S-Video input comes out back & white. Damn!

[Smiff]

Hi, well just a day after saying everyting's sweet in Matrox land, I got me a big problem Grrrr!

I can't get colour video through the S-Video input on my RRG - in PC-VCR and Quick Connect I see only greyscale. Aswell as lacking colour, the image shows a pattern of thin light/dark (interference?) lines, which look worse moving than in stills.

I took some screenshots, please take a look, they pretty much show the problem.

Signal through composite input is fine/normal. I've never used the SVideo input before, but now im doing editing I care about quality... Looking at the screenshots just reminded me of another thing - what is that mess at the bottom of the screen? the lowest few lines are a mess

Sooooo....
I 'phoned Matrox Tech (why do they close at 2:30?), he said try a different cable but I don't have one, and anyway I know the cable is good 'cos I plugged it straight into a TV and colour was fine. I tried to explain this but the guy got abusive... so anyway I guess the cable must be OK. The other thing he said was "send the board back". This will be my 3rd RRG, I'm getting pissed off at the time and expense of posting these things to Ireland - good thing though is i've got a nice selection of cables building up 'cos they only accept return of bare boards BTW the friendly [sarcasm] tech guy didn't have any ideas for a software fix, he was pretty sure it's dead hardware I hope he's wrong!

P.S. I'm using a PAL VHS deck and a Camcorder as my source.
P.P.S. Do Matrox test these things before sending them out?

- sorry to sound angry, it's just that 6 months after buying the first RRG I still haven't got one working right - I've never has this much trouble with 'poota stuff - this is getting silly!

[TommyS]

You get whot you got when you give composite signals to S-Video input!
The S-Video (luminance-Chrominance) input need S-Video signals to show colours, with composite signals you can only get black and white, and the "interference" is the noise coming from the Chrominance input.
The S-Video signal is available from S-Vhs deck (the quality improve only if you use S-Vhs recorded tape) or from HI-8 or digital camcorder, if you don't have such kind of device you are forced to use composite input. I can also try to explane why on TV works different, on TV you have composite and S-Video input and normally (on my TV is in that way, i don't know if is true for all TV) the "Luminance" input of the S-Video connector is directly connected to the Composite input, for that reason you don't see any difference if you give composite signal on composite or S-Video input.
If you have an S-VHS deck and/or an Hi-8/Digital camcorder and you get that, you will find somewhere in your device (switch or setup menu) an option to switch the output from composite to S-Video.
Sorry for my poor English, i hope you was able to understend.
Ciao
Sebastiano

[kenobi]

So Smiff is that the problem. Were you trying to input from a non svhs deck through the s-video port? Poor matrox tech guy. I wonder how many twits a day that poor guy deals with.

------------------
Damnit Jim I'm a film maker, not a systems tech!

[Smiff]

TommyS:
Thanks, that's exactly what I needed! Your english is great I had the same problem on my old (really faulty) RRG and assumed the same cause, my mistake, thanks for setting me straight. I hooked up the S-Video cable to my camcorder and lo! this time it worked. I think the problem lies in the cheap scart to S-Video adapter i am using, or my VHS deck - further investigation needed. Anyway i'm so relieved that my RRG is OK

Hmmm, does anyone happen to know if the Panasonic HD645 video recorder can do S-Video input or output? Thanks in advance if you do

[please stop reading now TommyS this is about to get unpleasant...]

kenobi:
So sorry to keep you waiting. [sorry, that's more sarcasm]. Don't judge me; it's easy for you to sit there with all your stuff working, criticising me without seeing the whole picture. Yes, it seems I made a mistake - nowhere in the RRG manual could I find this issue covered, and tech support failed to correctly identify the problem. These things are not obvious; not knowing them does not make a person a "twit". I already apologised for sounding angry, and it wasn't directed at anyone here. I think i'm justified in feeling this way after the amount of trouble I've had, the time i've wasted, dealing with faulty Matrox products, due to bad hardware and poor drivers, and not due to any fault on my part. Being faced with having to pay for shipping *again* and being without product for *another* few weeks did not put me in the best mood, I think you can appreciate this!

Every problem i've had (except of course the bad hardware) - and that's alot of problems - has been sorted out by the good people of this forum, never by official Matrox tech support. Maybe that's not representative, but it's my experience as a Matrox customer/MURCer . I'd like to thank again everyone here who has helped me, as I think i've helped a few people out myself

[flame over]

OK 'nuff said about that Can anyone help with the distortion at the bottom of the frame please? It seems to be present with both VHS and Hi8 sources, prerecorded and self-made. Should I just crop the lowest few lines off?

[This message has been edited by Smiff (edited 28 April 2000).]