Tv-out problems: i see black & white

[Nez]

i have bought a scart cable. one side it's s-vhs (from computer) and becomes scart going into tv.
I tried it on 2 televisions. one with a s plug and the other one without.
On the tv with s cable on av 1 i see black and white, on av2 i see colors.

The first television, where i intend watching dvds from computer, hasn't an S cable. And on AV i only can see black and white.

It's not a cable problem.

So how can i see colors on my not so old tv, but without S cable?

Plugging the scart in the videorecorder of television i still see black and white.

Please help me

Thank you

N.

[grif_mcrenolds]

Some s video cables merge all the colors so that it comes out iin black and white. I had the same problem a while back and a new cord fixed it.

[Nez]

Ah ok!

Thank you for your reply. Could you describe what specific cable did you buy?
Have you got a tv with or without s video?
You see, on a s-video television i can see colors with the same cable: i have tried on my friend's one. But on my normal PAL tv i can only see black and white .





Nez

[gchester]

ntsc to pal probs

convert the file u want to watch, either to a pal or ntsc..depending where u live..europe pal...states ntsc

[grif_mcrenolds]

PAL is a better quality when it comes to color depth and skipped frames in movies. The only problem is that some sitcoms are done it tape, which is recorded in NTSC at 29.97 fps. Are the frames just skipped when it's converted to PAL at 25 fps? And who uses SECAM?

[Talasonic]

S-Video connections have 2 signal wires for video. One is Luminance, which is the information for a black and white picture, and the other is Chrominance, which is the color information only. What you are describing could be a faulty connector on the card, except you say that you see color on other TVs.

Basically, to have only black and white, all there would need to be is a broken wire or pin on the Chrominance signal wire. That would yield pure black and white from the Luminace wire.

The other connection you speak of I am guessing is composite. It has Luminance and Chrominance mixed. The TV then seperates this. With NTSC, this seperation process is painstaking and is never perfect. It is better on a better quality set, though. I actually did not know that they did S-Video cables with PAL. Are you sure that they do? If not, could that have any bearing on this problem?

My guess as to what your problem is is this. Your card may be outputting standard composite output, and you are feeding this to only the luminance input of your S-Video TV. Depending on how the TV was designed, it might ignore the color signals and give you a black and white picture in this case. It would probably be a noisy picture, also.

POSSIBILITY #2
If you have a PAL only set that can do 30fps, it can display a NTSC picture in black and white only. This may be what is happening to you. Usually if this happens, you need to adjust the vertical hold to keep it from jumping.

I really have no experience with these cables, being in the USA, but I do know how video cables work generally, and this seems like something that might be happening. If nothing else, it might point you in a new direction to find the solution to your problem.

And now to address the previous post a little:

PAL is a better quality when it comes to color depth and skipped frames in movies. The only problem is that some sitcoms are done it tape, which is recorded in NTSC at 29.97 fps. Are the frames just skipped when it's converted to PAL at 25 fps? And who uses SECAM?

NTSC Skipped frames in movies? Nobody skips frames in movies. Movies are 24fps, lower than any other standard. Dropping frames to get to a higher framerate does not make sense.

PAL is 25fps. NTSC is 29.97fps. When NTSC 29.97 stuff is converted to PAL 25fps, they just drop some fields. Going from PAL to NTSC, they duplicate some fields to take up the space. It shouldn't be too noticeable either way, except while watching the credits of a movie or show it should be apparent.

PAL has a completely different color system, which is better. NTSC color stinks. NTSC stands for Never Twice Same Color. NTSC has a better framerate, though.

SECAM is used in different places around the world. Someone else can look it up.

If you have to use only 1 format, NTSC would be the one to choose because you don't drop frames, and with S-Video, the color problem is fixed. Also, PAL has one big disadvantage because to convert from 24fps movies (all movies everywhere are 24fps) to 25fps PAL, they just speed it up a little, which is annoying. Multisystem is best, though. Watch it in what it was made for, and you will get the best picture, no matter what.

