4 pin S video produces B&W picture

chavo

Hi all,

I didnt quite know where to put this thread so here it goes.

I have a 42 inch monitor in my second living room, it is a plasma on the wall. as such it only has VGA in, 4 pin S-Video in and a couple of yellow S- video(phono) inputs also.
I cant get any picture displayed using yellow s-video(phono). When i plug the 4 pin s-video in to my sky box i get a perfect picture. Great!

I also have a DM500 and i have another freesat box. neither box has a 4 pin s-video as standard so i have used a scart to S-vid convertor. Ebay.co.uk/SCART-to-SVHS-S-Video-3-x-RCA-Phono-TV-Converter_W0QQitemZ290351294558QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_CablesConnectors_RL?hash=item439a49285e" target="_blank">Like this one

This produces a picture but it is black and white.

Could it be the converter? is it likely to be the image on the 500? (PLI) but the freesat box does the same.

Any help? if i need a different converter any links?

2cvbloke

The only time I ever had a B&W picture with an S-Video cable was connecting my camcorder to a video-PC converter, and it turned out that there was a broken wire inside the cable, so, if the converter hasn't been put together right (and let's face it, it's most likely chinese built, and not always built perfectly!!!) then there's probably a missing or broken connection...

If you're a dab hand with a soldering iron, you could probably fix it yourself using the diagram from this Wiki page:

_http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scart

Hope this helps...

Llew

Simple RGB to S-video converters such as the one you mention are passive devices, and as such are not very good at separating the luminance and chrominance signals. Most are just jumpered connections between the RGB and S-Video pins (i.e. a nest of wires).

As the chrominance (colour) component is lower in amplitude than the luminance (black and white), it's easy to deteriorate or lose this signal if there's poor matching between your source and TV.

Having said that, it could as 2cvbloke says, be just a broken or bent pin in the S-Video DIN socket/plug.

Llew

Celebrating Ten Years Of The Forum As A Founder Member

PaulR

I have an S-video scart convertor the same as yours. It doesn't convert video signals to S-video, it converts the scart to S-video plug - i.e. the signal coming into the convertor has to already be S-video and it directed to the 4 pin port.

What you need is something like this Ebay 170394296166 which is a passive convertor. Putting "s video to composite" in the search box will find others. Not all are correct and not all are in the UK though!

PaulR As I get older I find myself thinking about the hereafter - I go into a room and then wonder what I'm here after.