S-Video capturing black and white only

superduck wrote on 6/1/2013, 8:06 AM

Hi!

I am capturing with a Magix red and white with the latest drivers from a UK PAL vcr using s-video. Windows 7 64 bit, 16gb ram, i7 3.40ghz.

When I plug the s-video lead into a TV the picture is in colour but when using the Magix it's black and white. I have clicked through every NTSC, PAL and SECAM option and have tried the VCR Input option as well but with no luck. I have also tried two different softwares Rescue your video tapes 6 and TotalMedia Extreme, both are black and white.

If I use composite it works fine but I have to use s-video as I need to pass the signal through a Time Base Corrector with s-video inputs only to solve some failed captures. I have tried it through a friend's Hauppage HD PVR and it works fine so I am assuming there is something I'm not doing right with the Magix or is it faulty?

Thanks in advance!

Comments

gandjcarr wrote on 6/4/2013, 5:24 AM

Hi,

When you tried your friend's PVR, did you try it through the capture device? If yes, check your effects settings to make sure you have not inadvertantly changed the saturation or color levels. If you did not use the capture device, that could be the source of your problem.

George

konrad.muzykiewicz wrote on 6/20/2013, 11:56 AM

I have the same problem. At first everything worked just fine via s-video, but suddenly it became black&white and stayed this way. Colors are ok when using composite.

I think my Magix device is just faulty - it broke after about 3 hours of use. Can't say I like this product much.

superduck wrote on 6/20/2013, 12:13 PM

So after a lot of emails and brain ache I finally got everything working! I'll try and summarise it all here:

1) Magix technical support told me that the device's S-Video cable doesn't support a full SCART signal. It will only give you the luminance information, resulting in the black & white picture. So they suggested I continued using composite as they thought my use of a time base corrector was unnecessary anyway.

2) It turned out my time base corrector did have a composite connection after all but I had not come across a BNC connection before. I bought a BNC to RCA adaptor and can now connect the vcr to the magix device via the time base corrector.

The time base corrector turned out to be extremely necessary and has fixed every previously failed tape capture I've thrown at at so far. So all's solved now and a lot of headaches could have been avoided if I'd known what a BNC connection was. Still not 100% sure why the s-video only supported luminance but I'm not that bothered now that it's all finally working :-D