Connecting a Raspberry Pi to an old TV

[News]

Son was delighted to receive a Pi yesterday, but we cannot seem to view anything, using an ancient Sony portable TV. The only conventional PC monitors we have use VGA.

The Pi has a yellow phono socket for video output. The TV has a conventional TV aerial input, and a Scart socket. We don't have a lead with Scart plug on one end, and three phono plugs on the other, but I did find an adaptor thingy that is a Scart plug, with three phonos on the back. No lead. I plugged that into the TV, and used an ordinary audio lead, with phono plug on each end, to connect the adaptor to the Pi. Nothing. Went right through the tuning band of the TV, but zilch. What am I doing wrong or, more to the point, what else do I need to buy?

Thanks.

[Phil]

If you're using the SCART input, tuning doesn't come into it - should be on 'AV' or 'video'.

[Chris Bartram]

Connect it as you described with the phono and scart adaptor and select the AV input on the TV. The Pi's output is composite video.

[Andy Burns]

You won't find the Pi's output by tuning, you'll have to switch input to e.g. AV1 for the scart.

[Gary]

Also it depends if the scart adaptor is an input or an output scart adaptor. The scart pin out is at

may need to move a wire. Gary

[Steve Firth]

On some Trinitrons the AV input is selected by tuning to channel 0. On others there is an AV button on the remote. On others there is an AV button on the front panel. The AV button has an icon if a square with an arrow pointing towards it. Pressing it cycles through the available inputs (SCART

1, SCART 2, PHONO FRONT PANEL, TV) Not all TVs have the full range of inputs.

[SteveW]

Some SCART inputs can be switched between RGB and Composite, so that may also need to be set - the 4th input on our TV can be RGB, Composite or SVHS and can only be set from a menu accessed via the remote.

SteveW

[Bob Eager]

Or, on some of them (the ones I get) move a switch on the SCART adaptor.

[Theo Markettos]

You may need to tweak config.txt on the SD card to select PAL (sdtv_mode=2):

[News]

In message , Steve Firth writes

Thank you. I have changed the SCART adaptor to one that is switchable, but do not seem to be any further forward. However, I have found a picture of the TV remote control :

'm assuming the AV button is bottom row, second in from the left?

[News]

In message , Steve Firth writes

Don't panic Mr Mainwaring!

Got it :-)

Not entirely sure how, but I suddenly have what looks like a DOS menu. Now the fun begins.

[Andy Burns]

I'd say the key to the right of the '9' or possible the one below that, the key you'd indicated looks like it only does something when the remote is in a specific "mode"

[Gordon Henderson]

However, tweaking with the width & height might be to your advantage.

I use:

framebuffer_width=704 framebuffer_height=544

in /boot/config.txt to get 640x480 out of the composite video. It's just about viewable on a 30 year old monitor:

was more or less readable on my big CRT Sony TV ...

Gordon

[Gordon Henderson]

Login

Type:

wget -O rtb

chmod +x rtb ./rtb -l

for that true vintage experience ;-)

Gordon

[News]

In message , Gordon Henderson writes

Um, yes. I was blaming the TV ...

I've sent Child off to learn how to find and amend config.txt :-)

Just briefly playing, I can see that my vague memories of DOS are slightly useful, but, bearing in mind that I have never used any flavour of anything except DOS, this is going to be a bit of a learning curve.

Oh, and the image is black and white only. Not sure whether that is the Pi or the TV.

[Gordon Henderson]

It doesn't exist out of the box, you need to create it.

Reboot the Pi. You ought to get a reddish Raspberry logo top-left during boot time.

But yes, after that it will be B&W until you type something that gives you colour.

Gordon

[News]

In message , Gordon Henderson writes

Ah, thanks.

B&W only. I've used the browser, and gone online, but only in B&W.

[Gordon Henderson]

Sure it's a colour telly? ;-)

It does seem odd though! I don't know of any config. options to make it B&W only though... You'd need a 2nd TV, or some other colour video source (old VHS box with composite output?) to check...

Gordon

[SteveW]

I used to get B&W with one TV when playing NTSC DVDs. The TV obviously had the circuitry to display the NTSC picture, but couldn't understand the colour.

SteveW

[chris French]

In message , Gordon Henderson writes

No, i'm sure the Pi is outputting colour here (the bit about typing is surely regarding the intial commandline screen., once you are into the GUI it's colour).

It sounds like something has gone wrong twixt the pi and the TV, probably to do with the Scart adapter