S Video in Black and white

[FreeFall]

hello,
I Have just bought a PCTV Pinnacle Deluxe USB TV Card. I Have connected it to me video thru scart and S Video.(S Video lead goes into a scart box).
However, all i get is a black and white picture. If i use the Video Input port (yellow round hole) i get colour.
I Was under the impression that S Video was better quality, but it is in black and white.
Has anyone got any suggestions??
I Am using PAL thru my PC and think i have set it all up properly. I Have also used 2 S Video cables so that cant be the problem. I Have even tried them in both ways, but still no colour with S Video.
the software i am using is "PCTV Deluxe Vision" which came with the card.
Plz help

[Tommyknocker]

I do not know how you set up your input video source, but it seems that either your composite video or your S-video is set to capture in either PAL or NTSC when it should be set to capture in the other. Check the video source of the composite (yellow plug) and change the S-video to the same setting.

[FreeFall]

i have tried to capture in ALL sources, NTSC, PAL SECAM and with S Video they are all B&W.
Also, If i try to capture with VDUB or Windows Media Encoder it doesnt find the device, However everything works fine with the Pinnacle software.
It is a USB 2.0 and 1.1 device, and i have USB 2.0. Could this be why?? I Thought the only difference would be the speed.

[mic_]

Few, if any, standard VCRs have s-video output. You need an SVHS VCR for that. So it all comes down to how much money you are willing to spend.

[leebo]

FReeFall, here in the US we are not familiar with SCART connections. Can you please educate us on how this connects to your VCR or TV?

I can tell you that Svideo carries the color info on a seperate wire from the brightness info. My first guess would have been the cable, but you say you've tried two.

My next guess, is a bad connection at the S connector on the Pinnacle box or the S connection into the Scart. If the color pin is bad you'll get no color.

To test, get ahold of a camcorder that has an Svideo input. Connect the Pinnacle to the camcorder through the Svideo connection and play the video from the computer.

If it records in the camcorder in color, the Scart is suspect.
If it records in black & white, the Pinnacle connector is suspect.


There is also the possibility that your settings are inncorrect, but I'm not familiar with the Pinnacle software.

[Yirkin]

My S-Video turned black and white when one of the pins in the S-video cable was broken.

Howard

[FreeFall]

i have a SCART connection in the back of my tv and video, so i connect this to 1 of them:

As you see, you set it to output and then put in the S Video cable along with the audio cables and there is a composite video (yellow) hole aswell.
Then the S Video goes into my Pinnacle box and that to my pc. S Video comes out B&W and when i switch to composite it goes to colour.
I Would try with a camcorder, but it doesnt have S Video
I Dont think its something wrong with the scart because i have other scart devices that work in colour (like my PS2 & XBOX), and i have tried 2 of the above scart to S Video boxes and both are B&W.

[ironwood321]

Hi,
I see reading through the post that a little point needs to be clarified.

That is do you own a S-VHS video recorder or device which is capable of outputting a S-VHS signal?

If not no amount of playing with the cable or software is going to let you output a S-VHS signal only B/W. (You can't get a quart out of a pint pot)

If you do own a S-VHS video which is being connected to the computer in order to output S-VHS over scart you have to navigate through your "on screen menus" and select something like S-VHS on L2 or something equivalent according to your manual.

For all those not in the know heres a website I found about the "Peritel SCART" connector

http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/eprebel/SoundAndVision/Engineering/SCART.html
http://www.hardwarebook.net/connector/av/scart.html

As you can see S-vhs and composite output a dual functions on scart so a software setting, implementing a wiring change has to take place in the device i.e. vcr to enable s-vhs output/input on scart.

[Redd]

Appears to be a Pinnacle problem. I use Studio 8 with BoB. My analog video capture from my Sony Hi 8 with s-video is balck and white, so I use regular RCA jacks for analog capture. Regular analog capture and DV firewire capture is ok.

[Richard_G]

i have a SCART connection in the back of my tv and video, so i connect this to 1 of them:

I've fallen into the same trap. Just because you are using the S-Video connection doesn't mean you'll get an S-Video signal. Only high spec video recorders output S-Video signals, on a normal video (even 6 head, Nicam, HQVHS, etc) a connection such as you are using will give you a black and white picture.

You have two choices, use composite or buy a new video recorder.

[FreeFall]

yeah i think this may be why.
I Will be getting a new tv soon, so i'll just make sure that it has s video on it

[proxyx99]

Try another s-video cable. Fixed this problem for me. Don't know if possible but I still have an s-video cable thet gives just that: B&W picture, it seems like this particular cable is one way only. All other cables give me color (have about 6 of them...). Maybe that will do?

[Domynus79]

Hi all, I answer a question of 2002 on 2014 year!!
As far as I can test in my house the problem is with Pinnacle and I explain why.
I want to convert all oooooldest VHS tapes in mpg and so keep my old pinnacle with external av source to keep the signal from VHS Player.
The player is old as we'll so it has only SCART. I first attached a splitter to SCART output so from SCART I have audio left right (red/white plug), composite (yellow) and SVideo (4 pin and a bar plug).
With pinnacle I attached audio and SVideo and can see video in black and white as well as audio. Changing to Composite I have colours.
If the splitter in the fake SCART I bought is not broken... Nothing changes because input is always from VHS reader through SCART splitter. Composite is with colour and SVideo B/W. Is it clear or am I loosing something?

[jagabo]

The composite signal and the s-video luma (greyscale) signal share the same pin on a SCART connector. So the source and the sync have to be configured for composite or s-video. It sounds to me like your VHS deck isn't configured to output s-video.