No color in S video - How to convert S video to composite or component?

[dietermoreno]

I have been watching YouTube videos for college from my Vista laptop connected to a Samsung32 inch 1080pdisplay by S video cable, but it is in black and white.

This TV does have component connections so that would be preferable over composite for greater quality.

I used to be watching at NTSC resolution at 480x720 setting in the display settings with 4:3 aspect ratio mode set on the TV menu, but now I figured out I can change the setting in the display settings to 600x800 and change to 16:9 aspect radio mode set on the TV menu and the desktop will display on the TV in wide screen instead of a square with bars on the left and right.

So to watch in color, I would need to either convert S video to composite or component.

Which is easier - convert S video to composite or component?

Any NTSC encoderscurrently sold to modulate the S video's chroma signal onto the sub carrier for composite video?

I saw a thread in AVS forums from 2004 about S video and component conversionand it was never solved how to watch in color.

Maybe ten years later we can solve it today?


The closest kit I've found for NTSC encoding is the Ramsey 6 channel VHF TV transmitter.

I built it, but it simply modulates and rebroadcasts the composite video signal to NTSC specifications, not actually adding the color sub carrier itself.

Maybe some modifications to it? The thing is unfortunately, Ramsey no longer sells the VHF TV transmitter, perhaps due to the obsolesence of analog TV broadcasting and consumers expecting to transmit in HD.

So I can't just buy another one to modify from the begining, well but I could probably buy one already assembled on Amazon.

So maybe I could modify one to put in a 3.58 MHZ crystal oscillator using the existing power supply, then tap the modulated color signal before the 4.5 MHZ audio subcarrier tuning transformer to a composite cable.

So I would solder the chroma pin of the S video cable to the center conductor or one composite cable, and solder the luma pin of the S video cable to the center conductor of another composite cable, put the composite cable for chroma into the VHF TV transmitter, tap the encoded chroma signal out of the VHF TV transmitter, and finally solder the encoded chroma signal tap to be mixed together with the composite cable used for luma, so now a single composite cable contains both luma and chroma.


Or would it be easier to work with the component connections on the TV since S video has the signal divided into luma and chroma?

but is component backwards compatible with a chroma signal that has already multiplexed the red and blue difference signals together?

I'm assuming not, so the chroma signal would need to be decoded and split into red difference and blue difference signals first before connecting to the component inputs of the TV?



It would be great if I could get widescreen 480p videos too. When I set the laptop resolution to 600x800, the TV screen is filled at 16:9 ratio, but there are bars on top and bottom of the picture, with a larger black bar on the bottom than on the top, and there is a large black bar on the right.

And I know the resolution isn't widescreen 480p why the TV screen has the black bars, because when I click on the "stats for nerds" in YouTube, upgrading the "gear" from "360p" to "480p" has no change on how much of the TV screen is filled and both resolutions in stats for nerds say that the resolution displayed on the screen is only 360x640.

 

[Gryd3]

S-Video has the Chroma and Luma signals separated on their own pins.
Composite has Chroma and Luma on the same pin, and can easily be converted with passive components. (If I remember correctly, just a capacitor... but I need to look it up again)
These Chroma and Luma signals are the same on both cables, but you get better picture on S-Video as there is a slight overlap of frequency which is lost when running both signals on one wire.

To convert to Component, you will need to do more magic... as the Red, and Blue channel are now separated as well. (Green is the result of the difference or Luma, Red, and Blue)
There is no easy way that I am aware of without a converter box to go to/from component to anything other than specific hacks for certain VGA connections.

The stange thing is why you don't have color... S-Video and Composite should carry color information. Something else may be missing. Have you altered or made any of the equipment?

 

[davenn]

Something else may be missing. Have you altered or made any of the equipment?

With dietermoreno, anything is possible

 

[hevans1944]

I would ditch the Vista laptop and buy a laptop with HDMI video output. Surely the Samsung 32" 1080p has HDMI input? I have a ancient HP laptop that I use when traveling. It runs Windows 7 Professional and has an HDMI output. In the hotel, I hook a 6-foot HDMI cable between the laptop and the room TV, get on the Internet Wi-Fi and bring up Amazon or Netflix to watch on the room TV. Very few hotels/motels still have TV without HDMI inputs. So far, no complaints from hotels about my use of their bandwidth. If there was, I also have a Sprint 3G/4G Wi-Fi "hot spot" good for 6 GB per month without extra charges for more bandwidth. I found that out after my grandkids spent all afternoon watching streaming videos last year.