[Nez]

wow

that was a wonderful answer!!!

Thank you.

I still have the problem but i know something more now:

i can see colors on my friends tv (expensive old Sony - 1990) that has a s-cable input (plugging directly into s-cable and plugging it in the scart, too)

On my television (normal PAL cheap Tensai - 1999), bought in Switzerland where i live, i can only see black and white.

On the television of my girlfriend (a new (bought yesterday-2002) daewoo with built in NTSC VHS), that only has a scart such as mine but is a NTSC => I still see black and white.

So, i have understood that what i need is a new tv, probably a digital and expensive one, that will take away all my problems: the important is that it has to have a s-video plug in.

Another solution could be a converter : a box that one side is s-video and the other side is scart and in the middle it changes the signal as i want, but quality would be reduced i think and the cost of this supplementary object is to high for the simple job it does (200$)

I can't change my tv-out card settings because it's a quite simple card mounted on my portable. oh shit

Bye bye

Nez

[Talasonic]

To get a really good box would cost more than a new multi-system TV, and the quality would not be as good. The same result could be had if you could change the output of your TV card, but I guess that is not possible as you said. So yes, your best bet is probably to just buy a multisystem TV, not necessarily a very expensive one.

Your girlfriend's new TV, did it work right? It wasn't quite clear in your last post. If hers wasn't very expensive and worked right, then that proves that your TV is just the exception to the rule and you don't need to buy a very expensive set. I suggest you do not buy a TV with built-in VCR, however. This costs more than the 2 units seperately, always has a super-crappy VCR in it, and when it breaks, it costs a lot more to repair.

Good luck.

[Nez]

it is quite strange: even on the little television (36cm) of my girlfriend i can only see black and white. It's strange because this is a NTSC television.

When i bought it for her, i was looking for a tv that had a s-video plug in, but i couldn't find a little one with it.
Only the new big televisions have it. And, exceptionally and i don't know why, the very small portables ones. My girlfriend's one is a medium television... and only has a scart. So i see black and white.

And i see black and white on all televisions of my house (5) because they only have a scart and no s-video input: it looks like they can't read s-video signal. Is it possible?

Thank you for your reply and I'm sorry for my english... it's worse than my television!

bye bye

Nez

[Talasonic]

The SCART connector is really a wonderful European combination connector that has the audio, composite, and RGB all in one. No S-Video, though. I'm guessing this is because seperating the color from the luminance with PAL is not a problem like it is with NTSC. Anyway, seperate S-Video would be necessary for NTSC S-Video input. There is, however, another way to do this.

Here are the pin-outs for the scart and s-video connectors. If you connect pins 1 and 3 together on the S-video connector, that makes composite. Connect that to the composite in, which is pin 20, on the SCART input on your TV, and you should get color. If you can't do this, then you're kind of stuck. You might try some local TV repair shops, they might be able to make a wire for you, or mount an S-Video connector on your TV, or tell you where to buy a good wire for a reasonable cost. And if somehow this isn't the real problem, they might be able to tell you what the real problem is. Good luck.

SCART PIN-OUT

http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/eprebel/SoundAndVision/Engineering/SCART.html

S-VIDEO PIN-OUT

http://www.dazzle-europe.com/de/dazzle_ibase.nsf/063c0dca178c1d7ac12569e2005e97d5/d4a5d793cfa1f48ac1256929003c43dd?OpenDocument

[buick]

I've had the same problem using my Hercules 4500 with tv-out.
When connecting the S-VHS cable to the cards output and use a svhs -> Scart connector it will give just a B/W image.
However when i use the small s-vhs -> cinch connector which was supplied with the card, it just works ok.

