 4

It would probably be best to buy a separate RF modulator ($20 at Wal-Mart).  Most companies do not recommend using a VCR as a modulator for a DVD player.

Hope this helps!

Answer 5

that happened with my PS2. But I only use my HD DVD player and PS3 for playing movies now and I no longer have that problem. I don't really know why it did it though. It was really annoying.

Answer 6

my old dvd player did the same thing. perhaps some copy protection. because i dont have the problem with some dvds. its your dvd player for sure though. i use ps3 now and have no problems at all.