S-video output to TV from P.C.

Firewalkwithme

I hooked up my P.C. to my TV last night using the S-Video output and a brand new set of cables. I then played an AVI file on the P.C. but I could only hear the audio coming from the TV - the was no picture. Now, I've never tried this before so I really don't know the first thing about it, all I did was play the file in Windows Media Player so what am I doing wrong? Do I need to activate the S-video output and if so does anyone know how to do this? I'm using Windows XP if that helps.

GrumPy

as far as i know, (correct me if im wrong) s-video only carries video? so technically you should have heard the avi files sound coming from pc speakers? goto advanced display properties and you can play around with 2 screen settings.

Endurance Man

Well with my tv, i have to hit the AV button a few times and cycle through the different connections. Perhaps try that .

Firewalkwithme

Irish GrumPy wrote:

as far as i know, (correct me if im wrong) s-video only carries video? so technically you should have heard the avi files sound coming from pc speakers? goto advanced display properties and you can play around with 2 screen settings.

Yes, it only carries video but I audio cables too - I just didn't mention that because they worked fine. You might be onto something with the screen settings though - I'll check it out, thanks.

Firewalkwithme

Endurance Man wrote:

Well with my tv, i have to hit the AV button a few times and cycle through the different connections. Perhaps try that .

Tried that but no joy unfortunately - still just got the audio

Venom

I tried this a while back using a s-video to scart lead (room tv aint got no s-video) and found that the picture was in black and white and when I played anything using VLC, BS player or Media Player the screen was black

Firewalkwithme

Venom wrote:

I tried this a while back using a s-video to scart lead (room tv aint got no s-video) and found that the picture was in black and white and when I played anything using VLC, BS player or Media Player the screen was black

Sounds very like my setup - it's a scart connection too - the S-video cable and the audio cables all plug into a scart adaptor which plugs into the tv.

Boysey

Story Dude... You could try going in to your Display Settings, Advanced and then Displays - I've got that setting on my laptops under XP and you've to set which you want activated and also which you want as your primary before the TV will play the video... Might work for ya.

Later
Boysey

Endurance Man

Fidle with those settings!

Venom

Does the TV have to be set as the primary when playing vids/movies on the computer?

I checked the correct setting was used for the tv (UK settings) but was still stuck with a black and white picture

Will this even work using a s-vhs to scart cabel? Can someone who has gotten this working list the various steps that are needed?


What Im looking for is to be able to watch movies/tv shows Iv downloaded on the tv instead of my monitor but I want the sound to come from my pc.

Cerdito

Hi there,

I recently setup something similar to this from my laptop to my TV....1st season of lost in 32" widescreen, sweeeet

Anyway, I connect as follows:

Cables
- S-Video cable from back of my laptop to S-Video port on TV
- 1/8" to twin phono (RCA) cable from headphone jack on laptop to phono ports on TV

PC setup
- Laptops generally have a way of cycling through display modes from the keyboard, mine is Function-F4. It's the same principle as if you're using a projector. I use this to output video to the TV
- In the case of a desktop, as stated above it is probably a case of setting your TV as primary and PC screen as secondary or off. This is normally done in the advanced display settings

TV Setup
- When I've changed the display mode on the PC, I cycle through the AV channels. SVHS-3 is the one that works on my telly. Interestingly, the channel before it, AV3 shows the same but in black and white. This made me think there was a problem initially because I wasn't going on that one extra channel!

Hope you get it working

Firewalkwithme

Thanks everyone for the advice, if it doesn't work out for me, keep an eye on the For Sale boards for a brand new S-Video cable

Michael Collins

For those people who are constantly getting a Black & White picture [assuming you've set the video format to PAL], the problem is with the cable itself. A lot of these cables are being sold that say they can connect S-Video aka SVHS to a SCART Socket, which I suppose they do - but that's all they do, there's no conversion from S-Video into Composite Video which is what most SCARTs require. Its actually quite evil.

S-Video seperates the video signal into two components Luminence i.e. information regarding the brightness and Chrominance i.e. information about the colour. What you are seeing is the effect of just the Luminence being connected.

Solution: A cable that actually converts the signal (very hard to know before you buy) or something like this http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=28733&doy=30m8 and the relevent cabling...

Gurgle

Can you see your desktop background on the TV.

New update to media player has a new bug added that prevents it playing video to your TV screen.

I'm set up to span the desktop, if I drag MP to my Monitor, video is fine, if I drag to the TV, black screen in the video window.

por

Despatch wrote:

Thanks everyone for the advice, if it doesn't work out for me, keep an eye on the For Sale boards for a brand new S-Video cable

I had the a similar problem over the weekend.
I have a S input on the TV however.
I changed the settings on the laptop so that the TV was the primary diaplay and it worked fine.
Go to the Setting Tab on the Disply Properties dialog and mess around with it from there.
I did not have to make any changes to the tv settings.

beaker

It all depends on whether your TV is s-video capable.

If it is, you need to find the correct input channel. As Cerdito says, probably SVHS 3 or the like.

If it isn't, you need a cable or adaptor to convert from s-video to composite (As Michael Collins says). I managed to get to a solution on this thread. Hve a look.

Firewalkwithme

Thanks again for the advice - it looks to me like I might need the convertor but that's no big deal. I might even have one already but I never knew what it was :P Where I left it is another question.....