So i guess the problem could be that on a standard scart connector not all the wires are connected so the best way to solve it is to make your own cable
/\/ico

[Kpoxa]

I Found Way To make it colour

(Sorry for my English) If you have S-Video out - Look at it, normal S-Video has 4 pins but if you have 3 more pin in the middle (3+4=7) so u are lucky! That mean u have S-Video + Composite out. So now u have to find 2 pins from this 3, which are working as a composite out!!!!! It’s easy, first try all pins on middle part of composite out (if u don’t know It’s normal video out on your TV yellow) u will see unstable picture but I colour than try other two on another part of composite cable when your picture will normal Bingo you found two pins that you need. Now you can make cable buy yourself. It’s easy or ask Any one who know how to do soldering. Good Luck

[gregpapas]

THE BLACK&WHITE SOLUTION

HELLO TO EVERYONE.I READ THE PROBLEM YOU HADE (YOU PROBABLY HAVE FOUND A SOLUTION BY NOW, I HOPE NOT BY BYING AN EXPENSIVE DIGITAL TV). I HAVE AN OLD JVC TV WITH SCART CONNECTOR.MY GRAPHIC CARD IS NVIDIA GEFORCE 2 MX400 64MB WITH TV-OUT. .I USED AN S-VIDEO TO S-VIDEO CABLE, A SCART ADAPTER WITH INPUTS:1 S-VIDEO, 1 COMPOSITE(RCA), AND A STEREO AUDIO INPUT.THAT ADAPTER IS HOOKED ON A 3-INPUT SCART ADAPTER THAT GOES TO THE TV.I USED THE LAST ONE BECAUSE I ALSO HAVE CONNECTED ON TV A VCR AND A DVD AND THERE WAS NO OTHER WAY.WHEN I CONNECTED THE TV-OUT OF NVIDIA TO MY TV I GOT A BLACK&WHITE SIGNAL LIKE YOU AND I FREEKED OUT.BUT SOON I SOLVED THE PROBLEM.IT TOOK ME SOME TIME BUT IT WAS WORTH IT.THE PROBLEM IS THAT YOUR TV DOESN'T "UNDERSTAND" S-VIDEO BUT ONLY COMPOSITE SIGNAL.SO ALL YOU NEED IS AN ADAPTER S-VIDEO TO COMPOSITE(RCA).SO YOU HAVE: PC CARD--->S-VIDEO-->S-VIDEOtoCOMPOSITE(RCA)adapter--->composite(RCA)toSCARTadapter--->TV.......READY!I THINK THAT'S ALL YOU NEED!
IF YOU KNOW, YOU CAN MAKE THAT ADAPTER BY YOURSELF.USE THESE LINKS:THIS IS THE ADAPTER, YOU CAN FIND IT AS A SINGLE PIN WITHOUT THE CABLE.

http://help.nec-computers.com/uk/pri/item_instr_nvidia_4pin_cable.asp

THIS IS THE CIRCUIT,YOUCAN USE IT EVEN WITHOUT THE CAPACITOR

http://www.hut.fi/Misc/Electronics/circuits/svideo2cvideo.html

I HOPE I'VE HELPED!
GOOD LUCK!
GREETINGS TO EVERYONE

[Nez]

Can anybody sell it to me?

Thank you all for your replyes!
I was wondering if somebody has built a cable such as described in the previous post:

http://help.nec-computers.com/uk/pri/item_instr_nvidia_4pin_cable.asp

and would like to sell it to me at a reasonable price.

If yes, please send an e-mail to ottantotto@hotmail.com

Many thanks

Nez

p.s. I didn't find them in commerce: is this because quality is not good?

[docdunc999]

I have a Sony television from 1995 and wanted to share my experience.

I have connected an s-video input from my computer into a scart adapter and plugged the whole thing into scart socket av2.

Whether I see colour on screen depends simply on whether the television is expecting a composite or s-video signal through this scart input. This is determined by the channel chosen.

When the AV2 channel is chosen, the television expects a composite signal so images from the s-video input are only in black and white. When the channel YC2 is selected, colour appears as the television is expecting, and recieving an s-video signal.

It appears that the inability of many televisions to display colour images when s-video is inputted via a scart adapter is due to the fact that it is not possible to specify that the scart input is an s-video signal. Many such televisions probably lack the hardware required to process the s-video signal correctly.