Black & white capture; no colour

Hi there
I have a TV@nywhere-Master' PCI TV Card.
I installed the latest drivers.
I want to put my old VCR videos on DVD, using
WinDVD video creator'.
My VCR has only two Scart-out and a left/right RCA Audio-out.
My TV card has an s-video-in and RCA-video-in.
I connected the s-video cable from my TV card to a switchbox that converts Scart to s-video and, or RCA.
When I play the video or try to capture the image, it shows a black & white image.
Can someone tell me how I can solve this problem?

 

hey i'm having similar problem when recording a tv show to my camcorder.. I'm asking why in dif forum but no reply yet.. it could be a ntsc & pal problem...

 

My VCR is a PAL but can play NTSC. I have tried both PAL and NTSC tapes, but they both give a black and white picture on my PC.
When using my DVD player:
DVD s-video-out to PC s-video-in gives colour.
DVD RCA-video-out to PC RCA-video-in gives colour.
DVD RCA-video via scart-video-out to PC RCA-video-in gives colour.
DVD s-video via scart-video-out to PC scart-video-in gives black and white.

 

Well this is exactly what happens when you try to capture Pal Video on a NTSC Capture card or Visa Versa...You should also make sure that your VHS tapes aren"t copy protected because captureing Copy protected Tapes can cause a simular problem.....Cheers

 

Minion u mean the Digital Camcorder whi I imported from Japan has a NTSC capture card inside it?

 

My VCR is PAL (plays NTSC no problem on my PAL TV)
My capture card is PAL/SECAM (supposed to capture NTSC)
Tapes, both PAL & NTSC are not copy protected,
and still everything is in black & white.

 

Back to the b&w vs color problem. I had the same problem with capturing from my camcorder. I called the capture card's tech support and when I finally got through we were able to trace the problem to my S-video cable. That's all it took was replacing the S-video cable and voila!, I got my color back.

You might want to give that a try.

 

This either if a faulty switchbox or the vcr does not support s-video which is more likely. I have the same problem with my s-video in on my gfx card it only accepts real s-video sources on the other end.

 

I also had a Simular Problem when useing a S-Video to Composite adapter when trying to capture with a crappy USB device I used to have, It does seem that some devices need a real S-Video source to get a good signal not a S-Video to composite adapter....

 

Thanks. I am now inputting with the RCA lead. Occasinally it still gives me black and white, but if I keep flicking with the remote, it eventually gives me colour.

 

Probably a bit late to reply to this thread, but your last comment (if I flick the remote enough) suggests that the problem is just that the signal isn't strong enough.
As with TV signals from air, when the signal strength drops off the first thing to disappear is colour and the last is sound.
Could be anything from poor quality tape through dirty tape heads to a bad contact somewhere (loose pin -- mis-matched connector), or even a bad cable -- you need the best quality S-video and analogue cables you can find for this task, particularly if it's a long run.

 

I seem to have a similar problem.
I have been capturing from my anologue camcorder using Dazzle VDC 80 equipment and Pinnacle software. After some problems it is finally working.
However I need to transferfrom VHS to PC. I was told to get a scart converter with s-video and audio out. The thing will capture but only in black and white. It was a new scart converter and leads today.
Could they be faulty or is there something I have missed?

 

Might be the Scart connector.
Being in Australia, where Scart connectors are fairly rare, I've not much knowledge of them, but seem to recall that some (all?) of them have component colour, so if you're reducing that to S-video you'd need to ensure the colour signals are getting through -- if the card, connection or whatever at the computer end doesn't support this, the pinouts don't match or your switch-box can't combine the colour channels, B/W is probably all you'll get.

That the RCA connections provide colour whilst S-video doesn't suggests this is most likely the case.

The only Scart connection I possess runs from the VCR (Sony SLV-T2000)to the TV and supplies it with both component colour and stereo audio, which made it simple to connect a DVD player and also left the VCR's S-video and RCA outlets free, so I don't have any problems with VCR to PC capture.

 

Thanks for your reply. Can you suggest any other way of getting my VHS tapes onto dvd?

 

If your VCR doesn't have any outlets other than Scart, all I can suggest is that you look further into what connectors are available in your area.

I've no doubt you're not Robinson Crusoe -- there will be others round about with the same problem, and problems have a habit of getting solved if enough noise is made.

If you talk to your local service people and retailers, I'm sure some of them will know all about it.

I'm fortunate in that my gear has all the connectors I could want, so haven't had to research it much.

I'm currently connecting via S-video (for video) and RCA (for sound) to a D-ViCO FusionHDTV card, which captures from the VCR quite nicely in MPEG-2 format, and can also make really beautiful recordings off-air from digital TV.

Was thinking of a Canopus ADVC100, which costs over $500 here -- now I doubt I'll need it.

As I said, I'm sure there will be a way.

A thought! Does your VCR connect to the TV via an antenna lead for normal use?

By this I mean the wall socket is connected to the VCR's antenna input and the VCR contains a splitter which connects to its tuner and also via a further patch cord to the TV -- when you play back a tape the VCR switches automatically to the patch cord and you tune the TV to the appropriate channel (my Sony VCR outputs to all sockets at once, so any available lead can be used.)

The DViCO tuner card has a standard TV antenna socket, so maybe the TV patch cord could be swapped from the TV to one of these things (other companies also make them -- Hauppage, Leadtek etc.)

Think on it. It probably wouldn't work with my card, which tunes standard and HD digital TV only, not analogue, but something like Leadtek's cheap TV2000 series might work.

 

Thanks very much. Will look into it.

 

Just had a thought! My daughter has a tv that has s-video and audio out, can I connect the vhs to that, play the tape and then connect from tv to PC. Will my capture equipment know whats plugging in and copy it that way?

 

All your capture card does is handle the signal that's fed into it - it hasn't a clue where it comes from.

Won't hurt to try it and see...

 

Thanks. Will do and let you know if it works!