NVidia TV out in black and white!

[Rach21]

This worked for me

Just thought I’d put in my experience in the hope that it helps out someone. <o> </o>
I too (like the initial post) have just replaced an MX440 card with an FX 5200 and had the same problem of only being able to get a black & white signal to the TV.
<o> </o>
I was using the same 4-pin S-Video to composite (RCA) adaptor that I was using with the old card, so even though I had seen suggestions that the adaptor could be at fault, I didn’t think that was the case here. After trying EVERY setting I could find (10 times each), I was getting close to throwing away my new card and buying something that did not have an NVIDIA chip in it.
<o> </o>
As a final attempt at maintaining the small amount of sanity I had left, I decided to go and buy a cheap 4-pin S-Video to composite (RCA) adaptor (I got the type that is just an adaptor, and does not have a cable like my existing one). AND IT WORKED FIRST BOOT.
<o></o>
<o>Conclusion </o>
So even if you are as sure as I was that the cable is not at fault because it worked with another card (or worked before with this card). Don’t believe yourself! Everyone else knows you can’t be trusted, so listen to them and just spend a couple of bucks on another adaptor to try it out (and if that fails, maybe try a more expensive 7-pin adaptor just in case).
<o> </o>
And to GRCE
Here is where you find the option to select the output format…
Right click on desktop.
Go to Properties.
Click the “Settings” tab.
Click the “Advanced” button.
Select the “GeForce FX 5200” tab.
Select “nView Display Settings”.
Right click on the picture that represents your TV.
Go to “Select TV Format” then down to (and click on) “Advanced”.
Here you will see the option to choose the output options that you couldn’t find.
<o> </o>
In my case… (<st1lace w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">New Zealand</st1:country-region></st1lace>) B/PAL for the signal format, and “S-Video-Out” for the output format.
<o> </o>
Note: Since the initial connection to the card is by S-Video (even though it’s then reduced to RCA) I still need to select either “Auto-Select” or “S-Video”. If you choose “Composite” with this set-up, you will get a picture on the TV only during the start of the boot process and it will disappear when Windows starts to load.

[varimon]

my 7900GTX had the same problem and none of the soft fixes were working. setting it to composite would add color in the briefest second b4 my tv lost signal. saturation was not at zero and had no effect on adding color. after reading a number of forums that said u needed a new cable or new adapter i figured i'd try the quick fix and went to local radio shack. i couldnt find that same kind of adapter so i decided i'd try a new S-vid cable with an s-vid cable signal converter. note the converter is basically an S-video CABLE to composite cable adapter which is very similar but not exactly the same thing as the adapter provided with the vid card. now with the s-vid cable hookt directly to my 7900GTX then the signal converter and then the composite hookt to the tv, i get color. in the settings it picks up the setup as S-video thereby bypassing the composite option altogether.

so in a nut shell here's the fix that workt for me:

vid card--> s-video cable--> adapter--> composite cable--> TV

EDIT:
just got a "12ft s-vid to composite(RCA) cable" works great also. the cable i bought is pretty thick/heavy duty so it was a bit expensive ($20) but it's worth not having to worry about finding all the parts mentioned above just to watch a movie

[sphereboy]

ok, i found it.
right-click the nvidia icon, select TV OUTPUT and then slide saturation to the middle.
does that work?

also, see this other guy's answer:
For some reason, a certain setting changes when you install the most recent update of Nvidia drivers. Mine happend to be version "66.93_win2kxp_english.exe". First, open your Display Properties and click on the [Settings] tab. Click the [Advanced] button. Click on the [GeForce (etc.)] tab. Select from the side menu [nView Display Settings]. Right click the display that should be your TV (normaly either "2" or "1b" ). Highlight [Select TV Format]. Click [Advanced...] at the bottom of the menu. Change "Video output format:" from [Auto-select] to the apropriate connector. Click [Device Adjustments]. Move the "Saturation" slider or just click [Restore Defaults]. Hopfully this should solve the problem.

just wanted to let you all know. the above suggestion worked just fine for me. take a moment to breathe, and follow the above instructions carefully. after much fidgeting with other solutions this one worked just fine. it's all about the 'saturation' slider being set to '0'. Restore defaults and your set.

