Disk goes out of sync, Leona DVD
 

I just bought a Leona brand DVD (moderately higher end here in Thailand, Hong Kong origin), and have opnly watched two movies so far.
I bought this one because it promotes a program it has for reading old or imperfect disks (call me gullible).

Here is the problem.
One of the movies started to go out of sync. At its worst, it was nearly a second difference. It would get closer to sync at times, then slowly get further off.

I played the chapters that were most out of sync (from Scene Selection) and they played fine.

I tried the disk on my computer, playing it from beginning to end, and it was always exactly in sync.

So I think that the problem is with this Leona player. The program it has for reading bad DVDs is what is putting it out of sync. It may skip some visual frames where there are bad sectors, but leaves the audio as is.

What can I do? Are there workarounds? I know I can always stop and start from a badly synced chapter, but if there is something else I can do, I'm willing to try.
Alternately, is this a reason to return the device?

Cliff

Hi, welcome to the site. :)

The more likely issue is that the DVD isn't authored or encoded properly. Does it do this for all DVDs -- including official releases that were pressed by a studio/factory -- or simply on home burned discs?

Given how most all DVD players are made from cheap kits these days (manufactured by Funai, for example), it's unlikely that you've come across a unique player. Until it can be proven to go out of sync on an official pressed DVD release of some kind, and be recreated multiple times, I would suggest the fault lies with the audio/video on disc.

Computers can overcome certain a/v problems, in certain players, while a DVD player is strict to the DVD-Video format specs. Any small deviation from the specs, and the media could play badly, or even not play at all.

I just returned from a visit to the technician for the vendor. He explained everything in Thai, so there may be some misunderstandings. But I did see what I describe with my own eyes.

I brought two DVDs that were seriously out of sync at home. At the store, same machine, there was no problem. However, he used the yellow RCA for the picture. I pointed out that at home, I use HDMI. So he plugged it in and we could see a TINY lag time, but nothing like I had at home. (The lag is the sound preceding the picture)

He went to Resolution and changed it to 720. The sync problem vanished. He said that setting it at 1080p results in a time delay in delivering the picture to the TV. A setting of 1080i reduces that delay, and 720 eliminates it. He also said that if I used the TV speakers (powered by the HDMI cable), the sync problem would also be reduced. My two setting choices (direct audio from DVD to amp and high resolution) both were contributing to the problem.

A friend, on hearing that, said that I could also send audio to the amp from the TV itself if I wanted to use my external speakers.

Most of my viewing is on the low-quality disks that are everywhere here. In time, I may go for some of the torrent downloads, but for now, the disks they sell on the streets is the stuff I have. So going to 720 is, I assume, not going to be very noticeable.

Comments, friends?

Interesting. It sounds like the internalized buffer system is malfunctioning. And maybe not just on your specific unit, but as an engineering flaw for the entire model series. I've seen similar buffering issues in other electronics devices, and other video devices, but never quite in this exact manner. You see something new every day!

I'd agree completely with this comment: "So going to 720 is, I assume, not going to be very noticeable"

Moreover, unless your TV is as large or larger than 55-60 inches, you can't really see a difference between 720p, 1080i and 1080p anyway. There's a point of diminishing returned on small HDTV displays -- especially any and all budget models.