Technology Baffles Me

Seriously, I think my DVD recorder has done the impossible. It isn't just that I don't know how it did what it did, since I don't actually understand how the thing works at all. It's that Not only didn't I know it could be done, I still don't think it should be possible.

To start from the beginning ... a friend asked me if I could record something for her Saturday night, when she would be out of town. While I'm happy to help any friend, I especially want to help someone who's always doing things for me, so of course I wanted to. I told her that I thought I would be able to, though as I haven't recorded anything in a while, I'd have to test it and see. She assured me that it was fine even if it didn't work out, but of course I still wanted it to.

After work Friday, I tested the machine, and it worked. I taped a minute of whatever was on channel 2, and it was fine, so I was happy.

Saturday, I set up the machine (after watching A Lot of Doctor Who). It taped: sorry, recorded.

When I went to check the recording, I found that the picture is fine. There is background sound, car doors closing and heels clicking on the floor, and some music, including the theme song. What there is not, is audible dialog.

How is this possible?

I simply don't believe it. I don't know how the machine, a simple DVD recorder, could separate the sound and only record part of it. If it was silent, if it was picture and no sound, I'd be pissed, but I would not be surprised. This? I just don't get it. It's not that I expect to understand technology, but still. This has me stumped. There's sound on the minute I tested on Friday...

She called today to find out if I'd had success, and I had to say I didn't know. I'm holding out a small, forlorn hope that on another machine, her machine, there might be complete sound. Is that likely? Probably not. But how likely is what happened? Not so very much. What happened?