signal dropout from Panasonic DMR

[paleolith]

A couple of years ago, I got a Panasonic DMR-EZ37VK DVD Recorder -- that's the one with VHS, DVD, and digital tuner, and the ability to record either VHS or DVD from any of the sources. I got it mainly to be able to copy our VHS collection to DVDs, which I did immediately and successfully. Until recently, I had only played those DVDs and a couple of others. Now I have a bit more time for a while and am starting to catch up on deferred watching. Unfortunately, due to this delay, the unit is out of warranty.

And I'm finding that some DVDs don't play correctly. The video signal keeps dropping out. The TV screen flashes irregularly between image and black, and when the black lasts for a while it shows "no signal". This even happens during the menu loop. There is NO problem with the audio at any time.

When it happens, it starts early and continues through the entire DVD. Well, of course I don't watch all the way through, but if I skip to the last scene (which can be difficult when the menu is going in and out), it still happens. If it hasn't happened by the time it gets to the menu, the entire DVD plays fine.

The first DVD I noticed it on was a somewhat scratchy Netflix DVD, so I assumed that was the problem ... until I tried a pristine DVD that I own and had the same problem. I haven't been able to figure out any rhyme or reason to what DVDs won't play. I've had problems, at least, with Oklahoma! (1955), Swimming Pool, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. DVDs that have played fine include McCabe and Mrs Miller, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, The Last Unicorn, Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle, and Amelie. All of these were from Netflix except Eternal Sunshine, which I own.

All of them are mass-produced, pressed, legal DVDs -- nothing burned, nothing from a shady source. Standard DVDs, no HD, no Blu-ray.

I thought about bad connections or maybe bad cables and even did some twisting on the connectors (component video). But a bad connection doesn't make sense, because I can swap back and forth between DVDs that play fine and DVDs that don't, without touching anything else. I can swap between DVD that's failing and broadcast TV through the Panasonic unit (when reception is good). The problem always follows the DVD.

They all play fine on my laptop computer. The ones that had problems on the Panasonic unit play fine on the computer, even directly from the DVD and not ripped.

I don't think there's any problem when using the digital tuner, though it's hard to tell -- we don't have an outside antenna, so the signal is weak and I expect dropouts anyway, but they are generally accompanied by other signs of bad reception. I haven't tried playing a VHS tape recently, though I played a lot when I did the copying and didn't have any problems.

The manual for the unit doesn't offer any clues.

Turning the unit off and back on doesn't help.

I don't think it matters, but the TV is a Sanyo bought in the summer of 2008 -- I could look up the details if it matters.

Can anyone give me any clue as to what's going on?

Thanks,

Edward

[paleolith]

I did some additional experiments.

It works fine on composite video. Had composite and component both hooked up to the TV, switching back and forth, composite had no problems when component had severe problems.

I tried composite on another TV, but that doesn't tell me much, since composite works on the main TV.

I tried playing a VHS tape and it worked fine, but I'd have to try a lot of tapes before I could say for sure that the problem never happens with VHS input.

I don't have an S-video cable. The Panasonic unit doesn't do HDMI. The alternate TV doesn't do any kind of input except antenna and composite.

So it gets more and more bizarre. It can't be the cables or connections, because it continues to be tightly tied to the DVD that's playing. But the unit can read the DVD just fine, as evidenced by the consistently good composite output. So ... it's something to do with generating the component output signal, yet it's triggered by something that's present on some DVDs but not on others.

At least I have a backup. I left the composite video connected. To use it, I have to move the audio cable -- the TV has separate audio for composite and component, but they are shared on the Panasonic DVD recorder. Or I could go buy an S-video cable ($10 at Best Buy) and see if that works.

Edward