I have just bought my first DVD a Sony DVP S525D. I have not invested in a good amp yet so I have connected the player to the TV via SCART and connected the player to my stereo via left and right phone connections.
When I play a DVD the sound on the TV and stereo is much lower than when I used to have a Stereo VCR connected. I have to turn the TV sound way up. Also, when I do this, the soundtrack sound is fine but the dialogue is very muffled and I find myself straining to listen to what everyone is saying. Why is this happening? I know for fantastic sound, I need better sound equipment but I thought that the DVD would at this stage sound as good as my OLD VCR.
What am I doing wrong?

[Reiner]

DVD discs have a very dynamic soundtrack and hence require quite a high volume on your amp to sound right and make the dialog undertstandable, but be aware that also the soundtrack itself might be at fault if it's muffled (depends on the disc).

Since you don't have an AV amp/receiver yet choose the PCM (Stereo or DPL) soundtrack from the disc, as well the quality of the downmix (generated in the DVD player to be send out of the stereo outs) might not be that good.
This applies when you select the 5.1 soundtrack.
And of course the speakers in the TV are not the best either as you figured.

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Rgds,
Reiner