Scart converter works well with composite but not with S-Video

Vulcan wrote on 9/30/2003, 5:51 AM
Bought myself a small (14") color TV that's adjustable between 4:3 and 16:9 (important since my ADVC-100 doesn't recognize the WS-signal sent from Vegas). The "problem" is that the TV only has scart (no composite and no s-video). Connected my ADVC-100 to the TV through a scart-converter. If I use composite I get color (beautiful colors) but if I use S-Video I get either black and white or a very (and I mean very) noisy picture with occasional colored pixels (looks awful).

As I get color through composite this isn't a big deal but I would be interested in knowing why this happens. I though S-Video was a better and more accurate signal than composite. I use high quality cabels and a high quality scart converter. I have no problems getting color if I fed the signal directly from the ADVC-100 through S-Video and hook it up to my big widescreen TV (this is in a different room so its not an option to use this setup when I want to edit and/or color correct).

Anyone that can sheed some light? Is the problem likely to be scart related or TV-related (the TV was very cheep but it gives very nice/goodlooking colors).

Hans

Comments

sdmoore wrote on 9/30/2003, 8:11 AM
Hi Hans,

The reason is that your TV does not have a S-Video input (Usually, you have to switch the scart into S-Video mode on your TV - check your TV manual to make sure it's not supported).

The scart connectors usually have pins that take composite but not always S-Video pins. S-Video is split into two components, the B&W part and the colour part. When you use your scart/composite converter with an S-Video signal you usually get B&W since it's passing only the B&W part through.

Cheers,

Scott
Vulcan wrote on 9/30/2003, 9:16 AM
Thanks for the reply. I'll check the manual when I get home but I suspect there is no such option (I didn't notice any such thing yesterday when I set up the TV). Although annoying not a problem since the composite worked.

Hans