David ©

S-video cable no longer has color signal

Joseph DeMartino

Re: S-video cable no longer has color signal

1) Either end of the cable could be loose. That happens more often than you think. Disconnect the wire at both ends, reconnect it, see what happens.

2) You don't tell us what this particular s-video is connecting. (Cable/satellite box? DVD player? Need make & model. What make/model TV? Is the TV HD? ED? All this stuff can make a difference.)

3) In the S-video signal path you basically have three points of failure - a) the output jack, b) the cable, c) the input jack. Obviously the fastest and easiet thing to troubleshoot is the cable. Try swapping your s-video cable with one you know to be working. If the you still have the problem on your TV, the problem lies elswhere. OTOH if the problem follows the cable, you've identified the culprit and have a really cheap fix available. (Just don't buy your cable at Radio Shack, because you'll probably pay too much. Try Monoprice or Blue Jeans cable.


???? If component if an option, why are you screwing around with S-video? The connection types in descending order of quality: HDMI, Component, S-video, composite, f-connector coax antenna connection. Again, without knowing what actual components are invovled and how they're connected, it is hard to know what is causing your problem.

Regards,

Joe

My Home Theater

My DVD Collection

Allan Jayne

Re: S-video cable no longer has color signal

If you frequently unplug and replug S-video cables it is not unusual for the cable or even the jack in the TV to break.

If you need a new S-video or component cable today, you'll have to get it at Radio Shack or Best Buy or some store like that. Blue Jeans and Monoprice require ordering and waiting.

If you have an "entertainment center" always buy cables long enough so the DVD player or whatever at each end of the cable can be pulled out one at a time from the front far enough so you can see everything in back. Never move an entertainment center while things are in it so you can crawl around in back and reach in.

If your DVD player has component (red-green-blue) jacks (I think all made in the last 10 years do), you might as well forget the S-video and get a component cable set. Avoid using red-white-yellow cable sets since they are meant for audio and their performance for component video is unpredictable.

Video hints: Connecting Video Equipment

Ken Seeber

Re: S-video cable no longer has color signal

S-Video (Separate Video) carries the video signal in two parts: Luminance (brightness) and chrominance (color). There's a failure somewhere in the chrominance portion of the signal, which is why you're only getting a black and white picture.