Question about s-video...

[Danny_G13]

Ok, my scenario is that I have both a GeForce FX with a Philips 7108a VIVO chip onboard, *and* a Pinnacle PCTV Rave TV card.

I'm trying to put an s-video signal into the TV Card from my VCR, in *colour*, but only get black and white. I've since found out the VCR has to be SHVS, which I guess mine isn't.

Problem is that *why* can I get colour on the GeForce with the same hardware (s-video from VCR via a SCART adapter) as long as I configure the display properties to see incoming as composite? If I tell it's S-video the image is black and white.

On the other hand, telling the dedicated TV card the incoming is composite results in a black screen.

I've checked the card is fine by trailing s-video out from my standalone DVD player into it, and the picture's fine as is the composite input.

Any ideas?

[SatStorm]

Seems like that your VCR output composite over S-Video.

Hmm... Download Dscaler and play a bit with it, so to find out what really happens with your VCR. Dscaler allows you to set up the video input any way you wish, so you can detect easy the nature of your connection.

[Danny_G13]

Interesting - that allows me to view composite over s-video, and in quite good quality too.
Obviously it's possible, problem is I've no idea what capture software can force composite over s-video.
If only this one captured...

Cheers.

[Werble]

Danny, I had a similar problem in that my s-video connection produced b&w instaed of color on my MSI geforce 3 Nvidia card. I don't know what software you are using but there should be an option to choose tuner, composite, svideo for the capture card you have the vcr connected to. Make sure you have selected svideo. If you leave it on composite then you will only get b&w. It worked for me so I hope this helps.

[SatStorm]

Now which I'm thinking, maybe I'm wrong and it is the opposite: The VCR outputs S Video but the card - and because of some kind of wrong set up - try to input the signal as composite


Dscaler allows to capture this.

[Danny_G13]

Now which I'm thinking, maybe I'm wrong and it is the opposite: The VCR outputs S Video but the card - and because of some kind of wrong set up - try to input the signal as composite


Dscaler allows to capture this.

No, the video just doesn't output s-video in colour - I've used Dscaler's modes and the only one which gives me colour is when I choose to force composite through s-video.
Dscaler might allow capture in the latest version but it's buggier than an ant colony - it crashed my system.

[Danny_G13]

Danny, I had a similar problem in that my s-video connection produced b&w instaed of color on my MSI geforce 3 Nvidia card. I don't know what software you are using but there should be an option to choose tuner, composite, svideo for the capture card you have the vcr connected to. Make sure you have selected svideo. If you leave it on composite then you will only get b&w. It worked for me so I hope this helps.

Funnily enough the known feature under GeForce is that it *allows* what I'm trying to - it forces composite through the s-video connection.
If I choose s-video in my GF I get b&w, but if I choose composite I get colour.
This is because my VCR does not output SVHS, unfortunately, so the software reduces the quality of s-video and takes in the composite stream.
Annoyingly I can't find a way to force composite through s-video via my Pinnacle TV card, besides Dscaler which is too buggy and glitched for me.

Besides, the warning of 'this function is known to cause disk corruption' puts me off the record feature...