video and games capture - everything is black and white

chris redfield

I've been doing my best to try and diagnose why I cannot get a colour image through scart or composite video cable? I never had this problem back in the day when I used vcr's or retro games consoles. at the moment i'm testing vcr's with the intention of also testing retro games systems and running them into an lg 26lc2r and a pc using ezcap dc60. i've managed to capture colour ps3 footage in an old pc using ezcap before, I used the non hdmi cable out of the ps3. after a bit of hunting around the web, I have managed to find drivers for ezcap and newer versions of windows. but so far everything has resulted in black and white images, even tested an old win xp machine with the ezcap and still also just getting black and white. I have tried 3 vcr's with a scart to composite cable, brand new cable. I then tested the scart to av1 and av2 on the lg tv using a monster scart cable and again I was getting black and white images. I know these aren't the quality of the vhs, as I tested a retail vhs which had a clearer picture but no colour again. I figured it might be the vcr's so I tested a dvd player, a sony dvp sr760h using the composite output and composite cables into the composite inputs in the lg tv, all of which again resulted in a black and white image. so it's possibly not the vcr's. which leads me to wonder if it's the cables? I want to test some retro games consoles but I don't have these with me at the moment, won't be able to test until next week. what do you think this could be? the ezcap has standard composite connectors and an s-video. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/70sLKeBdO7E/hqdefault.jpg
i'm confused as to why there is only black and white going through the scart though? i'm pretty sure this is a good cable!? the other outputs on the tv i've used work in colour (hdmi, rgb).

stearman65

I'm having to delve back in my memory to suggest anything to fix your problem. One thing twigged, some scart cables didn't have all the pins wired, could that be the problem?
wiring to scart plugs - Bing images

chris redfield

interesting, here is the brand new scart to composite kit I got;
Buy SCART Connecting Kit | HDMI cables and optical cables | Argos
I did inspect the pins and couldn't see any that are omitted, I also found another scart to composite adapter which came with a dv camera I had which has far less pins but still outputs a b&w signal which surprised me! infact when using this adapter with the more professional vcr it will actually run a signal into all the inputs on the lg! whereas one of the scart connectors in that kit will not work with av1 and av2. but this is dependent on the vcr I used. the one which has less features and is more modern wouldn't output with my old dv scart to composite, has to use the more modern one.
I will have a hunt around for more leads as I am pretty sure I have another scart to composite specifically for games consoles. but so far everything still black and white.

MarkE19

The most common cause of a B&W picture from a VCR is that there is S-Video somewhere in the chain, but not all the way through.
Are the VCR's you are using SVHS units or just standard VHS? If SVHS then the chances are they are outputting an S-Video signal so that composite video only has the luminance (B&W) signal with the chrominance (colour) being on a seperate pin/output.

Mark.

chris redfield

https://www.sony-asia.com/electronics/support/res/manuals/3865/38653191M.pdf
that's the one which is working the best. and there looks to be no mention of s-vhs. so I would assume standard? the other is a sony slv e90ux, from looking on both I can't see any indication that either is an s-vhs standard. I can't see any s-video ports either just composite connections and scart.
I think its possible it might be the scart ports on the lg tv? but if that is the case then it still doesn't explain why ezcap is capturing a black and white image?

MarkE19

The link to the manual shows the VCR to be just VHS and IIRC Sony never actually made any S-VHS VCR's anyway.
Composite video has all the data carried on one pair of cables (signal & ground normally on a single yellow RCA cable), so I can't see any way that only the colour would be lost in a faulty cable. If faulty it just wouldn't work. So as far as I can see it must be down to the input on the TV expecting either S-Video or something like RGBcvS and therefore only looking for the luminance on the composite pin. This would also explain why other devices such as your DVD player are also displaying in B&W.
In the TV's input settings can this input be configured to accept different video signals?

Mark.

chris redfield

apologies for the late reply.will check the tv's input settings when I next have access to the lg tv. I think we've found our culprit for the vcr b&w signal ,last thing I did was try the vcr's with a panasonic tv and colour was displayed right away. I then worked again with the same leads back on the pc from the vcr and inexplicably I now got a colour image there too!? I not sure why this now works when it was previously black and white? I changed no settings on the capture device ,I used same leads, I didn't change any settings on the vcr. bit of a mystery there but it looks like I have the issue solved now (hopefully).

noiseboy72

Sounds like a classic case of NTSC / PAL being set incorrectly - or the EZ cap being set to S-Video, but still reading the composite input as Luminance only.