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05 Apr, 00:00
I had this unit for a day before I had a problem with it, but having solved the problem that first time, it has not recurred and I'm pleased with the DVD player now.
Here's what happened: Playing DVD's worked exceptionally well, including DVD-R and DVD+RW discs, but after the first few minutes using the video input, the image went nuts.
It still worked for playing DVD's. The machine was only flaky when using the video input.
What I saw was first that the image scrolled up the screen like the vertical hold was off and then the image stabilized in the center, but black bars obscured portions of the image and occasionally the whole screen would go dark for several seconds.
I tried connecting the device to the outputs of my VHS, DVD player, DVD recorder and XBox. The video problem remained. I tried changing aspect ratios on the Astar DVD player and using the Reset command and that was ineffective.
I was on hold awaiting an RMA number when I discovered the fix.
Here's the fix: I connected it to my set-top DVD player's composite output and changed the aspect ratio on that output from 4:3 to 16:9 and then back to 4:3. Apparently, that was enough of a kick to get the video input working again on the Astar DVD player.
My theory is that the analog-to-digital converter chip on the Astar DVD player was freaking out and when I changed the aspect ratio on the signal going into it, that effectively kicked it past whatever glitch it had encountered.
Since that time it has behaved perfectly well. I would go so far as to say that sometimes it has been abused a bit, having been kicked around in the back of the car. Nevertheless, it's still going strong.
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