TV-out in black & white (that old chesnut...)

beaker

I've read all sorts of threads on this, so I'm hoping that help is at hand.

I've got a 5 metre s-video lead running from the TV-out on my Ti4200 graphics card to an s-video-to-scart adapter plugged into the back of the TV. It looks like the telly is too old to handle s-video, so I'm getting a black and white picture.

I've read that some people have had success with s-video-to-scart cables from svideo.com but I have already shelled out for the 5 metre s-video cable (and had to hack through the plastic pack, so I guess I can't return it) so I'm looking for an s-video-to-composite adapter to go between the s-video lead and the scart adapter above.

Has anyone had any joy with any of these:

1) S-VHS Composite Video Convertor from Maplin (£4.99)

2) Composite/S-Video Bidirectional Adaptor from Peats (€25.33)

3) S-video to RCA adapter from svideo.com ($3.70) (This one is female s-video to male RCA - which is what I want)

I picked up a PVR 150 on Friday and I'm afraid to take the wrapping off it until I sort out this TV-out issue. (Torture :mad: )

So any help at all would be very much appreciated...

PS I have the latest nvidia drivers and I have selected PAL I output

pickarooney

FWIW, the problem is the SCART connection and its missing chrominance connectors. I use a short s-video to composite lead, which came with my graphics card. I'm surprised you didn't get such a connector as they're standard with cards with a tv-out port. They can be tricky to find outside of a gfx card packaging, your best bet might be to find someone who's upgraded their video card recently and has a spare one of these leads.

matrim

I've had the same problem. Neither the connectors for peats or maplins work. I've checked both of them.

I was talking with one of the guys in peats at the weekend and he said that there was nothing to fix this problem, as my TV was too probably too old.

But if you find anything, maybe it would work for me too.

Lump

Are you sure the Video card isn't outputting in a daft format?

John

Tom Dunne

matrim wrote:

I was talking with one of the guys in peats at the weekend and he said that there was nothing to fix this problem, as my TV was too probably too old.

I find that very hard to believe. What age is the TV?

From my experiences (do a search, it's all here on boards.ie), the problem is the cables themselves - I went through several of them until I got the one on s-video.com to work.

pickarooney

Sounds dogy to me as well. If you can borrow a new TV you can confirm it. As Lump says, double-check that the GFX card's tv-out settings are not on NTSC or SECAM.
I think I have a spare one of those cables I mentioned earlier, I could probably send it to you if you're really stuck.

Dr_MalPractice

i encountered the same problem with my Asus9200se, which has both composite and s-video outputs. i ended up using both of them, and connecting them both using a standard scart to composite/s-video adaptor from a local tv shop. that did the trick quite nicely in my case. :cool:

blorg

I am also outputting S-Video from a computer. My TV takes S-Video, Composite and RGB all on the same SCART connector. You have to switch the mode on the TV. If you are on the wrong mode, the picture will appear in black and white.

I believe this is because the SCART standard puts S-Video luminance on the same pin as the composite signal; S-Video chroma is on a different pin. So if you are feeding it S-Video but have the TV set to composite you will only see a B&W picture.

(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCART)

I would severely doubt that it is anything to do with the lead or the adapter; these are very simple components without a lot of variety between them.

HTH.

pickarooney

Dr_MalPractice wrote:

i encountered the same problem with my Asus9200se, which has both composite and s-video outputs. i ended up using both of them, and connecting them both using a standard scart to composite/s-video adaptor from a local tv shop. that did the trick quite nicely in my case. :cool:

You had both connected at once? What's the bets if you unplugged the S-video connection you would have exactly the same result as you did with both?

jozi

I'm getting B&W on the tv to
Hella confusing thread /me should read it again later

Chalk

your video card should have one of these -
http://www.linuxathome.net/reviews/hercules_4000xt/svideo_rca.gif

then plug a standard yellow cable in there, and the other end inot the tv or scart adapter you have,


has worked on every tv i have tried it on.

beaker

blorg wrote:

I am also outputting S-Video from a computer. My TV takes S-Video, Composite and RGB all on the same SCART connector. You have to switch the mode on the TV. If you are on the wrong mode, the picture will appear in black and white.

I believe this is because the SCART standard puts S-Video luminance on the same pin as the composite signal; S-Video chroma is on a different pin. So if you are feeding it S-Video but have the TV set to composite you will only see a B&W picture.

