VCR - very low sound on some channels

[larrymoencurly]

I have a Panasonic PV-V4521 VCR that gave low sound volume on some
channels, whether the VCR was used to record or used as a tuner, but
the sound was fine on other channels. However the bad channels aren't
confined to any one band -- 3, 8, 12, 15, and 61. The sound is fine
on the other channels -- 5, 10, 21, 25, 27, 33, 39, 45, 51, and 55,
and even weak stations 4 and 48. The picture looks good on all but
those latter two channels. All the channels give normal sound level
with the TV and with another VCR (JVC U4600). I have an outdoor
antenna and no cable.

Deleting all the channels from the Panasonic VCR and having it rescan
for channels didn't help, but unplugging the VCR for a few minutes
apparently did.

Do quartz tuners ever act up like this? I thought that they usually
either gave bad reception for all channels or only for one band of
channels.

 

[exray]

larrymoencurly wrote:

I have a Panasonic PV-V4521 VCR that gave low sound volume on some
channels, whether the VCR was used to record or used as a tuner, but
the sound was fine on other channels. However the bad channels aren't
confined to any one band -- 3, 8, 12, 15, and 61. The sound is fine
on the other channels -- 5, 10, 21, 25, 27, 33, 39, 45, 51, and 55,
and even weak stations 4 and 48. The picture looks good on all but
those latter two channels. All the channels give normal sound level
with the TV and with another VCR (JVC U4600). I have an outdoor
antenna and no cable.

Hmmm, I don't have an answer but I'll put in some food for thought.
I work in cable and balancing audio levels across channels is nothing
more than guesswork even with scopes and spectrum analyzers at hand.
The audio bandwidth of the program content is a major factor in how it
'sounds' on any individual receiving device.
For my purposes a cheapo 13" no-frills TV set is the best common
denominator for average audio. It may take me a week or two to level
out audio from 60+ channels given the combinations of local vs network
vs 800number commercials vs old movies, etc, audio sources.
After all is said and done its not unusual to find certain sets that
behave differently to the compression and af program bandwidth
transmitted by the source and that indeed varies wildly.
You don't have to be a nitpicky person to notice this because the
differences can be very obvious to a casual listener on some sets and
not on others.
Unless someone has some particular clues on your specific model, and I
can't imagine what they might be, I think what you are experiencing is
'normal' in the broadcasting environment.
FWIW
-Bill M

 

[RonKZ650]

If it's a stereo VCR, make sure the audio is not set to SAP. This is a common
thing causing sound problems.
Ron

I have a Panasonic PV-V4521 VCR that gave low sound volume on some
channels, whether the VCR was used to record or used as a tuner, but
the sound was fine on other channels. However the bad channels aren't
confined to any one band -- 3, 8, 12, 15, and 61. The sound is fine
on the other channels -- 5, 10, 21, 25, 27, 33, 39, 45, 51, and 55,
and even weak stations 4 and 48. The picture looks good on all but
those latter two channels. All the channels give normal sound level
with the TV and with another VCR (JVC U4600). I have an outdoor
antenna and no cable.

Deleting all the channels from the Panasonic VCR and having it rescan
for channels didn't help, but unplugging the VCR for a few minutes
apparently did.

Do quartz tuners ever act up like this? I thought that they usually
either gave bad reception for all channels or only for one band of
channels.