B&W picture when capturing from NTSC source

[parasudda]

Hello,
I have a Pinnacle MovieBox (USB2) capturing device with Studio 9 SE software.
1)We have the PAL system here and I've had no problems capturing PAL video from a PAL vcr while using PAL as the capture format setting, except for when I try to capture it as S-Video the signal is only black and white though the sound is fine (Composite works fine, with both audio and colour video): why?
2)However, if I try to capture video from an NTSC tape inserted in a PAL vcr with "NTSC Playback" the picture (both composite and s-video) is invariably black and white (again the sound seems to be fine) even when I've changed the tv standard in the Capture Source settings to NTSC.

What do I do? Should I hook my NTSC vcr to a second vcr and make a copy of the ntsc tape in pal (how do I do this?) and then capture from this copy even if I would like to digitise my ntsc tapes without too much loss of quality?

Please advice, much thanks!

[edDV]

Problem 1 ... 95% of the time this is a S-Video cable problem.

a. Look for bent pins
b. Try another cable

Problem 2 ... you can't just dub

(left for Euro VCR expert to comment)

[bunyip]

It comes down to what NTSC 'types' your PAL VCR supports.

I'm in a PAL country and have a VCR that plays NTSC tapes, but it has three type-settings for NTSC playback.
- NTSC P.B.
- NTSC 4.43
- NTSC 3.58.

Both the 'P.B.'and '4.43' options playback in Black and White but the '3.58' setting plays back correctly in color.

Check if your VCR has these options.

[parasudda]

Nope, no options to select NTSC types on my VCR, just the P.B. I guess. I guess that means I have to buy a 3.58 Ntsc vcr.
Pinnacle also says that their capture device (movie box) in europe is only equiped for PAL and that NTSC capture will give B&W pictures.
Thanks for your help