This is the crux of the matter, I reckon. It is Scart pin 20. If you can switch your TV to S-video mode, it looks for Luminance on pin 20 and Chrominance on pin 15. If, like me, you can't switch to s-video mode, then the TV is looking for a composite picture on pin 20 and only finds luminance. Voila, black and white.

Good info here.

So the s-video-to-composite cable that comes with cards should sort this by providing a composite signal. My card came in my Dell 4500 (I know, I know, I'm building my own next time!) so I don't think I got one of these cables.

But why would the adapters I mention above not do the same thing? Do you think the adapters are wired differently from the graphics card cable?

matrim, have you actually tried them? That's worrying.

pickarooney, that's a very kind offer - to send me a spare cable. If I get to the throw-the-PC-out-the-window stage, I might have to come back to you on that! Would any of you in Dublin have a spare s-video-to-composite cable, by any chance?

And I found this fairly exteme solution on another forum. (Or at least it is extreme to me - I've never used a soldering iron...!):

If there is no mention of S-Video in the menus of your TV then it is not compatible and will only work with composite video. It is only seeing the luminance (B/W) signal where it expecting to find a combined (composite) luminance and chrominance signal. In S-Video the chrominance is carried on a different pin.

There is a way to make it work which is to combine the two signals. Inside the scart adapter join together pins 20 and 15. This will provide a rather crude composite signal but it may be all you need.

And this reply:

Thank you very much. This works fine. I also put a capacitor between pins 15 and 20, this produces a 'near perfect' picture.

Any further thoughts?

PS I am definitely outputting PAL I, not NTSC. The nvidia drivers manual shows a setting for choosing s-video or composite output, but that option does not appear for me. I'm assuming that is for cards with both s-video and composite output - 2 physical connections - which I don't have.

matrim

I didn't get any cables with my laptop (it came 2nd hand).

I'll check all the settings again for NTSC, etc. The TV is about 10 years old so I think it should work.

It's really pissing me off because I've spent about 50 euro on different cables and connectors and it still doesn't work.

beaker

Would anyone have a spare s-video-to-composite cable lying around?

Matrim, did you actually try the adapters from Maplin and from Peats? Can you describe what you did and how it went?

As far as I can figure out the problem, any of those adapters should work fine. Anyone had success with one?

Tom Dunne, I had read the previous threads about all about your exploits and your eventual success. Since I have bought the 5 metre s-video cable already, though, I'm hoping to get an adapter rather than a whole new cable.

theothernt

Hi,

I bought a cheap S-Video cable in Power City and it works fine. I use it to connect a Dell Inspiron 500m to a Sony 28" TV.

That said, a friend of mine gets very random results. He would try and connect games consoles, his sky box, dvd player, pc, etc to a projector and sometimes get black and white, other times colour (all with the same cable). He seems to think the order in which you plug things in (or turn them on) is important.

- Neil

beaker

Here's my mail to s-video.com with their reply:

(I was asking about their S-video to RCA adapter ($3.70) - This one is female s-video to male RCA - which is what I want):

> I just bought a 5 metre s-video cable and a 5 metre audio cable to connect my
> PC to my TV - via a scart adapter. My TV does not seem to be s-video capable,
> so I have a black and white picture.
>
> Will placing the S-Video to RCA Convertor (FM) between the s-video lead and
> the scart adaptor give me a colour picture? (I know you advise the complete
> cable solution, but I already have the long cables. Will the Convertor give
> me the same result?)

Yes, you should get colour with the short adapter, provided, of course, going
into a scart adapter that has composite video input.
>
> My graphics card has a 4 pin s-video out and the nvidia drivers will not give
> me an option to output a composite signal over the s-video cable, so will
> this Convertor actually change the signal from s-video to composite?
>

Yes, it should do the trick.

> One other question: If I take the free postage option for shipping, how long
> would you estimate it would take to reach me in Ireland.
>

It will probably take 10 to 15 days via regular air mail.

Regards,

Joe

This sounds great but I don't want to wait that long. Shouldn't the Maplin one do the same job?

Has ANYONE tried it...?

beaker

In the hope that this might help someone else out:

Both the Maplin adapter and the Peats one were out of stock, so I ordered the s-video.com one.

It was on sale at $3.70 and they do free ordinary mail. Much to my surprise, it arrived within a week.

And it worked!

I'm a happy camper