...but you never know.

We've had a DVD/Home Cinema system for over 12 months now and up until recently, all has been fine. However, in the last couple of weeks or so, we've noticed that although the system continues to play PAL DVDs perfectly, this is no longer the case with NTSC Region 0 DVDs. On playback, the TV screen plays the NTSC format in black and white and we simply don't understand why as they have played perfectly before.

I read the blurb to do with the system and it explained that this could happen and it depended on one's TV set as to how NTSC DVDs would playback. The fact that they have played back perfectly before suggests that one of the kids have messed around with the TV menu but I have no idea what I'm looking for and, you guessed it, I can't find the blurb for the TV!!

Any suggestions or tips would be most welcome.

Is the blurb for the tv available on the manufacturer's website?

Good point and one that brings a slap to my forehead accompanied by a "...why didn't I think of that before I faffed and farted around with the remote controls for the last two hours...".

I'll take a peek at the Sanyo site.

Cheers.

Have you changed any settings? E.g. RGB to composite?

Seems likely to me that your TV (model?? age???,) can't display NTSC dvd's, but that your dvd player has the option to force the output to be PAL even when playing NTSC. and tis has been changed.

On my dvdplayer the option is PAL, NTSC or MULTI. Under MULTI it will play the DVD in it's correct format. under the other two it will force the out put.

It's a SANYO model CE32WN4-B and it's about 2 years old.

To be totally honest, I wouldn't know where to start!

The black and white thing sounds like you need to tweak the DVD player's PAL/NTSC/Auto setting - auto is probably best (this might be a menu or a switch on the back). Testing another DVD player or console with the TV / testing the player with another TV will tell you which box is set wrong.

A good quick test for whether your TV displays true NTSC (as opposed to having the NTSC signal converted into modified PAL or something) is to look for a) more visible scan lines due to lower NTSC resolution, b) 'tint' picture setting (available in NTSC mode only).