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S-Video> TV = Black and White

DJMK4

DJMK4

DJMK4

Soldato
Joined
1 Dec 2004
Posts
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Location
S.Wales
Iv hooked up my machine to my tv, i have an s-video lead coming out of my gfx card, the s-video lead goes into a connector which has 2 audio leads going in (L and R) and the s-video lead goes into the s-vhs port, on the other side of the connector then is scart, so this goes into the tv.

Only problem is that its displaying in B&W, which is unusual, im sure iv had this working in colour, infact im 99% sure iv had colour out of it.

Iv checked the settings on gfx card, the secondary monitor which is the tv is set to PAL I which seems fine. Still no colour...
 
i had this prob.

Make sure its in the right scart on your TV i found only one of my sokets supported RGB scart.

apart from that make sure ** on the right AV ch i had one which was b&w and one which was colour.
 
Are you sure your TV supports s-video? Have you changed its settings to S-video?
 
Iv defenatly had colour before so i dont really know whats up...I only have 1 scart socket on my TV...

TV hasnt got any S-video/S-VHS Settings to play around with...
 
Are you sure your TV supports s-video? Have you changed its settings to S-video?
Click to expand...

This is right - if you have a S-Video input on the TV but you haven't told the TV to use S-Video it will assume a composite input. Since with S-Video, the composite component only carries the B&W element of the picture you only get a B&W picture.

There should be a setting within the TV menu to set that input to S-Video - all will be fine once you have done that.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
I dont have any settings on my TV for S-Video :S the only other thing i can think of is if i done it through a VHS recorder or something, god knows :S
 
Okay - sounds like you have a dedicated S-Video only input. This means that you probably have a lead or contact problem. The 7 pins on S-Video are as follows

1 - Ground (Y)
2 - Ground (C)
3 - Intensity (Luminance)
4 - Colour (Chrominance)
5 - Not Used
6 - Composite Video
7 - Composite Ground

This type supports both S-Video and composite.

There is also a 4-Pin version as follows

1 - Ground (Y)
2 - Ground (C)
3 - Intensity (Luminance)
4 - Colour (Chrominance)

This type supports S-Video only.

Does your TV have a 7-Pin or 4-Pin input?

Most AV equipment uses 4-Pin though you may find that your video card has 7-Pin (but can still accept a 4-Pin plug).

I expect that Pin 4 is your problem. It could

(a) have a bad contact
(b) be broken/bent off at one end of the lead
(c) or could be a connection problem within the lead

If you have intensity on its own it will appear black and white.

Cheers,

Nigel
 
Sorry to sound stupid but ephasise on 4/7pin input? are you talking about the AV/Scart connection? or the S-Video connector going into the S-VHS port on the convertor block
 
I'm going to go with a slightly simpler explanation. ;)

Your graphics card is probably outputting at 60Hz. This is fairly normal for computers. The TV in PAL is running at 50Hz. When I try and play games on my PS2 at 60Hz on a TV that can only do PAL (50Hz) and not NTSC (60Hz) the games display in black and white!

Conclusion: output at 50Hz on your graphics card, or use a 60Hz-capable TV maybe?

I could be totally wrong here though. :D
 
HicRic's suggestion is also plausible and worth a look first.

The plugs/sockets I am refrerring to are the Mini DIN connectors not SCART. They are round in cross section probably no more than 1cm in diameter.

I assume this is what you have at the TV end or is it a SCART socket?

Cheers,

Nigel
 
nheather said:
HicRic's suggestion is also plausible and worth a look first.

The plugs/sockets I am refrerring to are the Mini DIN connectors not SCART. They are round in cross section probably no more than 1cm in diameter.

I assume this is what you have at the TV end or is it a SCART socket?

Cheers,

Nigel
Click to expand...

The din connector goes into the S-VHS socket on a scart converter i have, this then plugs into the TV :)
 
It's entirely possible your TV won't accept an s-video signal and you'll have to use composite.
 
Yeah you'll have to use composite or scart.

HicRic said:
I'm going to go with a slightly simpler explanation. ;)

Your graphics card is probably outputting at 60Hz. This is fairly normal for computers. The TV in PAL is running at 50Hz. When I try and play games on my PS2 at 60Hz on a TV that can only do PAL (50Hz) and not NTSC (60Hz) the games display in black and white!

Conclusion: output at 50Hz on your graphics card, or use a 60Hz-capable TV maybe?

I could be totally wrong here though. :D
Click to expand...

Even at 60hz its still pal because it uses a 720x576 resolution. Though your right that it may not be 60hz compatible.
 
Last edited:
The din connector goes into the S-VHS socket on a scart converter i have, this then plugs into the TV
Click to expand...

Okay then. You can get three types of video signal into a SCART input ...

Composite
RGB(S) - uses composite for sync
S-Video

But just because you have a SCART input, doesn't mean that it supports all three.

All SCARTs will support composite
Some will support RGB(S)
Some will support S-Video

If your TV has more than one SCART it is quite common for RGB(S) to be only available on one of them. Same goes for S-Video.

Morever, if your TV does support S-Video it is unlikely that it doesn't have an true mini-DIN S-Video socket aswell.

Also, I am pretty certain that if you have a SCART that can accept more than just Composite then there has to be setting on the TV somewhere to tell it which option to use.

It interesting that you say you have had it working before, so I guess the TV must have S-Video support somehow - is there anyway that you might have moved which SCART socket it is plugged into.

Couple of questions

Q1 - what is model and make of TV - I could check how it supports S-Video
Q2 - what leads are plugged into the SCART adaptor

Cheers,

Nigel
 
So to summarise the posts so far, you have:
1) A TV with ONE Scart socket, which does NOT have options for s-video.
2) The graphics card is set to PAL output.
3) The s-video cable is connected to the graphics card at one end and a scart adapter at the other. The scart adapter is then connected to the TV scart socket.
4) You MAY have used a VCR to connect through before eliminating the need for the TV to support s-video.

Your best option is to find the s-video to composite adapter that usually comes with a graphics card

That one is for VIVO card so you may only have s-video to yellow composite.

Use this cable and a composite to scart cable.
 
I had this problem and found a web page which showed how to join two pins inside the SCART converter - bingo, colour. Google is your friend.
 
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