Hello. Bought a new DVD Player yesterday, a Philips DVP3020.

Everything is OK apart from when playing footage through the AV sockets (the AV devcice is a Camcorder). I have video but no audio. The odd thing is though, if I turn the volume to maximum I can just about make out the sound as a whisper?!

I've attached a pic of the setup if it's any help to you in helping me:-
http://img338.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img2763vx8.jpg

If I understand correctly you're trying to daisychain the ouput from the camcorder through the DVD player?

You aren't doing anything wrong. The problem is that DVD players aren't designed to daisychain. Technically there are no inputs on DVD players, but most players will pass through signals received through the Video Out socket to the composite pin on the SCART cable. It doesn't usually work with audio signals.

Well, it worked with the last DVD player I had, an Alba.

There are, if you look close in the picture, 4 things involved in this; the tv, the DVD player, a video recorder, and the camcorder.

The tv does not have a SCART socket (it's a 20 year old tv), the SCART cable connects the DVD Player to the Video Recorder, and I watch the DVD using the video recorders AV channel. The camcorder is watched via the DVD player (when set to standby mode) via the Video recorders aforementioned AV channel.

Sounds confusing but it did work perfectly. it's just that i've lost the sound!

You have connected the camcorder outputs to the DVD player outputs. This is not a very good idea for a number of reasons. In fact you could damage either or both units by continuing to do this.

Audio outputs from a device are generally low impedance and are intended to feed a much higher impedance. So connecting two outputs together loads both much more than either is meant to be. The usual result is the signal level gets seriously attenuated. Worse case scenario is one or other device starts smoking!

Also when a unit is powered off it is possible for the output to closely resemble a short circuit. This again is not something you want to put across the output of another device.

I suspect your old player had the audio and video phonos wired directly across the SCART pins. It also may have had an output stage that didn't become a short circuit with the power off. Thus it did not load the output of the camcorder unduly and drag it's output down severely.

Your new player has two options for why it is different. The phono sockets and SCART pins may be fed by separate amplification stages. Or they are fed by the same stage but that stage effectively becomes close to a short circuit with the power off. Either will explain why you cannot hear anything. In the first instance because there is no simple direct path from phono socket to SCART and in the second instance because the camcorder output has been attenuated out of existence (almost).

So the only solution is to find an alternative means of feeding the camcorder into the TV. I don't suppose the VCR has two SCARTs? Can't really see from the photo you posted. In which case if both have INPUT capability you could use a SCART to phono adapter to connect the camcorder. Otherwise you may have to get a SCART switch to select between DVD and camcorder into the VCR.

I hear what your saying, but I think the Alba player is an exception in this regard.

As an experiment I tried the same with my LG DVD player and I got the same result as your Philips: picture but no sound (well, a tiny whisper of audio). The picture quality was also very poor, indicating that the video signal was losing signal strength in a big way when connected through the DVD player.

The best solution I can think of is to buy a phono to SCART adapter, something like this. This will allow you to connect the camcorder to the SCART socket on the VCR. If you don't want to disconnect the DVD player SCART every time you view camcorder footage, buy a SCART splitter.

Thanks for your very helpful replies, chrisjr & meltcity.

chrisjr, thanks for your fascinating explanation of what's happening.
meltcity, thanks for trying it yourself and confirming the problem.

Both of you are fine fellows - thanks again!