How to change video output signal to composite?

[perttuh]

I have an Ati Radeon 9700 video card which has only a s-video output,
and I'm wondering if there's a way to change the output signal to
composite. I'm pretty sure there's no such option in the driver
settings. Would any program be useful?

The problem is that my tv accepts only the composite signal (the
s-video shows black & white), and I already have the s-video cabel and
the s-video-->scart converter. I know a s-video-->composite converter
would be easy to buy/make, but in this case it should be enough just
to change the video output format, I think.

All ideas appreciated!

PerttuH, Finland.

 

[Andrew]

The problem is that my tv accepts only the composite signal (the
s-video shows black & white)

Have you tried changing the TV standard in the ATI control panel? It
is probably the wrong default value which will generally show up as
black and white.

 

[Vellu]

I doubt s-video to scart adapter will be enough...the signal will still be
s-video: you cannot carry a composite signal via s-video cable from the
computer. The conversion has to be made outside. Wasn't there a
s-video->rca(composite) adapter with you graphic card?

 

[Gordon Scott]

I have an Ati Radeon 9700 video card which has only a s-video output,
and I'm wondering if there's a way to change the output signal to
composite. I'm pretty sure there's no such option in the driver
settings. Would any program be useful?

The problem is that my tv accepts only the composite signal (the
s-video shows black & white), and I already have the s-video cabel and
the s-video-->scart converter. I know a s-video-->composite converter
would be easy to buy/make, but in this case it should be enough just
to change the video output format, I think.

All ideas appreciated!

PerttuH, Finland.

Im pretty sure ATI sells one of those in their accessory store.

 

[perttuH]

I doubt s-video to scart adapter will be enough...the signal will still be
s-video: you cannot carry a composite signal via s-video cable from the
computer. The conversion has to be made outside. Wasn't there a
s-video->rca(composite) adapter with you graphic card?

I know that with some video card's / tv's (my friends nvidia/old
panasonic set for example) it can work like that: signal goes via the
s-video cable, but the output format is set to composite from the
video card's settings. I would have liked to try it, the simpliest
solution for me (oddly there came no s-video->rca adapter with the
card).

perttuH

 

[MDS]

I had a stand alone DVD player displaying in black and white a couple of
months ago. The S video cable was bad, change it and the color was fine. You
might try swapping yours out.

 

[Vellu]

Theoretically this could work, but problem then turns into getting your
graphic card to use the correct pins from the s-video cable.

Signal/pins for S-Video: 1=GND(Y)/ 3=Luminance(Y), 2=GND(C)/4=Chrominance(C)
Signal/pin for Composite(rca) 1=GND(composite video)/2=Composite video

Now in SCART the S-Video pins translate to Scart pins as follows:
1=17 (VGND), 3=20 (VIN, Composite In/Luminance)
2=13 (RGND), 4=15 (RGB Red In/Chrominance)

and composite as follows:
1=17 (VGND), 2=20 (VIN, Composite In/Luminance)

As you can see Composite via S-Video works if pins 1/3 are used from the
s-video cable. If this is what your graphic card does when forced to
Composite, no problem. If not, you're out of luck. Not hard to try though,
just plug in and see...