View Profile
View Forum Posts
Private Message
When I'm travelling I want to be able to plug my notebook into any TV such as in a hotel room.
I've purchased a converter (see attachment) which are widely available on eBay. I use the yellow S-Video cable out to the TV but get a poor quality black & white picture.
I've returned the unit to the supplier and got a replacement, but it's the same. I've tried two different laptops and two different TV's but they are all the same.
Are these converters simply rubbish?
Can anyone suggest one that works?
Thanks
Rod
+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 15 of 15
-
-
Since that box is standard definition only, it will only work, if at all, in very cheap, older hotels. (And yellow is usually composite, not s-video.)
So it's not rubbish, just seriously outdated and mostly useless. -
Yes I'm using the yellow cable to the TV, it does have a S-Video out, a small circular plug, but I find most hotel TV's don't accept have this type of plug.
It looks like all the units on eBay come from the same manufacturer, just different colours !
Do you know of a better quality unit that might work?
Thanks
Rod -
It depends on what kind of TV is in the hotel. VGA to HDMI is more likely to work these days.
-
Poor quality is to be expected. Composite video is poor quality.Originally Posted by RodA
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/283861-VGA-to-S-video?p=1756748&viewfull=1#post1756748
Black/white is another issue. Sometimes when the output is weak the TV will drop the color signal. Some devices internally have composite and s-video luma on the same pin. With those you have to specify whether you want composite or s-video output. If it's configured for s-video output the composite connector will give a greyscale picture (because the colors are on the s-video chroma pin).Originally Posted by RodA
Those adapters also have a problem with tearing.
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/361433-HTPC-Image-Quality-Problems?p=2293418&viewfu...=1#post2293418 -
Hmm.. it depends on what TV model you want to connect, you need to see this guideOriginally Posted by RodA
Leo99
-
May I ask for what purpose?Originally Posted by RodA
The resolution 640x480 (or 768x578 for PAL) is very low for a computer monitor. And depending on the TV the actual resolution may be lower plus color representation will be miserable. -
I don't know if this will help or not, but I've plugged an NTSC source into an old PAL TV via S-video before, and that came out all black and white and low quality. Could that be a clue? Are you somehow outputting the wrong format or framerate or something, or is it getting converted the wrong way somewhere along the line?
Like I said, I don't know whether that's helpful or not... -
Check tv specs for pal or nstc
The dip switches on the unit are normally set to nstc, thus b/w picture on pal sets... set to pal to change output signal to match your tv (uk = pal) -
I didn't notice the OP was in the UK. NTSC composite video will usually be displayed BW by PAL TVs. So yes, change the dip switches to PAL.
-
Thanks to everyone for the suggestions.
By way of further explanation.................
Yes I'm in the UK and have selected PAL on the converter box. I'm then selecting a UK television station on my notebook and connecting via the converter box into the yellow composite video into the TV.
The picture is poor quality and no colour.
To try to find the problem I've tried a different laptop computer, a different TV and different cables. All combinations give the same poor quality. The TV's I'm using are small screen, I'm not using a 40" TV !!
The supplier has replaced the converter box and the replacement is the same.
Is the conclusion these converter boxes simply don't work?
I accept HDMI would be a better conversion, but I find very few TV's in hotels have this available whilst most have composite video.
I'm just trying to watch the news on TV whilst away from home, outside the UK. I find the only UK TV station hotels offer is BBC World, after 30 minutes of that you tend to end up in the bar!!
With FilmOn TV I can get all the UK TV stations anywhere.
Rod -
I have one that I use for VGA -> NTSC. The picture is in color for me. But as I said earlier composite and s-video are low quality, period. You wont be able to read normal sized text on a computer desktop easily. It doesn't matter how big the TV is. On a small TV you'll get a small fuzzy picture. On a big TV you'll get a big fuzzy picture.Originally Posted by RodA
Of course, we don't know exactly what you're seeing. If your picture is about the same as those I posted in the earlier link (color issues aside) then that's normal. Any VGA -> analog SD will give similar results. -
It may help to select on video (computer) output 720x576p50 mode - this mode should be available trough advanced settings (ED/HDTV modes are currently supported in standard by Intel, NVidia and AMD). Side to this perhaps you can use SCART as input (then forcing 720x576i25 can give direct component signal compatible with all European TV's equipped with SCART).
-
Outside the UK you may have to select NTSC.Originally Posted by RodA
-
First, thanks to everyone who has made suggestions to try to fix the problem. I now know a lot more about video than when I started!
I've tried connecting the video (Y) out of the converter box into another TV. This one is a multi-standard TV I use in my touring caravan. When I select the AV input it tells me I'm using PAL-I (correct for the UK) and I get a very good colour picture. If I change the output from the box to NTSC the TV tells me I've changed and again it's a good colour picture.
When I connect the box to another TV (a Sony), I still get a black & White picture?
The Sony TV information tells me the video input is: Y: 1V p-p, 75 ohms, 0.3V negative sync/Pa/Ca: 0.7Vp-p, 75 ohms/PR/CR: 0.7 V p-p, 75 ohms
I've contacted Sony support to see what they have to say.
I'm pleasantly surprised at the good quality TV picture I get on my caravan TV from the computer.
Quote