DMR-ES15S audio and picture problems

Consumer Electronics
#1

I’m new to the forum, but I’ve been checking through the past several months of threads on the DMR-ES15S and haven’t come across anyone having this particular problem, so I thought I’d put it out there for the more experienced users of this device (I just purchased mine on Sunday and hooked it up last night).

The problem is that the audio out of the device through the RCA outputs is not in sync with the audio out of the device through the coax. What I want to know is, is this standard for the device, or is something wrong with mine?

My setup is as follows:

  • Coax cable from wall to DMR-ES15S
  • S-Video cable from DMR-ES15S to TV
  • Audio L/R from DMR-ES15S to Nakamichi AV-2 (stereo receiver)
  • Coax cable from DMR-ES15S to VCR
  • Coax cable from VCR to TV

So the cable signal normally passes to the TV through both the DMR-ES15S and the VCR via the coax. Sound comes out of the TV. But if I want sound to come out of my stereo speakers, I turn on the receiver and set it to receive the audio from the DMR-ES15S, and the problem I’ve observed is that the audio coming out of the stereo is not in sync with the audio coming out of the TV. I realize that normally you would not have both the stereo and TV outputting sound, but it still troubles me that this problem exists. For comparison, before I got the DMR-ES15S I was just using the VCR (yeah, REALLY old school), and this problem does not exist, when I hook the audio L/R from the VCR to the stereo and run the stereo and the TV sound at the same time, they are perfectly in sync.

Another problem I noticed was that the color was different between the S-video connection and the coax connection. That is, when watching a TV signal through the coax, the picture was one color, but when I switched the TV to Video 1 and watched the same signal through the S-video connection, the picture was a slightly different color (enough that it bothered me). Again, is this normal for the device? Has anyone seen this before? Or is it just my unit? Does the DMR-ES15S have a way to adjust the color coming out of the S-video connection?

By the way, I’m using a regular analog CRT, hence why I’m using S-video instead of component inputs.

Any help on this is much appreciated.

Thanks,
Bryan

#2

The audio synch thing is pretty normal when you have a loop like that on the coax line. If you want to have decent audio, you should turn off the TV speakers.

You should be monitoring the DVD with component inputs to get the best picture. Since your TV does not have component inputs, Svideo is the next best choice. The coax will give you the worst picture. Svideo gives you more contrast, more colors and a brighter image with less video noise. Sometimes a bad svideo cable can create wierd pictures.

Sounds like your TV is pretty marginal, technology-wise, and is not up to the task of displaying high-quality pictures. But with some careful adjustments, you should be able to coax a decent image out of it with the svideo input.

#3

Thanks for the reply. My concern over the sync issue was that I never experienced this previously with the VCR (which is also Panasonic), only now with the DMR-ES15S, so I wasn’t sure if something was wrong with my particular unit or not. Sounds like having an extra unit in line with the coax may be making an existing sync issue noticeable, I will have to re-hook the unit up tonight without the VCR in line and see if that makes a difference. Like I had said in my post, I realize that normally you wouldn’t run the stereo and the TV speakers at the same time, it just bothered me that this sync issue existed.

The S-video cable I have is the same one I’ve been using for my DVD player for the last 3 years without problem, so I don’t think that’s the issue. Since I could never put a TV signal through the DVD player, I have no way of knowing whether this issue has always existed. I’ll do a little more experimentation tonight to see if I can get them closer together. The problem is that I didn’t like so much the colors using the S-video signal - they looked too saturated. Really what I have to do is play a DVD using the DVD player, unhook it and hook up the DMR-ES15S, then play the same DVD and see if I see a difference. That should tell me if a problem really exists or not.

Yes, my TV is pretty old - 14 years and counting - but it’s a high-end Panasonic 27-inch and I actually really like the picture and prefer it to some of the low-end LCD’s and plasma’s out there. I’ll fiddle around with the controls to see if I can improve it.

Thanks again.

Bryan

#4

What you are seeing as “oversaturated” colors is actually improved contrast and more colors with less video noise. Re-adjust the TV and you’ll get a decent image. I used to have such a Panasonic 27", I agree it’s a good picture. Unfortunately, that set does not remember different picture settings for the different inputs, so you’ll need to shoot for something in between unless it does have some sort of “profile” memory, which it might. that would mean just switching the profiles when you switch inputs. Also be sure you do not have both the composite and svhs inputs connected at the same time.

I’ll add that the Es15 does have some settings for lighter or darker images on the output.

#5

I have noticed a sync issue as well, so it is not just your unit. I wouldn’t call it a “problem”, but it is not something I expected. Like yourself, I am coming from a VCR world, so I notice the differences.

The ES15 is a digital device so the analog input has to be sampled to record. Then to play, the discrete signal has to be converted to analog to send to the TV. There is a delay inherent in both of these steps. Here is my guess: When you are playing through the recorder (not necessarily recording) so that the signal goes in the coax and out the (in my case) composite video, the signal still passes through the discretizing and and de-discretizing circuits, resulting in a delay and the signal being out of sync with the signal that comes out of the coax unaltered.

What this also would mean is that in addition to the signal being delayed, it would also be degraded slightly by an unnecessary set of conversions. I have not noticed such a degradation and would expect it to be extremely subtle.

If my guess is right, this delay should be characteristic of all DVD recorders.