Page 1 of DVD Player through TV

I have a Pioneer DV444 and am playing it through an old Sony Nicam TV. I am using an IXOS Scart to Scart lead into the Sony`s S-Video scart socket.

Not having heard a DVD through a normal TV before I am surprised how much I have to turn up the TV`s volume to get a decent sound level, nearly three times that used to watch videos. This is a bit of a problem when you switch back to the TV as you get deafened!

Has anyone else had the same problem? Would another palyer such as the Sony DV300 be any better? Could the player be at fault? Do I just have to get used to cranking up the volume?

Unfortunately no chance of running a home cinema set-up as yet - wife not keen.

Is the player chipped / upgraded / modified in any way at all?

Have a look through the threads. In the last week, there have been about 3 references to this. Everyone running this way seems to have the same problem to a greater or lesser degree.

The only time I haven`t is when I watched a DVD and selected the stereo option (rather than 5.1) in the Disc language options. this came through nice and loud.

No the player is bog standard.

Unfortunately I don`t think the Pioneer has such an option, I will check though. Thanks for the tip.

Abraham means the options on the particular disc itself, rather than the DVD player. From the disc`s menus you should be able to select audio options (where you choose language, etc) - there will be several options such as English 5.1, French 2.0 etc - there may well be an English 2.0 (i.e. normal stereo) option - this is what he`s referring to.
I can`t say I`ve really noticed this as a problem, the exception being Shrek R1.

This item was edited on Wednesday, 12th December 2001, 16:36

Hi there - I have experienced this problem too. My response has been to use a low tech pro-logic sound system in favour of the TV sound.

Jimi

A bit of while since you posted your message, but did you ever get to the bottom of this.
I`ve recently got the same player and got the same problems.

Any further comments would be appreciated

Thanks,

It seems that many makers do this on purpose when relaying a stereo downmix of the DD/DTS soundtrack to a TV. The reason being that the dynamic range is such that with a higher output level some TV audio inputs could overload. On most quality brands of TV it shouldn`t be a problem but I guess they decided to cover all bases.

I agree it`s a bit of a pain and I reckon some makers have taken the attenuation a bit too far but then I suppose they feel it`s better this way than having customers complaining of distorted sound through their TV.

Some players have a facility to compress the dynamic range of the audio track especially for TVs. Have a good look in the manual and you might find a section referring to "TV Mode". On my own player this makes some difference but the level is still pretty low...

Hope this helps - sorry I missed this thread until now.