Finally bought ATI, TV-out b&w tho. HELP!

[vresiberba]

Hi.
I’ve been thinking of buying a new g-card to replace my g-force2 mx with a decent card combining speed and a good tv-out. The Radeon 9000 fell right in place and so yesterday (read Friday) I bought myself my fist ever ATI card. Finally I could get tv-out and sufficient power to play some games.

Now I plugged my Hightech Excalibur Radeon 9000 Pro in and voila, image on TV but it’s Black & White!? No problem I thought, with my old TNT2 (were set to NTSC by default) I just have to switch to PAL view. Now how do I do this? I Followed help files to locate where, but to that I have to go: Display Properties > Settings > Advanced > Displays (ATI tab) > TV (it’s on) > Format > than chose Sweden (PAL) but the ‘format’ tab isn’t there, only ‘attributes’, ‘Adjustments’ and ‘Advanced’.

I’ve been fiddling with drivers and such for hours but to no avail, the ‘format’ tab won’t appear. Searched ATI’s web site for info and found out, and I quote:
‘TV OUT, however, is limited to NTSC ONLY on these North American models.’ And ‘ATI TV OUT capable products do not support TV OUT in native PAL-M and PAL-N formats.’

Now I don’t know what system we use in Sweden but I know my TV set can handle ALL PAL systems. With a closer scan (visually) I noticed a small sticker on the back of the carton of the Radeon, it’s a small (5 millimetres) round sticker that says ‘NTSC’ and I also found that same sticker (on a closer exam) on the card itself.

Question, is there any solution for this or should I try to get a refund to get a card that can handle PAL TV-out? Any suggestion would be VERY helpful. I have until Monday so it’s a rush really.

Eddie/

[Rincewind256]

"‘TV OUT, however, is limited to NTSC ONLY on these North American models.’ And ‘ATI TV OUT capable products do not support TV OUT in native PAL-M and PAL-N formats.’"
I think you have to get the european model if you want to connect PAL-TVs to your RADEON 9000.
Maybe there are some hardwareconverters on the market to change NTSC to PAL, but I don`t know if they work with your card.

[hermanthegerman]

Try TVTool from http://www.tvtool.de

[Rooster6975]

I don't believe you have an NTSC / PAL problem....

Differences in PAL and NTSC do not make it b&w. If you have a NTSC source and try to play it in on a PAL-only receiver, the number of frames per second will not be correct. However, I have never encountered a television in Europe that wouldn't display the image. If you can get an image, then your material is likely compatible.

You output will be black and white if you try to pass an S-video cable to a television which does not support s-video. If you have a composite out on the back of your Radeon, you should use that. The image won't be as good as when you use S-video, but it should be in colour.

I had this exact problem on a television I used to have. When I connected my ATI Rage Fury to it using the S-video out through a SCART connector, the image was in black and white. As soon as I connected the Composite out, the image was in colour. The next time you buy a TV, make sure it can accept S-video in. My new Television can and I can assure you the image quality is better.

I purchased TVTool a while ago. A previous poster also mentioned this tool. It is the best TV-out tool there is, bar none. It will not correct this problem however, as I believe you are trying to use a connector your television does not support.

Cheers,
Rooster.