No color on TV s-video out - Radeon 9600

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati (More info?)

"Max O." <aon.912738731@aon-dot-at.no-spam.invalid> wrote in message
news:417e2fbc$1_5@alt.athenanews.com...
> hi
> i've a new sapphire atlantis 9600 with 256 mB and i have some
> problems.
> iwant to watch dvd over the s-video out an the graphiccard but it is
> only black and white...
> i also have the same problem with my laptop also radeon 9600.
>
> any suggestion??
>
> system:
> P4B 2,66Ghz
> 524 ram DDR
> mobo: p4g8x
> graphiccard: sapphire atlantis 9600 with 256 mB
>
> thank you
> Max O.
>

I had the same problem. Look through your tvs menus, you actually have to
tell the television that you are receiving a signal through the S-video
port. Once informed, you'll get a colour picture.

Also, if your adapter looks like mine http://img01.static-nextag.com/ima [...] 904639.jpg The solution is, like all well solved electronic problems, aluminum foil.
.....______
.../..............\
./...{O O}....\
|...................|
|....O.......O...|
.\.......[_]....../
...\_______/

In this rough sketch of a 4pin s video connector(such as mine and the one in the picture), I have put squigglies around the 2 pins that need to be connected with aluminum foil. Now, I know that rerouting connections that interface with you computer hardware is generally frowned upon but if you think about it correctly it makes complete sense.

The only reason you need the adapter to convert to composite is because the 2 parts of the video signal that would normally be sent along the same line are now sent individually along the s video. (That is, one wire in the s video for the (Y) channel and one for the (U) channel.) This separation that occurs in the s video is the exact same format as the 2 signals sent on a composite RCA cable but some people complained about the cross interference of the 2 signals on 1 line and now we have S-Video cables.

The problem lies in the fact that these "adapters", similar to the ones sent with old radeon and geforce cards, don't really convert anything. They just choose one of the wires to send along the RCA cable and never actually re-composite the 2 signals. However, there are other adapters that do this correctly...for some reason the ones they ship with the cards don't...

What I've done is a simple, forced re-composition. Sure, you could cut the thing open and solder the wires together, but this works just as good as is much simpler and faster!

After, hours of internet research I formulated this very intense ^^ solution to my problem, and I hope others will find it helpful.