9800 all-in-wonder black & white s-video

[manthing]

people,

i have just purchased a powercolor 9800 aiw.

watching/capturing through the aerial and the composite works fine.
however, through the s-video, i get a black& white image.

can someone suggest a solution?

[edDV]

Most likely a bent pin or bad cable. Try another.

[manthing]

ah edDV, i did look at the pins. doesn't seem to be any bent ones there. so its down to the cable.

i actually connect my scart to s-video (out) to the s-video (in) on the supplied ati cable to connect to the aiw video card.

so on your advice, i will try and get a direct scart to aiw video in cable.

ta for your advice.

[Richard_G]

What are you plugging into the scart plug? If it is a standard VHS VCR and not an S-VHS one, you won't get any colour with S-Video as it won't be outputting S-Video. Not everything is capable of S-Video output.

[manthing]

Richard_G, i'm trying 2 things out ..

[1] plugged a scart into a vhs vcr. scart has s-video + l&r phono audio into the aiw purple cable that will take this to the video in through a 8 pin din.

this gives a black & white image.

if i use a scart with 3 phono (composite), then i get colour.

[2] a digital box to receive extra channels. again, scart with s-video and l&r audio produces black & white image.

scart with 3 phono gives colour.

lordsmurf has suggested that the scart to s-video is notoriously bad for getting the colour to come through. he suggests i get a "good" cable. do you agree?

[Richard_G]

Virtually ALL standard VHS video recorders do not output S-Video. The pins are there in the scart adapter but nothing is connected at the socket in the VCR. Scart can cope with all video formats, composite, S-Video and component but only if the unit you are connecting to has those options. In the same way it can cope with video and audio in, but those pins won't be connected internally on a DVD player for instance as there is no purpose to inputting video or audio to a DVD player.

S-Video separates the luminance (brightness) from the chrominance (colour) in the video. If the chrominance information isn't there you will get a black and white picture. You are effectively feeding a composite (L & C) signal to the luminance input and nothing to the chrominance one. This is why composite works, because you are feeding a connector that is expecting to see both with both.

I use an old Pioneer digital receiver (ex-OnDigital one) to feed digital TV to my AIW for capturing. That gives a black and white picture if I try and use S-Video because the unit is not capable of outputting S-Video. It will give either Composite (which I use) or Component (separate red, blue and green). The Component is fine if using it with a component compatible TV but no good for capturing as the AIW doesn't have Component inputs, only Composite and S-Video.

About the only things you will find that do output S-Video and S-VHS video recorders (and I think JVC are the only company that still make them) and Hi-8 and later camcorders.

[manthing]

hmmm, i do believe that i managed to get my scart->s-video working for my hauppauge pvr 250 with the same panasonic vhs vcr that i'm now trying to connect to the aiw 9800.

but lets look at this in a different way. image quality.

digi-box that picks up signals digitally. feed these via the composite into the aiw and the images i get are pretty darn good.

if i somehow managed to get the s-video working, would i get a much better image?

is there some link that shows the differences between all feeds on this forum?

cheers

[manthing]

if you look at this page:
http://www.radioandtelly.co.uk/freeview_netgem.html

go to near the bottom of the page (or search for s-video), and you'll see that this digibox does output s-video (and rgb) via the scart.

so how can i test the digibox or the aiw 9800 card or the cables to see if any/all are outputing/accepting colour?

any ideas anyone?

[Richard_G]

My Pioneer digibox doesn't output S-Video so I use Composite. In theory, S-Video will give sharper colours with less smearing but I find, as you have, that the pictures are pretty good anyway. Whether any difference would be enough to be noticable is a different matter.

To test to see why you aren't getting colour using S-Video, you will need something that can display it. Does your TV have a separate S-Video mini DIN socket on it? These are often marked as AV3S. Most modern European TVs have two scarts which will be designated AV1 and AV2 and you will probably find that one is capable of accepting S-Video and the other will take Component. Whichever one will take S-Video will be shown as AV* in Composite or Component mode and AV*S in S-Video mode. You'll then usually find three phono sockets for Composite, left and right audio and a Mini DIN if S-Video is available. These will be designated AV3 and AV3S depending on whether it is expecting to see a Composite signal on the yellow phono or an S-Video signal on the Mini DIN. If yours is like this, try plugging the S-Video Mini DIN into that socket and ensure you get a colour picture (when you have AV3S selected). You may also have to go into the setup menu on the Digibox to enable S-Video output.

If you have a camcorder with an S-Video output, you could try that with the TV first to make sure it is accepting an S-Video input (to ensure you've got everything set up correctly) and displaying it in colour. If that works OK, then try the same with the AIW. Assuming you can get a colour picture on the TV then you should be able to get the same on your AIW.

[manthing]

richie, richie, richie, ... why o why didn't i check before i opened my mouth eh?

played around with the digibox last night and lo and behold, there is a setting via software to output s-video and bingo i get colour through my aiw card! i might even try the RBG setting.

and you're right, my bog standard vhs vcr does NOT output s-video. i must have been on hallucinating when i said my vcr did output s-video.

so thank you all from the bottom of my heart. if we ever bump into each other, i'll buy you all a beer.

[Richard_G]

Glad you've got it sorted but the reason for most people having problems with S-Video, is quite simple. We're all too old! To go through the numerous menu levels on most bits of modern video equipment and get everything set up correctly needs somebody under the age of 14. It's no different to the rest of us ploughing through the manual to work out how to set the timer on the video to make sure Coronation Street gets recorded so the missus doesn't throw a wobbly when it doesn't. A 10 year old can do it without thinking..........