Audio problem with some DVDs---any ideas?

14 years ago

We have rented a couple of DVDs from Netflix that seem to have no audio. Midnight in Paris, The Artist(didn't matter a lot, eh?), and a BBC TV show. Now, other discs seem to play just fine. On one Midnight in Paris DVD (I've tried twice), we seemed to get a background music track, but otherwise nothing.

We have a LG TV, a Samsung BluRay player, DISH TV, a Bose speaker system and a universal remote. Tried all components for volume control, nothing.

Other BluRay discs (ones we own, even the ones with lousy ads) play just fine. A rented BluRay from Netflix played fine last week. A standard DVD from Netflix (Grateful Dead at Winterland) played fine last night,

Any ideas?

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Comments (5)

yosemitebill
14 years ago
You know, years ago consumer electronics were built like appliances - hardware that was designed to work as specified when built and sold.

Occasionally, after the hardware design and release, problems would arise and "technical service bulletins" would be issued by the manufacturer and problems would be fixed, usually under warranty.

Later on, with firmware (computer software) now controlling products, manufactures could make fixes with a firmware upgrade and avoid costly hardware changes.

Next came, "why should we wait on releasing this product, when we can do it now and finish it up in firmware upgrades later that the customer can/has to do later on?"

So now, with Blu-ray, we have both hardware manufactures and Blu-ray DVD authoring facilities and replicators, all taking the same approach - make the customer figure it out and try to correct it with firmware upgrades.

It's the same mentality used in the computer industry to make their failings your responsibility to figure out and resolve.

OK! Off my soapbox now! Sushipup, try doing a firmware upgrade from the onscreen menus, with an internet connection, and see if the manufacturer has not already addressed the hardware/software conflict.

If, when trying to perform an upgrade, it fails, try downloading the appropriate file to a USB thumb drive or CD-R instead and installing that way - the mfg website will usually provide a text file describing how to do this.
sushipup1
Original Author
14 years ago
We updated not too long ago, but I'll ask Mr. Pup to try that. Happily Midnight in Paris is on TV tonight (one of the premium channels) so I may finally get to watch it!

Will report back...
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sushipup1
Original Author
14 years ago
Tried upgrades, no help.

After getting more soundless DVDs from Netflix (both regular and BluRay), we got a new $100 BlyRay player yesterday. All the DVDs play just fine now.

Sheesh.
rdmusc
14 years ago
I was going to ask if you were hooked up with an HDMI cable.
sushipup1
Original Author
14 years ago
Oh, yes. It would appear that Bill nailed the problem with the hardware upgrade need.

Anyone want a sometimes-functional 3 year old BluRay player?