Have you verified that the cabling set-up you're using is capable of producing a color signal on another computer/TV?

[Link]

Have you tried connecting another monitor to the "bad" output?

[Link]

"Make sure you use the PureVideo Decoder (Trial) or a DVD player software that utilizes the PureVideo featureset on the NVIDIA card (the PureVideo decoder comes with a media center software: "nStantMedia. exe"). And use Overlay Mode and Automatic deinterlacing, not Smart."

"My setup (which results in good quality) is: PureVideo decoder installed, Media Player Classic as DVD player software, output set to Overlay Mixer. Filter set to Automatic deinterlacing, hardware acceleration checked."

From my own experience, I would say to use active Svideo-RCA conversion (Entech makes some trustworthy stuff (eg. the CSVC1), use the correct (7-pin or 4-pin) Svideo jacks. As b/w sounds like an NTSC/PAL hick-up too, try changing NTSC to PAL (apply and reboot even maybe?) and back (overall, try to configure your video output to match a standard your TV supports).

p_n

"cleaned all of my connections": (right in my soft-spot ...)

[Link]

The cable I am using is 4 pin s-video to male-rca and actually came from nvidia.

justalurker: My cables work fine for carrying for carrying other rca signals. Tested on an SNES and a VCR.

pinc_noiz: I must be using a coupler. Isn't the card itself the converter? There is nothing between the computer and TV but about 10ft of cable. (forgive my ignorance)

The "tv" I am using is actually an ancient Commodore monitor which accepts signals from just about anything (both pal and ntsc). (model 1802 made in 1987)

Harri Patel: I have a P4 3.4 GHZ, in a ASUS P5ND2-SLI motherboard, 2 Gbs of DDR2, I run SLI video mostly but it has to be disabled for TV out to work without flickering. Windows XP Home edition w/service pack 2 installed.

I have used the exact same cable configuration to get perfect colourful video with an nvidia geforce 4 ti card and I can't figure out how this should be any different.

This is the cable I use

Edited by - conquistador on 2/24/2007 10:53:39 PM

[Link]

Edited by - justalurker on 2/25/2007 1:06:10 AM

[Link]

Thanks though.

[Link]

And you're right: the card itself is a converter. But outputting Svideo, than using RCA is some kind of conversion in itself. Although officially Svideo signal to RCA composite video does not need any conversion (IMO, technically 'no need' can be empirically 'in need'). The 'adapter + network' from (eg.) Entech deals with this subject: product-info can probably be explanatory.

Whether these will improve the b/w to a color signal, I sincerely don't know (they can solidify a signal, not ease or solve a problem ...).

p_n

[Link]

Problem Solved.

Since it is the middle of the night and I can't go out and get any electronics I decided to fuss around more with the hardware.
I am using SLI on my computer, so that means I have another video card to try out. Dicking around with the guts of my machine is not a pleasure for me, I'm always afraid I am going to break something.

I switched the card I was using for s-video signal with the secondary one. There must have been something wrong with that part of the card. Problem solved without spending any money. I love it when fixes like this work.

The card with the funky s-video is an XFX GeForce 7600gt
and the working card is a BFG GeForce 7600gt oc in case you want to know. (the BFG one cost a little less)

I didn't bother switching the cards again to check, but it could have just been the act of moving them around that fixed the problem. Dislodged some gunk from one of the pci-e slots or something like that, sometimes computers are like that.

I also gave the whole machine a thorough dusting and cleaning while I was inside.

Edited by - conquistador on 2/25/2007 4:11:45 AM

[Link]

I am convinced that the little clips that you have to push down at the edges of cards to remove them were not designed by someone who had the use of their hands. Since it is impossible for me to both see *and* touch them I have to go by feel and it makes me nervous that I might be putting pressure on one of the bits of the mobo that can't take it.

[Link]