tv out... black and white only???

renfield33

Senior member
Feb 6, 2001
218
0
76
hey all,
i have an inspiron 4000 w/ the ati M3 chipset, and i am trying to do a little tv out... but it is black and white! i have read a few threads on google groups, but they all seem to be related to trying to use the output on PAL tvs (i have ntsc). have any of you had a similar problem... a way to fix it? i have tried two svideo cables, and an rca cable. i haven't tried a different tv yet, but i have had plenty of stuff plugged into it (through the receiver) and i use my tivo w/ svideo every day. any suggestions?
 

jiffylube1024

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2002
7,430
0
71
This problem occurs when the card is set to PAL when you're running on an NTSC television. Is there somewhere to choose your regioin? I have an MSI GeForce 3 which chooses PAL by default, producing a black and white output. Once I choose NTSC in the options, the output is in color.
 

renfield33

Senior member
Feb 6, 2001
218
0
76
yeah... this is what is driving me nuts! it is clearly set to NTSC-M in the settings! i even tried a few PAL settings... no avail!

i was also able to choose region, and the same problem when i chose united states! i can only wonder if there is a bug or something... but i can't really find anything on google about it.
 

JeremiahTheGreat

Senior member
Oct 19, 2001
552
0
0
Hmm.. check the cable if its not a PAL/NTSC problem, which sound like it isn't from the how you tested it.

I had the same problem, it just wouldn't show colour. But i bought myself a nice new s-video cables and it worked!
 

Confused

Elite Member
Nov 13, 2000
14,166
0
0
Are there any jumpers on the board?

My Leadtek gf2mx400 w/tv-out has 2 jumpers which you have to change to set it to NTSC or PAL. It came default as PAL, but as i live in the UK that's fine by me :)

I've also heard that most gfx cards come set to PAL :)

ConfusedBW
 

renfield33

Senior member
Feb 6, 2001
218
0
76
well, i have tried both composite and s-video, plus a few different s-video cables to no avail. i am going to try my girlfriend's tv sometime today as well. the other thing is... there aren't any jumpers (because it is a laptop) and the BIOS doesn't have any settings! the thing that is weird is that this worked fine in win2k, but it doesn't now... just a little frustrating! i'll give you an update when i try the laptop at my girlfriend's place, but plz keep the comments coming!