S-Video leads ?

Feb 11, 2005 20 Replies

As we will be moving later this year, hopefully, we have started packing. The DVD layer was one of the first items to be packed away. Having a laptop and a desktop pc both with s-video connectors on, I purchased a s-video lead so that i could connect either to the tv and watch a video. The problem is, that I only get a black & white piceture on the tv. Is this right ? Not having a s-video connector on the tv I am running it through a scart adaptor with s-video connection on.



Your help and commenbts would be much appreciated.


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In article , troubleinstore writes

It means that your TV probably can't accept S-video, or it has an option switch somewhere which you need to turn on.

S-video on SCART uses the composite video pin for luminance (black&white signal) and one of the RGB pins (I think) for chrominance (colour signal), but you have to switch the SCART to s-video mode in an option because it is incompatible with RGB mode.

Few TVs will support S-Video on SCART. This is particularly true if they don't already have an S-Video input. After all, if they had the circuitry to accept S-Video, they'd have spent the 20p on a proper socket for it.

Christian.

Please don't multi-post question, you have replies in another group as well.

See if the TV has a sepearate logical input for s-video (i.e. look to see in the number of AV in "channels" is greater than the physical number of sockets). If it does not have one, then you will need to modify your s-video lead to convert its output to composite video (aka CVBS). This is usually a case of just combining the Chroma and Luma wires together before connecting them to the composite input on the SCART.

In article , Tim Mitchell writes

While we're on S-video... can I record onto a PC CD/DVD drive from a VCR via an S-video cable?

You can get two types of adapters fairly easily. S-VID to SCART or S-VID to COMP VID. Combining the two signals is done with a small value capacitor, ISTR 10pf.

One other option would be to check that the PC is ouputing the signal as PAL, not NTSC. Where you'd check I have no idea!

Andrew

Not all SCART sockets accept S-Video. In practice, the majority don't, as it's a bodge and shouldn't be allowed. However, if yours does and it says so in the instructions, you might still have to enable it in the menu.

Mono from an S-Video feed says it's getting the Y signal to the composite input on the SCART, pin 20, but not the C to pin 15.

I had a similar problem ... had to go into TV settings and tell it to use S-Video, by default it looked for RGB.

Rick

In message , Christian McArdle writes

IME (panasonic stuff) the 2nd scart often accepts S-Video. Its labelled as "AV2(S)", by default you get the B&W picture from an S-Video source (i.e. it assumes composite input). Pressing the red button on the remote switches to S-Video mode & you get a colour pic.

YMMV

No SCART I've ever come across looks for RGB as a default - they need a switching volts on pin 16, otherwise just use composite.

If they both have S-Video ports, then yes. Of course the sound has to go separately.

Only if the PC has some way of capturing and digitizing the video first (e.g.. video capture card). The CD/DVD drive in a PC has no video capability of its own.

In article , Dave Plowman (News) writes

Thanks Dave, I have a number of family videos that I want to put onto DVD when I get a roundtuit, is using S-video the best way to connect video to PC for this?

As I have an S-video port on the PC, it should have the hardware shouldn't it? if so I just need the correct software.

I have an S-video port on my PC, but it only for *output* e.g. to a TV

Keith G. Powell

Check that the S-VID connector is an input, if so you're fine. On a TV card? Connect your sound to the sound input on that card too, or you can get synchronization problems. If using a flat screen, beware that the synchronisation can look wrong due to delays in the screen itself.

Chances are it is an output only. Unless you have bought a high end graphics card with capture, like one of the ATI All in Wonder series, or added a dedicated video capture card.

You could either go that route, or if you have a digital camcorder with firewire you can use that as a digitizer (firewire is cheap to add to the PC if you don't already have it).

In article , troubleinstore writes

In addition to Tim's comments about turning on S-video-on-SCART, perhaps you could also check your laptop and desktop are configured to put out a PAL signal, not NTSC. (If I tell my DVD player to put out NTSC, the picture on my TV goes B&W.)

In article , Christian McArdle writes

Mine does. It has two SCART and composite in, but no S-video. S-video on SCART is an option in the SCART setup menus. The TV's a JVC something-or-other.

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