Be Excellent To Each Other

This should be quick and easy. Missus.

I'm outputting S-Video from a PC, into the scart connection on the back of my new TV. It's in black & white. I seem to remember that there's some setting I need to change on the telly so it understands the signal correctly and displays it in colour - any idea what that setting might be called?

As stupid as it may sound, I seem to remember changing the setting from s-vhs to composite. This was years ago though, so I might be completely wrong.

Here's the thing though - I can't find that setting on the TV...

It was definitely there on the last TV, and I remember changing it. Now though, it doesn't seem to offer the option.

It was a setting in the display properties on the pc.

It must be at least 5 or 6 years since I've tired using a tv-out on a pc, so this may only apply to really old geforce cards.

Not all SCART sockets support SVHS, and this one doesn't, or isn't in the right mode. Swap from SCART1 to SCART2, perhaps. Ensure the TV is looking for a SVid signal. If it's in B&W, the TV is treating it as a composite signal (the second cabling pair of the SCART lead carries chrominence).

That's the thing - I don't appear to be able to change the mode on the SCART sockets on the TV. I've tried in SCART1 (RGB) and SCART2 (A/V), and I've confirmed that the graphics card knows it's outputting via SVideo.

Oh well. The card outputs DVI, so I'll switch to that tomorrow.

Where the graphics card knows it's outputting SVideo, can you change that to composite?

No

There's a chance the GFX might be outputting NTSC, but if it's a new telly, it shouldn't matter.

what telly is it?

On our Panasonic we have to select the appropriate input with a coloured button, then press it again to toggle s-video input off/on.

I got a bigger, louder Toshiba telly a few weeks ago and the picture quality on DVDs and Xbox seems quite a bit worse than the old one. The screen is a few inches bigger so I was expecting to see the pixels more, but there seems to be quite large "gaps" between each line, which is noticeable if you're up close playing a game. It makes small text very difficult to read.

I'm fairly sure I've got S-video selected for the scart input the xbox is connected to but it's hard to say.

Not sure if it's a fault or it's just going to be like that. Slightly disappointing, but then it was free so I can't complain.

Kalmar, larger standard def CRTs often have a slightly visible grid on the screen. It's very faint but annoying if you notice it. Sadly many games don't take SDTVs into account in the design phase (see Dead Rising)

The graphics card will, more than likely, be outputting NTSC and not PAL colour. You need to try and find an option to change that, or a hack if they haven't bothered making it available. Intel chips normally have it in the Graphics Properties bit.

I had an xfx card with a jumper for selecting pal/ntsc on the card itself.

Unfortunately not - It's PAL. I/PAL, no less.

Weird, then.

One DVI cable later and we have sparkly full-colour video. Thanks folks!