[Strakha]

I tried all the solutions above involving selecting different PAL types and image saturation options, and none of them worked. In the end I tried what vehemence describes below and it worked!

fixed it using a solution i found on a random forum somewhere (can't remember which one), which is to wrap a little wire around the top 2 connectors (with the plastic plug bit at the bottom) on the svhs cable, joining them together. apparently this is the difference between svhs and composite or something. pretty dodgy, but it works ok now so i'm gonna leave it alone. now i can play dawn of war on my tv! yay!

Just to clarify, what I actually did was get a wire tie, and cut the insulation off it. Then, using tweezers, I very carefully made a small loop at one end, cut the wire down to the right length, and then made a loop at the other end. I then positioned it inside the S-Vid cable connecting the 2 top pins furthest away from the plastic thing. I think it's important that the length is just right so that the wire is touching the two pins and not the surrounding metal. You need to do this to both ends of the s-vid connector.

What I then found was that it wasn't detecting my TV. So, what I did was go into "Display Properties", "Advanced", "GeForce 7900GT (or whatever yours is)", then in the menu on the left "Tools" and at the the bottom check the box that says "Force TV Display". When I rebooted the computer I was able to switch the the display over to the TV and it's in colour! It says it's an HDTV when it isn't, but who cares, it works.

Anyway, I just registered so I could post this because I'm so grateful that I've finally found a solution. I expect the solution varimon suggested would have also worked for me because like him I was getting the briefest flick of colour before the display went off when switching it to composite, but this solution doesn't require you to buy extra parts.

My connection is Graphics card -> Modified S-Vid cable -> Scart connector -> TV

[wastedweasel]

I did what Strakha did (short the two pins with a wire) and mine now works fine. the weirdest thing is that I had the same exact GF6600 agp and it worked flawless from first try but then I upgraded and had to get a pcie one and then the problems happened.

before:
gainward geforce 6600 apg 256mb -> S-vhs Cable -> Scart Connector -> TV

after:
gainward geforce 6600 pcie 512mb -> Modified S-vhs Cable -> Scart Connector -> TV

[Cylon]

It must be a driver issue.

Hi!

Gfx-card: Gainward GeForce 6600 GT
PAL settings are correctly set up.

I had colors on my TV-OUT display until very recently:

I upgraded my nVidia forceware from ver 81.98 to 84.21 a few days ago (in an attempt to tackle computer crash issues with playing "Hitman: Blood Money"), and that's when I started having the B/W issues with TV OUT.
It worked like a charm on my ver 81.98 drivers, but after the upgrade, I'm not able to get my TV to display colors.
For this newest forceware, none of the troubleshooting suggestions seem to work.

I've tried what the earlier posts suggest regarding SATURATION level, but it's set to 114% by default (on both my monitor and the TV), so that doesn't help. I adjusted the slider for good measure anyway, but naturally, nothing happened.

So in my case at least, it's definetely a driver issue, because the only change I've applied since it used to work, is the ForceWare.

Looks like the only option is to wait for the next ForceWare update release, or re-install the older ForceWare (which really isn't a good solution, as I'll be back to square one regarding Hitman BM).

[wastedweasel]

Cylon, maybe you could try the new beta 91.28 drivers and see if you get any change on your card. I suggest keeping the old style control panel tho coz the new one is just weird.

[Cylon]

Well, don't I feel like a total knobber.

I had to select "Composite" instead of "S-Video out" (which admittedly IS the technically correct option) as my signal source. Now it's all back in color. Don't know if this'll work for others.

[Golfballhead]

TV-out in black and white??

