S-Video to Scart

[rakki]

I've hooked up an old computer with RivaTNT (DMM Viper 550 to be exact) that has S-Video TV out to the family TV... so I can play divxs on the "bigger screen"

the problem is that the TV only takes a SCART input. I bought a SCART adapter that does composite & S-video to SCART but after I plug the S-video from the puter into the converter, the result is Black and White TV !

that sucks !

and when i check online it seems that the SCART converters sold in Europe and Australia only can only convert S-Video to B&W !

the prices they charge for it is rather extreme .. and i don't feel like waiting for the shipping. Does anyone know any place in Sydney (preferrably the city) where I can get the proper connector ?

[sonyfier]

I think you will find that it has nothing to do with the adaptor at all which should adhere to an established standard even though S-Video is not part of the original Scart standard.
The adaptor itself has nothing to do with the signal standard ie NTSC or PAL and would be wired the same and work the same in any country.

You don't say anything about your television and whether it can accept an NTSC picture as well as Pal as I think this is probably the issue rather than the adaptor.

Most of the captured video clips available on the net have been sourced and are downloaded from America which is an NTSC country and if your television doesn't handle NTSC then you will definately get a B&W picture from a clip that is American sourced.

If your Television is capable of displaying NTSC then another way to get the signal to your Television from an S-Video cable and to rule out a mis wired connection in the adaptor is to convert the S-Video signal down to a composite signal.......... for that you need a lead that has S-video one end and splits to 2 RCA or 1 RCA connector the other end if split to 2 RCA find a further lead to split that to 1 RCA like a stereo to mono lead, you then have a composite signal.
If it is still B&W after this then either the clip is NTSC sourced and your Television cannot display it or if the clip is definately PAL then your TV out-Video card is converting it as some have been known to default output to NTSC.
I hope some of my ramblings may of helped you. :)

[rakki]

the TV dates from before the dawn of time and I suspect it doesn't accept NTSC .. because previously we tried to hook up a Playstation to it and it was B&W as well.

I am currently trying to find a S-video to Composite (RCA) adapter which I will try insert into the cabling and hopefully that will work.

With regards to the video clips, I am currently focusing on anime fansubs which in general are captured in Japan. Their original vformat I don't have a clue about :)

I am now even more confusd :)

[sonyfier]

Sorry to confuse you further.
If you are downloading clips from Japan you will find that they to are in NTSC standard rather than Pal although it is a slightly different signal to the American NTSC it will still result in a B&W picture if it is played on a television that only accepts Pal input........ it may also depending on the television cause the picture to be unstable and possibly roll vertically.
It definately sounds like your television cannot handle an NTSC signal and a change in cable will not help unfortunately.

It is unusual that the playstation didn't work though unless the disc was and imported one?

There is a possible solution which with a bit of reseach on your part you might be able to find solution........ you say theat you are into divxs, personally I have downloaded a few AVI clips myself which were encoded using divx4 codec I have in turn uncompressed these and using the resulting uncompressed file used an Mpeg1 encoder to make a VCD compliant video stream I could burn and make a VCD, it is during this encoding process that you can change if you so desire a clip from NTSC to PAL.

I'm sure you don't want to go through all that but possibly there might be something out there to change the formats of your clips you download.
Failing that it might be time for a new TV. :)

[rakki]

drats. Well, we can only try... the thing seems to play the VCDs and DVDS that I feed it through the DVD deck happy enough (RCA to SCART) and those ones were mainly sourced from Taiwan. (god knows what THEY use)

The Playstation game CDs were properly imported - it was a friend's machine and his discs.

I am definitely not going to try converting the formats directlhy... I am going to try find a S-video to RCA converter tomorrow and if that doesn't work i'll just take it back for a refund :(.

There's rumours in the household about a new TV but so far there has been nothing concrete.

If the final solution is out of my price range (or unworkable with current TV) my family and relatives will just have to go without the anime movie nights a while longer :)

In extremis I'll take my current computer with the RCA splitter cable from the video card to test the TV.


Thanks for your help.

[rakki]

well, it's definitely a format mismatch between PAL and NTSC, with the TV only taking PAL and the divxs being NTSC.

so wait for new TV now :(