[Chris Lockwood]

Yesterday I hooked up a new DVD player to my RPTV, using new component cable. When I played a disc, the colors were way off (as in everything was shades of blue).

I checked to make sure the cables were in the correct jacks, and they were.

The same DVD in the same player looks fine via an S-Video cable, so it doesn't seem like the problem could be with the player, TV, or the disc.

What could cause this? Again, the color was not just slightly off, but almost totally blue.

[Leo Kerr]

My guesses, in order:

1. Cables in the wrong ports (which you've checked.)

2. One or more of the cables is bad.

Leo

[Chris Lockwood]

Is bad cable that common, or is component cable more prone to problems? I've never had a weird problem like that with other A/V cable.

Oh, I have used component cable to connect another DVD player to the same TV.

[ChristopherDAC]

It doesn't have anything to do with "component cable" per se. It just so happens that, in the normal course of things, one out of every umpteen RCA plugs on a commercially-manufactured cable will have a bad solder joint. If you have an ohm-metre, disconnect the cable and test each one for continuity. If one of them reads more than 1 Ohm [centre-conductor at one end to centre-conductor at the other end], or less than 1 Megohm [centre conductor to shield: should be "Overload = OL" on digital metres], or if the valuse change significantly when you wiggle the cable, it's bad. Unless you do a good deal of electronics work, the thing to do is then: if the cable is still within the return period, return it as defective and get a new one; if not, get a new set of component cables, or [if you're cheap like me] strip off the bad one, and go and buy a 75-ohm [composite video or digital signal] cable of the same length and hook that up between the correct pair of jacks..

[Bob McElfresh]

Other possible problem: Many televisions have separate brightness/contrast/color settings for the different input jacks.

Is this the first component video signal you have sent to this TV? You may need to go into the TV menu and do some calibration.

And this is a new DVD player - so the Component jacks on the player are suspect.

Do you have another DVD player to try hooking to the TV? Keep the new cable and TV connections, just swap out the DVD player and see if they both give the same results. This would mean it was the Cable or TV.

Then swap the cable. Same results? It's the TV

Work your way up the chain - but change only 1 thing at a time.

[SteveEHul]

I have the same problem too, except in red. I have already sealed the cables in the ceiling too. I hope it is the new dvd player as well. I will probably just wait to get a player with HDMI.

[Chris Lockwood]

Thanks for the help, but I'm just going to stick with the S-Video I have that's working, since it's such a hassle to get into the cabinet and behind the TV.

I thought I mentioned that I used (a different piece of)component cable with my previous player & the same TV with no problems. So it seems like the problem must be with the cable or the outputs of this new player.

This new cable is going back to the store.

BTW I had to replace the player because it seems to have lost the ability to play the second layer of DVDs. Ever heard of that one?