DVD recording

[soundspider]

Hi,

 

OK, a church has asked me to look at a visuals system they have cos there's a really weird problem with the recording. Basically their system is 3 dome PTZ cameras and a DVD player feeding into a Kramer switcher/scaler, one VGA output converted into composite (the other goes to their projector), fed into a 6-way AV distro amp with sound from their mixing desk, which then goes to a couple of external LCD screens and into a DVD recorder for recording the service.

 

The problem is the recording - pictures always work fine, but the sound is very random. DVD+R discs are a nightmare, not really working at all. DVD-R discs have better success, working on most DVD players and TVs (with the major exception of the minister's!). It gets weirder though, in that when I play the sound through the church's DVD player (a separate unit from the recorder) and onto the projector, again the picture is fine, but the sound will not play through the mixing desk.

 

I thought originally it was just the minister's DVD player/TV being old and being an incompatibility issue, but why would the sound not play through the sound desk when it will play through the same DVD player into a TV? Also I had the same problem using an AV capture stick onto a laptop - picture but no sound. Is it hooked up wrong? Do they need different equipment? Is there an easy alternative to DVD recorders? How is this usually done? Been trying to sort this for ages and am at my wits end - I'm a sound guy, not visual!! Any help or advice would be great!

 

Thanks,

 

Alan

[timsabre]

What make is the dvd recorder? Some are more compatible than others. Lite-On are notably unpredictable... but normally the playback machine will just refuse to play at all if it doesn't like it.

 

Could be some weird phase reversal causing a mono signal to cancel out?

 

Maybe the problem with playing through the sound desk is a different problem which is just muddying the waters. Have you tracked that down by feeding in some known good audio down the same cables as the DVD player?

[themadhippy]

Is the dvd player set to output the correct flavor of audio? my (rather ancient now) dvd player requires a change in the audio menu depending on what type of audio is on the disc

[paulears]

A decent DVD recorder is the key. I too have had problems with Lite-ons. Finicky over disks, and from time to time, they freeze during finalisation. I've also got Panasonics which seem bomb proof, and anything recorded on these plays on everything. Sound wise, I've never had problems - and I have never had video without audio. Before you do anything, swap the recorder and check another one works. If the audio fault remains, then the snag is in the system.

[soundspider]

I believe the DVD recorder is Bush, which I know isn't a fantastic make. The audio system is working fine - I have played regular DVD's through their DVD player and the sound is perfect, its only the recorded sound that doesn't work. I have found a way of resolving the problem by playing the recorded disc through the DVD recorder into a USB AV capture stick onto a computer, and then burning that onto a DVD using the DVD-video format, but it seems a little round-about. Do you reckon a different DVD recorder will sort it out? Thanks again.

 

Alan

[sleah]

Surely this has something to do with the way in which the DVD recorder is encoding the sound - AC3, MPEG, PCM etc etc??? Some players may be set to downmix, others not etc etc.

[soundspider]

Surely this has something to do with the way in which the DVD recorder is encoding the sound - AC3, MPEG, PCM etc etc??? Some players may be set to downmix, others not etc etc.

 

Hi Simon,

 

What should it be set to? I'm back there tomorrow, so can have a look then.

 

Alan

[Shez]

AC3 (aka Dolby Digital) is pretty universal.

Interestingly, I've just had trouble playing a disc with mpeg audio. My DVD player is hooked up via optical to my amp; no disc has ever given me trouble before but this one (authored by someone inexperienced in such things) produced no audio via the amp. The analogue outputs on the player itself were fine, so presumably the digital connection wasn't happy carrying mpeg. May not be quite the same as your situation, but possibly food for thought.