ok, I jinked myself...
Last night we rented Eight Legged Freaks (I know, but we like the goofy horror stuff). I got the drop-out twice. Did some research this morning. What I found was that the drop-outs occurred at chapter changes.
Tried the DVD on two other toshiba DVD players that I have (with a DD Technics receiver and a TV/DVD combo) and it worked fine. Tried the DVD this morning on the Outlaw by jumping to the chapter, and what I found was a 1 sec delay between the video and when the audio kicked in. The other systems I have did not have this delay.
Here's the weird part, when I rewind it past the chapter breaks and played it, it didn't do it this morning.
oh well, where does this put me? Maybe switching optical cables? The drop-outs only started after I got a outlaw optical cable. Bad cable? Is it fixable?