DVDmax playback is not in colour - HELP!

[Grego]

For the first time I have tried the DH function of my g400, it works great except for one "small" detail, the picture on my tv is only in black/white! Any help would be greatly appreciated. The playback on my monitor is in colours.

Thanks in advance
Grego

Specs:
k6-3 450
g400 dh 32mb
128 mb pc100
win 98

[Fat Tone]

When I use DVD playback to my Hitachi 28" Widescreen, I use the S-Video out, connected to the 2nd SCART on the TV. To select the scart input, I 'cycle' through the inputs using a button on the remote: The first signal I come to is black and white, but the next press of the button reveals a full colour (high quality!) picture: Maybe you just haven't got the correct input selected on your TV.

The other option is that you have somehow enabled B&W output in the drivers (I forget which page it is on).

BTW, despite using a 5m home made cable, I am very impresed with the G400's TV output. It seems much better than the millenium G200+TV out I had before.

Good Luck

Tony.

[SteveC]

I get black and white when I use svhs too. It's my svhs -> SCART converter that's causing it. Check your cables. (Or use composite, it's still great!)

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Cheers,
Steve

[deprived]

How about just selecting pal and NOT ntsc when you are in europe ?

[SteveC]

yessssss that is with PAL selected!

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Cheers,
Steve

[Ali]

If you havent got black and white ticked in your DVDMax options page, then you are probably using the wrong zone DVD.

Im in zone 4 and if I use a zone 1 DVD I get black and white. You have the option of what zone to set up for when you install your DVD software.

Hope this helps

[Grego]

SteveC what exactly do you mean with the cables, I am using s-video and I bought a highend cable to watch dvd on my tv, have I thrown money out the window?

[Meek]

If your TV has an S-connection as well, that should not be the problem. Some S-connectors are fairly tight (and I actually have one cable that has too short pins for some of the female connectors on various equipment... who says size does not matter?), and a loose connection may cause black and white. Push it all the way! Check that you have not bent any pins in the connectors, too. (Yes, I hate S-connectors. They are way too fragile for constant connect/disconnect procedures).

BTW, SteveC's SCART input probably does not support S-signals, that's why he get's black and white.

And, yes, the most common cause for black and white is that either you feed NTSC to your PAL TV or vice versa. Check this with the TV OUT settings in the Matrox monitor settings. The default seems to be NTSC, so go and change it now! (Well, sorry if it was OK already. Basic things first.)

Also check that you TV is expecting the correct signal (in some TV's you can configure also that, but in most it is automatic... based on the refresh frequency on the "Y"-signal (B&W)).

If you are using a SCART cable as well, check that your TV really does support S-signals, and that the SCART connector has the correct pins connected. And for this purpose the TV probably would have to be configured to expect S-signal.

M.

[Grego]

Thanks for the help, I have found out that my tv does not support s-video, so I have bought a composite cable instead and hey its in colour!

Now I have another problem though, I know this isnt the right forum, but I will try anyway, after all there are a lot of computer know how represented in this forum!!
My Pioneer dvd103-s drive, whenever I try to enable dma (Im not sure it really supports this feature!!) it screws up my system, it is placed on my secondary ide-channel as slave, I loose contact with my secondary master (hdd) and with the dvd-drive, and have to remove the ali busmaster controller, and let windows reinstall it, in order to get it working again. I have a p5a mobo with ali chipset and the latest bios.
I really hope someone has any idea how to solve this (if it is possible)

[Grego]

I have solved the problem, I downloaded the latest ide drivers from Ali and suddenly dma works perfectly YES!!!!!

All I can say is thanks for the response and this card rocks totally.