[jph160]

HI all

I have had one of these for approx 14 months and have noticed today when playing dvd discs the sounds fluctates up and down. the player is connected via HDMI to the TV

anything played from the HDD does not show this problem

have checked the pre-recorded discs in another player all OK

anyone any suggestions or ideas what the fault may be

cheers
JH

[amaninspired]

I have the same problem with my RDR-HXD710, which I've had for about 7 or 8 months. It's connected to a Sony KD32DC11 Wega Trinitron TV via an RGB-enabled SCART lead.

The problem doesn't affect any recordings that the machine makes itself, whether to hard disk or to DVD (albeit that I haven't tried all DVD formats).

I have tried altering some of the settings on the sound menus, both through the tools menu when watching the recording (which allows the virtual surround effect to be altered) and through the main system menu. Specifically, I have tried switching the Auto ATT (attenuation) on and off and also tried switching the sound download mix between normal and Dolby (or surround or whatever it is!), but it doesn't seem to cure the problem.

I have begun to wonder if it's simply a design issue and the machine should have been made with the ability to disable all virtual surround in favour of two channel stereo, but wasn't. Can anyone clarify or assist?

[jph160]

Hi Thanks for your reply/comment

contacted retailer sending back for full refund as it only 11 months old and they cant replace

i think this is a known fault?

[amaninspired]

Believe it or not, I had another try this evening and I think that I may have come up with a solution.

I don't know what sort of TV you are or were using, but mine has an auto volume setting. I switched it off tonight and the problem seems vastly improved, probably completely cured, but I will have to try a few different DVDs before I can say that for certain. Perhaps you could try that before obtaining your refund? Even without establishing a workable fix for DVDs, I really would not want to part with my 710!

I still think that there is something unusual about the way that these units output sound, though. The previous DVD player that I was using (a Sony DVP-S325 - a very old model by today's standards) didn't cause the TV these difficulties. Perhaps someone could explain why the downmix (if that's the right term) that the 710 and 910 use for proprietary DVDs could affect an auto volume on a TV when the same issue isn't caused by anything that comes over Freeview (either through the TV's internal Freeview tuner or that built into my 710)?

[dspencer]

Just a thought, but could it be that the sound output level from the 710/910s DVD player is too loud for the input on your television?

So that when it peaks, the auto-volume on the television automatically turns the volume down to avoid distortion?

Personally, I've never played a bought DVD through the television sound - always turn on the 5.1 surround. And I've never had a problem with that.

[amaninspired]

Thanks for replying. I'm really not sure. The problem often seems to occur when comparatively quiet speech is combined with mid to loud volume background noise. As you can imagine, watching an episode of '24' can be problematic! It also seemed to have a real difficulty in handling canned laughter on a DVD of 'Father Ted'. However, there appears to be more to it than that.

Some films have also suffered, for example 'Hostel' was quite badly affected. I can't remember if there is a way of turning down the output levels on the 710 (I don't think that there is, but I'm not sure). Still doesn't explain why the problem only affects proprietary DVDs and not anything that the player itself records, though.

Would quite like 5.1 surround, but given that I'm not happy when the neighbours are being too noisy, I think I'd be pretty hypocritical if I set up anything louder at my current address!

[amaninspired]

OK, I'm convinced I've got to the bottom of it this time!

In the audio settings, accessible from the main system menu, there is a setting for "Auto DRC". It now seems to me that, whilst other settings can have an effect upon this one, this is the root cause.

When set to "TV Mode", it attempts to make quiet sounds audible. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work very well and what happens is that instead of boosting quiet sounds to make them audible it actually quietens noisy sounds surrounding the quiet ones and everything becomes inaudible! Changing the setting to "Normal" (might be "Standard") does seem to be a fix.

HURRAH!

[amaninspired]

Oops, that should have read "Audio DRC".

AND, it certainly works.

[Nigel Goodwin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jph160

i think this is a known fault?

Just checked on Sony Assist, there are no technical bulletins about any such problems.

[It's only me]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dspencer

Just a thought, but could it be that the sound output level from the 710/910s DVD player is too loud for the input on your television?

So that when it peaks, the auto-volume on the television automatically turns the volume down to avoid distortion?

Personally, I've never played a bought DVD through the television sound - always turn on the 5.1 surround. And I've never had a problem with that.

That would be my guess, I always take my sound source from the digital coax straight into my 5.1 snd system and never had this problem

[amaninspired]

No, for me it was definitely changing the "Audio DRC" setting from "TV Mode" to "Standard".

I can't actually remember what this function is supposed to achieve, but it only affects certain proprietary DVDs and the problems described at the beginning of this thread relate to that, rather than anything that the unit itself records.

Thanks anyway, but I'm pretty certain that anyone who experiences this problem has a fix in the "Audio DRC" setting.