Guys I had the exact same problem - I just bought an GeForce XFX 6800XT and plugged in my old s-video to composite lead into my tv and all I got was black and white, whereas before on my FX5500 I always got colour.

Anyway the solution for 6 and 7 series Nvidia Cars is this:-

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=220177

I bought it yesterday and it works perfectly. All you do is connect the yellow bit to a standard video lead, and plug the other end either directly into the yellow bit on the front of your telly or if you dont have that then into one of those three plug input scart leads, you know which one I mean (yellow, red white input!

P.S. Before I bought this lead I messed about with my old lead and joined the two pins as mentioned earlier in this post and that also worked, wohoo!!, but I still went and bought the above lead from scan beacause my graphics card is brand new and I wanted a new lead instead of a homemade one ...

P.P.S. Its threads like these that bring a warm feeling to my heart, without this thread I was seriously considering taking the card back, as the tv-out function is a must for me. But because of this thread I know have a better graphics card and colour tv-out!

[Fl3a]

Hi all

I've read all of your posts, and I realize that I'm gonna have to either buy a composite cable, or fix my own, because I have a nVidia 6 card, and when I take composite cable, I get color for a sec and then it pops back to b&w.

I rather fix my cable than buy a new one, but I really can't understand how you did it. Or, well, I understand how to do it, take a wire and connect the two pins most far away from the plastic thing... But how the hell did you do that? I got one wire that was pretty nice, i made two loops and put it over the pins, but it was too thick and i couldn't connect the cable in my card because of the wire. And how is it even possible to make it with a smaller wire? It's soooo small

[wastedweasel]

i used a very thin aluminium wire. one of those you twist around breadbags which has a layer of plastic around them. if you have them i don't know
then i just made a loop and put that on the one pin and held on to the other end and bent it like 180. then pulled it back out and cut it and put it back. works like a charm

[Fl3a]

What the ****!

So, this is the thing. My video card has 8 pin s-video out instead of 4 like my old one. Lucky for me I got a HDTV output cable with it http://www.dei.co.jp/pc_parts/image/2036859.jpg
But, not exactly that on the pic because my had s-video out too. So I just connected the S-video to the hdtv output, but when I switched to composite on my computer, I got color for a sec, and then the screen turned black. So I looked it up on this website, and thought that I should buy the composite cable. But someone told me that I needed a s-video to composite adapter, because I can't connect the composite cable to the red, green or blue ones because they are component for HDTV. So, I bought a little adapter which did the s-video output to composite output, and then into a scart adapter and in to my TV. Woah, the same thing! I get color for a second, and then the screen turns black.


HELPHELPHELP

[Fl3a]

Hey, I know a little bit better now!

This is the thing: On new TVs there is a SVHS mode. On old there isn't. I have tried with my old TV all the time, until I realized that I had a SVHS mode on my new one. Therefore, I simply plug my S-Video lead into the new TV, and put "S-Video" mode in nView. On older TVs, you have to put the mode to "Composite" for it to work. I thought it would work if I bought a composite lead, but it doesen't matter because the S-Video lead works as a composite lead, if I just put the mode to "composite". Therefore, my S-Video lead should work fine on my old TV too, since I just have to put it to "Composite". Why it doesen't, idk, perhaps it's the card, or perhaps I still have to do that solution. But it doesen't matter, I can use my new TV. Contact me on Flugfader@hotmail.com if you need help with this, because I' ve learned very much about this now but I wont be hanging on this forum anymore. Cya!

[bit]

I've signed up just to post in this thread and say thank you, in particular to wastedweasel for his bread tie trick.

I also had only black and white, but bridging the two pins mentioned has resolved the problem

My setup:

XFX 7600GT --> 15m s-video cable--> gender changer --> 5m s-video to composite cable--> TV

I modified the 5m cable with the loop around the two pins. I knew the cable itself was not faulty as (a) it was brand new, and (b) it worked between the DVD player and the TV no problem.

Thanks again!

[wastedweasel]

nice to help out