No way to get colour tv-out on a non-svhs TV?

[aakerman]

Argh 8(

My dad has this laptop with a SiS 630/730 tv-out graphics board. I told him if he bought some cables, he could watch DVD from the computer, on his television.

So we went out and bought the appropriate cables and scart-adapter. Plugged it in, and got a black and white picture, because the tv-out signal is SVHS(or S-Video?), and the TV only supports the lower-frequency composite signal.

No sweat, because I use tvtool on my own computer, to change between SVHS tv-out and composite tv-out, which my TV supports. So I installed the program, only to find that it only supports nVidia-based cards...

What to do?? I went to a hardware store today, and they told me that there was no such thing as a hardware SVHS=>Composite adapter, so there's no way to get colour on my father's TV, unless he buys a new one with SVHS support. Has anyone got any solutions?

 

[Bulldog7000]

Does the S-Video TV-Out port have 4pins or does it have 7 or 8? If it has more than 4pins then it has a composite signal on those additional pins and you need to get an adapter like this to get the composite (via RCA) output.

BDOG

 

[aakerman]

hmm... it has 4 small pins, and then two wider rectangular-shaped pins... do they qualify as pins?

 

[Bulldog7000]

OK, nevermind. What kind of laptop is it? The rectangular "pin" is actually a physical keying device so you don't put it in the wrong way. I am not sure if I have ever heard of an S-Vid connector having 2 rectangular "pins" . The standard has a rectagular one and then 3 notches for keying.

Let us know what type of laptop it is and whether or not there is a picture of the connector/laptop online somewhere.

BDOG

 

[aakerman]

The tv-out plug looks like this: www.axa.dk/svideo.jpg

The notebook is a Targa Visionary with a 1GHz celeron cpu, and the graphics
board is a SiS 630/730.

 

[kuk]

there was no such thing as a hardware SVHS=>Composite adapter

Strange ... I have one right here. Came with my RivaTNT card ... well, you still need to choose the correct output method, so search around for software compatible with SiS.


Kuk

 

[aakerman]

huh? there's only Y/C (S-Video) and Composite to choose from... my TV can't show S-Video, and my gfx card can't output composite

 

[kuk]

Originally posted by: aakerman
huh? there's only Y/C (S-Video) and Composite to choose from... my TV can't show S-Video, and my gfx card can't output composite

If your SOFTWARE can output composite, and your HARDWARE doesn't have the connection, then all you need is the converter cable ... something like this ...
All you need is to connect the s-video end to your laptop, and an RCA (Composite) cable from the TV to the other end.

Kuk

 

[aakerman]

euh? =)

If my software could output composite, then there wouldn't be any problem
Unfortunately it's fixed at S-Video output 8(

 

[kuk]

Originally posted by: aakerman
euh? =)

If my software could output composite, then there wouldn't be any problem
Unfortunately it's fixed at S-Video output 8(

Ok ... now I understand. When you said that "there's only Y/C (S-Video) and Composite to choose from", I thought that was an option with software.

Anyway, you might need a S-Video to RCA converter, which is a couple of hundred of dollars ... not quiet worth the investment.

Strangely, after reading some FAQs in SiS website, it appears as if the Composite is supported. Are you running the latest drivers?

Kuk

 

[kuk]

Link to Targa's driver page ...
Had to put my german in use to understand this. Hope it works ...

Kuk

 

[aakerman]

Hmm where does it say it supports composite tv-out???
I downloaded the newest drivers 1-2 months ago, I have set
it to "PAL-B" (standard in Denmark), and then there's
a lot of resolution and frequency combinations to chose
from for the output, but none of them seem to produce
any colours, all are black and white...

 

[aakerman]

hehehe i used to be able to understand german ;()

do you think the targa drivers will let me chose between composite and s-video out?


btw: kuk means "crazy" in danish =)

 

[kuk]

Those drivers are a 40MB download ... if you have a fast connection, it might be worth a try.
Is PAL-B also supported in Germany? Is that notebook oficially imported in Denmark, or did you buy it in Germany? Maybe you're getting signal incompatibilities.

Do you know anyone who has a S-Video TV to test it out? Have you played with the TV settings ... maybe you can choose between signal settings (NTSC / PAL). Color absence is normally an indication of different TV signals (I know this quite well ... due to Brazil's PAL-M signal imcompatible with equipmet I bought overseas).

Kuk

PS: Cool ... one more language to add to the list. My great-grandfather was danish, but he wasn't kuk.

 

[aakerman]

hehe =)
it's officially imported, we bought it at a major hardware-chain...

no i dont know any with a s-video capable tv ;(

It might be the pal/ntsc settings, but I've had to setup tv-out on three different computers now,
and everytime the picture was black and white, it was because of s-video/composite conflict!

I am pretty sure i downloaded the "large" driver package last time.. I have a fast connection,
but it's hard to test because my father + notebook live an hour's drive away from me =(

 

[kuk]

Very strange ...

When I have S-Video/Composite conflicts (i.e. setting the wrong setting), the image will have the wrong colors, but it's not black & white. Well, I'm out of ideas ...

Good luck to you anyway!

Kuk

 

[aakerman]

I think what I need is this:
S-Video female to composite

It's kinda expensive, so I'm hoping this will solve my problems

 

[aakerman]

actually it's just like the one bulldog advised, except it's for a 4-pin connector, instead of a 7-pin..

 

[kuk]

That's what I recomended, although this is a cable, and the other is an adapter.
Thing is, I don't know if your software will let you choose how to output the video (Composite/S-Video) ... with nVidia drivers, you have to choose between the two to have a good signal. But you can always try.

Kuk