Svideo out - Black&White!

[neile]

Hi. Using an adaptor out the back of a scart socket on a satellite receiver box (sky). The adaptor is set to "output", but when I use an svideo cable, only black and white images are shown on my screen. Composite works fine!
I know the capture card works with colour through svideo as it will capture from my dvd player fine.

any ideas?!?!

[Qvirre]

I've had the same "problem". The problem is realy that the S-video signal and composite signal differs on the color bearing signal. So if you use the scart-IN (whitch is a composite signal) on your tv U will get a B&W screen. I U use the S-video IN on your TV (If you got one) then U get color =)

So frome the DVD -> Capture card it works fine because U use the S-video -> S-video. Or U use Composite -> S-video and set the capture card to "Composite" then u will get color one your computer screen. Don't U have a composite OUT on your video card? If so, use it instead. There's no quality improvemnet anyway if U can't get S-video IN on your TV...

Hope I expained it well =)

[neile]

yes you explained pretty well but it's not quite my setup...

my setup is SCART OUT on the back of my satellite receiver to the SVID in on my capture card. It's coming out black and white on the capture card software. Same as u explained really I suppose.

My question is tho, how do I get it colour on my capture card? I thought svideo was much better quality than composite because chrominance and luminance are seperated?

thanks again for ur prompt reply.....

[Stansell]

Sounds like it could be a bad SVideo cable. Try using another cable.

[Qvirre]

OK, sorry for the miss-understanding. 1rst S-video is better quality IF the signal is s-video frome the source. But if the source is sending composite trough s-video cable the Q cant be better...

So here's what I do with the same setup as U. I use a scart-out from my TV via a converter to a s-video cable. Then i use s-video IN om my capture card. In the software capture prg I then choose source IN as composite, altough I use a s-video cable. The card, if it can sync to composite, will then find the color bearing at the signal and U should have color, voila!

Good luck and hope it goes well, happy capturing

[Peter]

Does your cable has 7 pins?
If you have a cable with 4 pins you get black/white.

[neile]

ahh that could be the problem - it has 4 pins. But I thought all svid cables had 4 pins? Even the svid In on my expensive Sony TV has 4 pins....
Isn't 7 pins PS/2? ^_^

[Peter]

No, I use a 7 pins cable with my Hollywood+ card.

[Lamont Cranston]

In the US the s cables have 4 pins, 2 for chrominance and 2 for luminance. If you get B&W picture from the s cable here you have lost the chrominance. The cable, most likely, is defective.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Lamont Cranston on 2001-09-16 14:47:57 ]</font>

[neile]

hmm.. i'll try a different cable. althought this is a nice gold plated cable...

cheers,
neile

[ironwood321]

The s-vhs output will depend on your device. Can it output s-vhs? On my Panasonic vcr I have to put it in s-vhs mode on scart in order to get colour out of the s-vhs cable otherwise I just get b/w as its just sending a composite signal.

The cable does not contain special electronics to generate this signal its just taking input from certain pins and if it not there it will not display.

Also the 7pin issue is just a hard to find custom connector on a TV mpeg decoder card which carries audio and s-vhs and composite. NORMAL standard s-vhs connectors have 4 pins.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ironwood321 on 2001-09-17 11:58:58 ]</font>

[neile]

It's coming out of a scart socket, through a device like this: http://abacus.sj.ipixmedia.com/abc/M28/6f9e16e8e88152d1246692643e/i-1.JPG

then into the svid plug on my capture card. I've tried setting the scart output to RGB or PAL, those are the only options. There is no actual svideo plug in the back of the satellite receiver box, just scart. So it's scart > through the little adaptor above, through an svideo cable into the svid plug on my capture card.

Urgh this is bugging me!!

would I get a better picture quality using this adaptor for svid than I would using a composite cable?

[ironwood321]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-09-17 13:04:38, neile wrote:
It's coming out of a scart socket, through a device like this: http://abacus.sj.ipixmedia.com/abc/M28/6f9e16e8e88152d1246692643e/i-1.JPG

then into the svid plug on my capture card. I've tried setting the scart output to RGB or PAL, those are the only options. There is no actual svideo plug in the back of the satellite receiver box, just scart. So it's scart > through the little adaptor above, through an svideo cable into the svid plug on my capture card.

Urgh this is bugging me!!

would I get a better picture quality using this adaptor for svid than I would using a composite cable?
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

That device only supports input into scart

[Dave B]

Video standards and Video plugs... a minefield of confusion.

Firstly, there are three popular (analog) video formats used in AV equipment.
Composite - Single composite/merged signal.
S-Video - Separate chroma and luma signals.
RGB - Seperate Red, Green and Blue signals.

Secondly, There are many different connectors available on the market. Scart for example is the name of a plug which has 20/21 pins. There is also an S-VHS plug which is often mistakenly called an S-Video plug as well as a variety of RCA coax cable connectors.

Just because signal is being passed through a S-VHS (S-Video) connector, it does not mean that S-Video signals (chroma and luma) are being sent through the cable. Indeed, you could pass composite video through a S-VHS connector and even RGB if you had enough pins connected.

SCART connectors can be used for all three video standards. However, due to the limitations of the SCART specification, only RGB and Composite can be passed out at the same time. If you want to pass S-Video then (if my memory serves me right) the Video Out pin which normally carries composite will carry the chroma signal and another pin will pass out the luma. (or the other way round)

You must be able to explicity tell the Sky box, DVD player etc to output S-Video from the SCART socket. Sky boxes do not have the facility (currently) to output S-Video. The reason you get a black and white picture is that the Sky box is passing out composite on the chroma(luma?) pin which your computer is displaying as a black and white picture.

Save yourself some work and get a 'SCART to composite and stereo audio' cable and use the composite connector on your card.

Best of luck

Dave B

[ironwood321]

Hi,
I checked the diagram on the packet of my connector at home. This will input s-vhs and combine it to composite using a opamp or similar device and will input composite to the video.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/products/details.php?cartid=1076378176&moduleno=13398&manufacturer=
Is a link to the cable at maplin I currently use to provide output from my machine. The cable supports output only and I have to go into my video soft menu to configure output on its connector to s-vhs.

If you don't have s-vhs then Dave B is correct in that you might as well use composite because that all you have but some sky/digital boxes support s-vhs according to my vcr manual.

Another alternative if you really must need s-vhs is this unit
http://www.maplin.co.uk/products/details.php?cartid=1076378176&moduleno=11789&manufacturer=Velleman
which will convert composite to rgb it has the option to output to s-vhs. The are some modifications in a maplin(electronics magazine) a good few months back showing how to adapt the box to reconstruct a video signal timing signals and hence defeat any form of copy protection.
Come to think of it you might need the modifications to provide a s-vhs output.

Or you can use this cheaper device to convert your rgb signal to s-vhs
http://www.maplin.co.uk/products/details.php?cartid=1076378176&moduleno=30782&manufacturer=

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ironwood321 on 2001-09-17 15:34:19 ]</font>