DVD/VCR Questions and Answers

Television - DVD and VCR

Q. When watching some movies, voices are very difficult to understand, so we turn up the volume. Then we get hit with music or special effects and it is too loud. We only have a two-speaker system with powered sub. Also, regular TV is usually fine; the problem is mostly when watching a DVD. Are there any settings that can be tweaked to fix this?

A. This is normal - DVDs have a much greater dynamic range than your typical TV broadcast. What this means is that the difference in volume between the quietest sound and loudest sound on a DVD is greater than the difference between the quietest sound and the loudest sound on a TV program. The result is the situation you describe - when you turn up the volume to hear the dialogue, the explosions are loud. This is more apparent on some DVDs than others.

This is the good thing about DVDs since it emulates the way movies are presented in a theater. It may be that your system is not calibrated properly, and the loud sounds are too loud. Try turning down your sub a bit and see if that helps. Expect the special effects to still be quite loud.
If you want movies to be more like TV, your receiver should have a setting for "Night" or "Quiet" or possibly "Dynamic Range." If you turn on this setting, the difference in volume I described above will be much less, and more like normal TV. Do you have a five-channel receiver? If your receiver thinks you have a center channel, and you do not, you will be missing tons of dialogue.

Q. I have a TV/VCR combo with a VCR that breaks down every six months. If I repair it professionally, it will cost me $80 and this will be the second time I have had to get it repaired. I do not trust repair schools and would prefer to fix it myself for free if at all possible. I do not know what is wrong with it. The TV works great but the VCR only plays with no picture, just sound.

A. The symptoms you are giving sounds as if you have a dirty video head. If you use a lot of rental tapes, then you get everyone else's VCR crud in your machine. Use a dry head cleaning type tape; Scotch makes them, and they sell for about $10. If the head is really dirty you may have to disassemble the machine and "scrub" the video head drum with head cleaning swabs and head cleaning solvent, i.e., alcohol. You might also try a wet type head cleaning tape. Sometimes a brand new blank videotape of high quality will scrub the head chips clean. Be careful if you elect to clean those heads manually yourself with a tech wipe and alcohol. There are very fine wire windings around those heads, and if snagged while cleaning, they are trashed. If cleaning does not work, and you have soldering skills, then you can get a replacement upper head drum assembly from MCM or the like for probably $20-$30. There are no eccentricity adjustments on most consumer models.

Q. When I try to play a DVD, the player does not recognize the disc that is in, even if it is new. It just says "no disc." I have a head cleaner for our VCR, is there something similar for a DVD player that can be inserted into the machine? If not, how do I clean the laser that reads the discs?

A. There are laser-cleaning discs available and that is where you should start. But, if that does not work, then it is very possible the laser head is out of alignment. You will have to take it to a shop to get it repositioned properly. Lasers in DVD players go bad all the time. Check the price of a new player before thinking about repairing the old one. Do not be fooled by the higher end units, either. They fail at the same rate as the less expensive ones.

Q. I've had my DVD player for only a few months and have never used it. I put in a DVD, the screen displayed "Loading disc" for about 30 seconds, then said "No disc." Now the machine won't eject the disc. Is there a trick to getting the thing out?

A. Look for the warranty. Sounds like this one should go back to factory. You can try to manually push the sled out by hand, just be careful. Also be very careful if you power up the unit, because it has a laser, which could injure your eyes.

Visit our Community Forums for more answers to your home improvement questions.