Forgive me if this isn't in the correct forum, however I have a serious question about one of my set-ups and the audio and video of dvds being misaligned.

In one room, we have a SHARP XFLAT tv and Zenith dvd player hooked through the rear. I noticed when watching Van Helsing that there seemed to be a difference in the video and audio (i.e. mouth moving at different times than words). I also noticed this on Dawn of the Dead. In another room of the house, the movies are fine and don't have this problem so its obviously the set-up. Also, I hooked a portable dvd player through the front of the tv in question and the movies were fine, no problems. Now, is there anything I can do to fix this problem or change some settings on the main dvd player, which seems to be the problem? Thanks!

Hmm...now that is a strange problem. Question is, are you running the sound through a surround sound system? Because there's a sound delay setting on some that could slightly change the timing.

I kinda doubt that it's the player or the TV, although it may be, but for what reason, I have no clue.

No, the dvd player just goes straight to the stereo tv, don't have surround.

OK, what video/audio hook-ups are you using on the back of your TV?

Do you have component or S-video hook-ups?

I believe S, they are prongs with yellow red and white.

Nope, those are your standard RCA plugs. Red is for Right Channel, White is for the Left, and Yellow is for Video.

With a Flatscreen TV, you should be able to use component video, S-Video is a single black wire/plug that has several small pins inside.

There's basically, I guess now, 5 different video inputs for TVs.

The worst picture quality (PQ) is your standard co-axial cable that most cable and satellite reception comes in. The single black cable that has one little pin in it which screws into or slides onto a threaded connection.

The next, which sounds like what you're using, is the standard, R, L, Video RCA jacks.

The next is S-video. This usually is the highest PQ connection you can get on a standard resolution cable or satellite reciever.

Next is Component. Component used to be the best until fairly recently. Component uses the same RCA plugs as the above example, but it splits the video into 3 distinct plus. One is for black levels, and the other two split the color bands. Most DVD players have this connection. This requires a relatively more expensive cable to use.

The newest video connection is DVI. (Digital Video Input) All others are analog. This connection is on newer DVD players and on HDTVs.

Your SHARP X-Flat TV should have component and S-video connections.

However, none of these should affect your audio and video dis-syncronation problems.

I agree that for a better picture you should be using component or S-video for the video connection. You'll see a much-improved video image.

However, doing so won't do a dmaned thing to fix your audio-sync issue, which I suspect is a problem with your DVD player. Some player models have been known to experience audio-sync problems with certain titles. I don't know anything about your specific player, but it sounds like this is the case with the titles you mentioned.

If you hook another DVD player up to the same TV using the same inputs (which is the only real way you're going to be able to test this) and it plays the DVDs you mentioned just fine, then you have your answer.

If the problem is indeed your Zenith DVD player, you might check with the manufacturer to see if it is a known issue. There may have been a firmware update issued to correct the problem. Otherwise, the best (only) solution will be to buy a new DVD player.

I had this problem once with a disc. Each time I would hit stop or rewind or something the audio would synch back up. But then I put another disc in the player and it worked fine and I've never had any more issues. So to answer your question, I don't know what the problem is.

I don't have a problem, persay, but what are these "firmware" updates? And how does one install them?

Since DVD players are essentially specialized computers, they have internal "firmware" that is held in flash memory that works kind of like their own operating system. Sometimes the manufacturer updates the firmware to take care of problems that arise.

How the firmware is updated depends on the manufacturer. There are some that is as easy as downloading the patch from the Internet, burning it to a CD-R and putting it in the player (there have been a few players that could be rendered region-free using this method). Other companies require the player be sent to a service center.