Now that you mention it: I actually do have one of those cables back home in Germany, too. It’s known as a passive converter (composite to S-Video or vice versa) and - you may have guessed it already - the picture is only black and white.
Needless to say that converting from composite to S-Video would not improve the picture quality, even it’s in color.
… so how do I recognize one of these “passive converter” cables and distinguish it from a “normal” s-video to RCA triple cable (by sight)? As for NTSC vs. PAL, all I know is the movies are in .avi format on the computer/cds, as both TV and laptop were purchased here in Taiwan (a few years ago) I assume the TV and the computer’s s-video out should both be NTSC, no? Maybe I should just keep to watching b&w movies, that would be a solution! Thanks, Xpet.
AFAIK there are no different types (converter or normal), i.e. it’s always a converter.
Thus I recommend to do what I described earlier about connecting my camcorder, i.e. use two cables:
One S-Video to S-Video (given the TV has such an input) and one mini-jack to stereo (red/white RCA).
Only the movie is black and white ? How about your desktop? Can you see desktop in color on TV screen ?
Maybe someone mentioned before but if you cannot see anything at full screen mode, check your display settings. Try switching from analog display to TV mode.
Rascal, thanks - that’s what I did the first time 'round, otherwise (i.e. without the sound taken from the headphones-out) there was no sound. But that second cable thing was only about sound anyway, right, not about the color vs. b&w problem.(?)
Prototype, the desktop is normal, colors & everything, just the TV shows only b&w; and yes, nothing at all comes through when I switch to full screen mode (except for the sound, but that’s no surprise I guess). I’ll try the display settings thingy you’ve mentioned, but probably only on the weekend.
If all fails (read: if I fail) in spite of all your help I guess I’ll have to look at one of grayson’s PC to TV USB devices. Grayson, what’s yours called? Thanks, Xpet.
Yep, the S-Video to S-Video cable is for video and the mini-jack to RCA is for sound only.
Problem is that the “passive converter” just hardwires the chrominance and lumincance signals of the S-Video output together, thus giving a composite (yellow RCA) picture - but in b&w only.
Since S-Video seperates C&L it usually gives a better picture (over composite) and if you use a S-Video to S-Video cable as suggested it should also be shown in color on your TV.
PC to TV via VGA out port
GRANDTEC Multimedia Wizard
Grand Ultimate 2000AX
Bought it at Guanghua here in Taipei (for those on this forum outside of taipei) for $1400NT, though I bargain a bit for that price. That’s the lowest I saw. It was from one of the basement shops near the SW corner of XinSheng and Bade. $1500NT+ is the usual price i saw for devices like this.
Hope this helps. Good luck Xpet.
… sure does, grayson, thanks. I’ll look for one of these devices as soon as get an opportunity, right now I’m quite busy as I just started a new job, that means long hours, unfortunately … :s
Rascal, may I ask what you do for a living? Must have something to do with these things, I’m sure? I’ve never heard the word “chrominance”, but it sure sounds professional! Thanks for all your help and the patience with my ignorant questions …!
:offtopic:
Prototype, I think this avatar of yours is great, it’s just a picture of a guy who’s half shaven, but somehow I find it totally weird & eerie, I’ll have to go pay a visit to the underlying url …
I am an engineer (telecommunications) by profession but also a bit of an AV/Hometheater freak.
Chrominance and luminance (not lumincance, stupid me) are just other words for colour and brightness information respectively.
Sorry for throwing in those technical terms, sometimes I get too excited about these kind of topics … 
… must be nice to actually enjoy what you do for a living! 
(I’m not sticking my tongue out, I’m going green with envy …)
Hello everyone, please could you help Guangtou and I? We’ve got a laptop (Thinkpad R51) with an s-video out. We’ve got a TV with only two options to plug in: a yellow and a white AV composite cable in. We have a cable with s-video on one end and composite on the other, and it’s plugged in.
We’ve activated the multiple monitors feature in windows XP, but now all that shows on the TV is a black and white image of my basic desktop pic (without even the icons). When we put the media player (VLC) on top, it doesn’t show on the TV. My mouse shows on the TV, but only intermitently not the computer when the cable is plugged into the computer.
Any ideas? Please?
Firstly, the black and white thing is probably cos your computer is set to PAL instead of NTSC. Try to find that option.
Seconly, look for an icon at the bottom right of the desktop indicating your video settings. You may have to switch to your tv there. (Don’t worry about that “sort of seeing the computer on the tv”. I’ve seen that before)
The same issue I described a page or two back - the passive converter will always produce a b&w picture.
[quote]We’ve activated the multiple monitors feature in windows XP, but now all that shows on the TV is a black and white image of my basic desktop pic (without even the icons). When we put the media player (VLC) on top, it doesn’t show on the TV. My mouse shows on the TV, but only intermitently not the computer when the cable is plugged into the computer.
Any ideas? Please?[/quote]
Not sure why you can’t see the icons though, maybe something to do with the resolution? AFAIK the media player writes directly into the graphics adapter (Direct-X or whatever, need to ask the computer freaks …), so you can’t see videos via the TV out. When I tried before I could see the media player window but not the video content, the window in the media player itself remained black.
Thanks Irishstu and Rascal, I think I’m going to have to play some more. Thanks for the suggestions.