HELP!!! Problems with picture on new DVD player

[Kid Vid]

I got the sony dream sys 450 and hooked it up to an old samsung tv (old model but crystal clear). It's hooked via a panasonic vcr. I need the vcr to get switch to the inline mode.

Everything works great except the picture would washout into darkness, then complete blackness and then it would slowly appear until the picture was clear again. This cycle would happen continously.

I'm using RCA cables because I dont' have S-video port. I've tried different DVD's with the same result. I think it's some sort of interference because I've noticed this with my friend's projector screen. After turning off his electrical heater, it would work fine. So it might be a power source issue also.

I'm not even close to an expert. Any help would be appreciated

[FulciLives]

You can't hook up a DVD player through a VCR because the VCR will set off the MACROVISION copy protection. Now some VCR makes/models will not set of MACROVISION unless they are actually RECORDING but that doesn't seem to be the norm. Most will set it off even if you just try to pass the signal from the DVD player through it to the TV.

If the TV does NOT have direct A/V hook-ups but instead ONLY has the RF cable hook-up then you can buy a converter for the DVD player that will convert the A/V output to the RF cable. Then you have to either hook it directly to the TV or you can use a selector box (radio shack has them as well as the converter I am speaking of) that will accept both the VCR input and the DVD input and then switch between them.

If the TV does have A/V hook-ups but only one set then you don't need the RF converter but you will still need to use an A/V selector so that the DVD player signal is not going through the VCR.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
As for your friend I don't know about the electrical heater thing but some front projector units are very sensitive to MACROVISION even when the source is plugged directly into the input of the projector. For this reason many people with front projectors will pay extra to buy a DVD player that has been modified to remove MACROVISION.