sound firle?? (1 Viewer)

I have a question. When I watch various dvd's it seems that the sound fades sometimes (like the volume decreases significantly or the dolby dig cuts out). Has anyone experienced this? Is it possible to "wear out" the sound on a DVD? It seems to happen more on rentals/previously viewed dvd's versus brand new! Some answers would be appreciated!!!!
Thanks

What you may be experiencing is audio dropouts. The most common cause of this is the digital audio cable although the disk can sometimes be at fault. You cannot "wear out" the sound like with tape.

Thanks so much for the reply. I figured you cannot wear out the dvd b/c nothing actually touches it (other than red light). Has anyone else experienced this? It happened at the same spot on Undercover Brother (funny movie by the way) when I re-played it. Is that just a coding error?? Its extremely irritating!!! I will try a new digital cable and see if that helps, but if its happening in the same spot, then that means its the disc itself, right?

Audio dropouts? Of course a lot of us have experienced them. I was just demo'ing some material to a friend about a week ago. Put on the DD version of Saving Private Ryan. The audio and video tracks fell out of sync, causing the Dolby Digital track to cut off intermitently. Everybody encounters it sooner or later.

But, as you well know, the data on a DVD do not "wear out."

There are many things that could cause a dropout. Even a layer change can cause some receivers to momentarily "lose" the signal and take time to lock onto it again causing a dropout. The same thing happens at the beginning of the movie and on menus when the signal changes from DD2.0 to DD5.1 to dts. Every change can result in a lock delay and an audio dropout. I have had dropouts when I used a cheap interconnect after damaging my digital coax cable. I purchased a new cable and installed with no more problems. I also had dropouts on an old optical cable as well. Since I have both hooked up I switched to the coaxial connection. I did not take the time to diagnose but perhaps the cable ends or the LED's could have been dirty or something. I am not sure what would happen if the cable were bent at too sharp an angle either.

It could be possible that the problem is on the disk, either as a manufacturing defect gone unnoticed or possibly from a scratch or dirt. Also, I have seen certain DVD players exhibit the problem when matched up with certain receivers. For example, some older Toshiba DVD players had dropouts when paired up with certain Sony receivers. Changing the receiver to another model or the DVD player to another model would mean no dropouts.

Could also have been a disc scratch, especially with rentals.