S-video Capture Is Black & White

[Andrew Stevens]

Installed Easy VHS to DVD with no problems on a Dell XPS720 PC running Vista Ultimate 32 bit. Also installed the latest driver and Service Pack 2 from the Roxi site. I am in the UK and hence TV/VCR signal is PAL.

 

I can capture from VHS using composite video cables and colour is fine. However DVD picture is very grainy compared with the original VHS tape.

 

Tried to improve using S video. On the Roxio Media Import screen I have selected S-video for input but preview picture is black and white and the status line shows 'No Signal'. Switching back to composite for the Input and I get a colour preview and Status shows 'Ready to Capture.

 

I am using a scart to Composite / S video adaptor with 1 m long composite & audio lead and a 3 m long S-video lead (which I already had).

 

Can anybody tell me how to correct this problem, please?

Edited March 4, 2009 by Andrew Stevens

[gi7omy]

It's possible you may have a faulty lead - Pin 3 on that is Y (mono information) and 4 is C (Colour)

 

1 GND Ground (Y)

2 GND Ground ©

3 Y Intensity (Luminance) 75 Ohms 1V incl. Sync.

4 C Color (Chrominance) 75 Ohms 0.3V Burst

 

If you are only getting the Y signal, then the C is missing. Composite sends both together (hence the fact that you do get it through)

[Andrew Stevens]

It's possible you may have a faulty lead - Pin 3 on that is Y (mono information) and 4 is C (Colour)

 

1 GND Ground (Y)

2 GND Ground ©

3 Y Intensity (Luminance) 75 Ohms 1V incl. Sync.

4 C Color (Chrominance) 75 Ohms 0.3V Burst

 

If you are only getting the Y signal, then the C is missing. Composite sends both together (hence the fact that you do get it through)

 

Many thanks gi7omy for this information. I will check out the adapter and lead continuity tomorrow.

 

John, yes very strange and coincidental if it is the leads. I have Roxio Creator DE as a freeby installation when I bought the Dell computer last year. This is not Creator 2009 and therefore assumed that it didn't need to be removed before installing Easy V2D. If the lead is OK, I will remove Creator DE and reinstall V2D.

[Andrew Stevens]

You can find the SCART pinouts here:

 

http://acl.co.uk/pinouts.htm

 

SCART btw uses separate RGB connections so you can't really do a continuity check between the chroma on S-VHS and SCART. It probably doesn't apply in your case, but a lot of SCART adapters are one way only (input or output). I have one (from Maplin's) that has a switch to change direction

 

I doubt if it would make much difference anyway - if one of the internal connections was faulty you would get a signal with one component missing and not a true monochrome

 

What happens if you capture directly via Windows Movie Maker? Is that also monochrome?

 

Thanks for the URL. My Maplin adapter is also switchable in/out. Before receiving your response, I had already found the information on line and made continuity checks (scart pin 15 to Din pin 4 for chrominance). I have since checked the scart adapter / S-video + phono audio on other equipment and have found the leads and adapter OK. However using my VCR on the TV still gives a B&W picture using S-video.

 

Conclusion: My VCR, with scart in/out only is not internally wired for S-video. I will have to beg, steal or borrow a VCR with S-video out to check further.

 

nb. I have several video editing packages, including Movie Maker. They all gave the same result, so it can't be a software problem.

 

Thanks for your help guys. Will post a result when I get another VCR.

[Andrew Stevens]

Hi Guys. Update on my problem. Bought a recording dvd with s-video connection. Connected my VCR using scart to scart and then S-video + audio to Roxio VHS to DVD. Colour and sound is fine. Therefore the scart on my VHS does not have S-video internal connections, as I suspected from previous posts.

 

Picture is still not brilliant but better than the composite. Now plan to record directly from VHS to my DVD recorder.

 

This closes my original problem

[gi7omy]

Thanks for the feedback - ridiculous they couldn't have added the couple of penny's worth of the extra components to carry the Chroma signal out on it

[Jim_Hardin]

Andrew: Thanks for all the legwork and follow-up!

 

I suggest you use 'plus' RW media to record on – assuming you will want to bring the recording into VideoWave to edit.

 

"plus" should eliminate the Finalizing and other compatibility issues we see with Recorders.

 

[Andrew Stevens]

Thanks for the tip, Jim. I will do that.