S-Video records black & white

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Rikkitic

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#19924 6-Mar-2008 17:15

I have a Panasonic EH50 DVR. When I record a video signal via any Scart or composite input, it works normally. When I try to record via any s-video jack, even through an adaptor on a Scart plug, it always comes back black and white. Can anyone shed any light on this? AV1 and AV2 are both set to s-video on the menu and I am inputting the Sky decoder signal as s-video via the Scart connector to AV2 (which works fine). Output is set to progressive component for the LCD TV. Signal sources and DVR are all set to PAL. S-video cable works fine with colour signals on another TV and DVD player. I suspect I must be missing a setting somewhere but I am mystified. Any help would be much appreciated.

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cyril7

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#115050 6-Mar-2008 20:29

On S-video the colour info is transfered on the Red video channel of the SCART, is this wired correctly.

Cyril

Rikkitic

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#115126 7-Mar-2008 09:37

I have to assume it is. In any case, I get the same result when I plug into either of the s-video jacks on the unit. I also have an in/out Scart connector with s-video jack on it and the same thing happens when I try that. However, a Scart cable connection from the Sky decoder works fine though the output is set to s-video. The problem seems only to occur when I try to input a signal via any s-video jack. Could this be a fault with the unit?

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cyril7

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#115136 7-Mar-2008 10:27

Most of the earlier Sky boxs had issues with S-Video on some TV inputs and most likely DVRs. The issue is the type of video driver they have, it requires a full bandwidth termination to work correctly which many TVs (Panasonic in particular) does not provide. The end results was either black and white pics or blotchy washed out colours.

The solution is to place a termination resistor across the chroma channel (most easily done in the SCART connector). I have found values from 220ohms to 1k or more to work just fine, I normally use a 470ohm resistor, this gives the needed DC termination to maintain DC clamping (the main symptom) but not over terminate the wanted 4.43MHz chroma channel itself

Cyril

Rikkitic

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#115286 7-Mar-2008 19:25

Not sure if that would help in this case though I'm willing to try. The problem isn't with the Sky signal though. That works fine through the Scart input. The problem is anything else (like camcorders but not only those) I try to input through any s-video jack on the DVR. Inputs via Scart and composite work fine. Anything via an s-video jack turns into black and white. That's what makes this so frustrating. The only way I can capture external sources with the DVR is by backpedalling to composite quality. What I really want to do is be able to use the s-video outputs on my camcorder and laptop. The decoder is an older Pace, by the way, but it seems to work fine.

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Rikkitic

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#115485 8-Mar-2008 22:59

I finally found the answer to my own problem and felt I should post it just to round things off. It turns out there is a fault with the s-video jack on the front panel. I haven't opened the unit yet but presumably it's a bad pin or similar.

I was thrown off the track because tests I did at the back gave the same result the first time around. Possibly I also have a wonky cable but when I retested the back panel jack today it worked fine so the problem appears confined to the front. This I can live with by plugging the s-video monitor output from my amp into the DVR and using the amp aux in when I need to record external sources.

Thanks to Cyril7 for the helpful tips. It's useful to know how the colour info is passed in any case.

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