Graphics Card for TV

Hey, Bondy111 - It could be a format issues. Most laptops output NTSC format, and you telly is probably PAL format (European standard).

If the are both using the same format, you might need a converter.

I'm not sure what cable you are using, but you might need a converter like this one:

http://www.svideo.com/svideoscart.html

If it were an NTSC/PAL issue then the picture would be rolling at 10 Hz (NTSC 60 Hz vs. PAL 50 Hz) . Most likely he is using a SCART TV which only supports the luminance channel of S video not the chrominance part.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-Video

That's right. NTSC to PAL would give you a diagonally distorted, scrolling picture, not just black and white, because both the resolution and the frame-rate are incompatible.

The only such instance I know of which will turn a colour picture into black and white is the conversion between SECAM (French) and PAL, where the chrominance is lost.

It could also be that in the settings of the video card in the laptop, the "Hue" setting was set at minimum

I tried it on another telly, and it did diagonally scroll, just like you said, but on my telly, it is still just black and white. How do you check the hue settings? The telly is an old grundig, not sure what model, and on the laptop, it makes no difference whether I change the settings to 16 or 32 bit colour.

That other TV is probably one equipped with "Multi-system" circuitry. These can detect the video standard on their input, and apply the appropriate codec to comply with.

I'm using a

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=110342205270

wire.

It's going through one of those adaptors.

All I can think of is that the telly is too old. What do you think?

The laptop was bought in the UK, so I can't think why it would output NTSC. It's a Packard Bell R4622

Towards the end of the Wiki article is an explanation of your problem. Your telly is too old.

You said 7-pin originally, and you are using a 4-pin cable (which will plug in)? You may try finding a 7-pin cable.

Ok, now I look stupid

Yes, it plugs into

has your telly got an svid input or are you converting to composite, if so the top of the svid voltage band is only at the bottom of the composite voltage band so sometimes the colorers don't come through.

I had this problem on my old acer laptop on my old TV. Higher end equipment usually is a bit more tolerant of the voltage difference then the cheaper models.

One thing I did notice is that it sometimes worked if it was plugged in before I booted the laptop I am not sure why, but you might want to try that