TV and DVD fettling

[lnr]

I had great fun yesterday afternoon plugging TV and DVD player together and got it all working no problem. Then I tried plugging a sound cable from the DVD player into the back of the stereo but it didn't produce any sound through the speakers so I plugged the CD player back in and thought not much of it. Until later when Jan came round for a coffee and when I went to put a CD on I realised the sound on the stereo had accidentally got turned down to zero, probably when I was moving it around, it's easy to knock. Doh!

Tried it again this morning and discovered that with the TV off you can quite happily use the DVD player just as a CD player. Put the TV on and play a DVD instead and sound comes out of both TV and stereo. Looks like we'll just have to turn TV volume right down to zero in order to watch with just sound from the stereo though: if you press mute you end up with a great big mute icon in the middle of the picture all the time.

Thinking about retiring the CD player if the DVD player can do the job for it, but wondering if it will be able to play things which are supposedly copy protected to stop you using them on computers where you might rip them. Anyone have anything they know to be copy protected in this way that we can test with? If it just works then perhaps I can flog the CD player for a fiver or maybe even a tenner, which would be cool. Jan has tentatively offered to lend us her video player too, which would be cool. Very very very tempted to go out this afternoon and pop into Fopp and look at their DVD selection.

Comments

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

Yay, sounds good! Glad it's all working.

Anyone have anything they know to be copy protected in this way that we can test with?

One of the CDs in my office is protected like that. Will dig it out next week. There were some stories at the time of problems caused by trying to play them on computers; don't know if the same applies here.

Good luck with Fopp if you go. HMV have got a sale on, too - 3 DVDs for 20 quid. (Yeah, I went in this morning...)

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

We have our TV/stereo set up like that too, only I can never find the stereo remote when I want it so I always wind up turning the TV sound back up. Which is very strange when imc then puts the stereo on before the TV, you get an odd echoing effect (the stereo is just a little bit behind the TV for some reason...).

[saddad.livejournal.com]

If you have stereo audio out of the back of the TV, route that through your amp. You can then leave the volume of the TV at zero . The only hassle then is that you'll need to switch the amp from TV audio in to DVD audio in when you want to watch a DVD, but I find this a lot less hassle than pissing around with volume controls.

[lnr]

I couldn't spot an audio output on the back of the telly when I was peering at it the other day, though I could just have missed it. Given my stereo only has one external input your technique requires either an external switch box (L12.99 from Maplin) or grobbling behind it unplugging and replugging cables. Just fiddling with the volume seems the easier solution to me.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I have been using my DVD player as a CD player for several years with no problems at all.

As to the sound thing, I keep the TV volume set to zero. It requires some input switching when going from DVD/CD to cable to VCR but part of that is because I am running digital sound from the digital cable box to the receiver.

[lnr]

Haven't yet managed to get the sound from the TV itself out of the speakers: we're not on cable, so we can't use the stereo output from a hypothetical cable box here, and I didn't spot one on the telly itself.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Do you have a VCR?

[lnr]

Not yet no :-)

I know in theory one can watch all telly through the VCR channel once you do have one and get the sound out through the stereo that way: can't yet try it out in practice.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

That's what I was going to suggest