I recently upgraded my system, which included a new Connect 3D Radeon 9600 pro video card. When I went to use the tv-out port to connect my PC to my TV, I couldn't get anything to display, and in fact the card wouldn't even detect that it was plugged into the TV. I used the same s-video cables that worked fine with my old card, but it wouldn't work.

To test if the port was defective or not, I used the included s-video to composite converter to hook up to my TV, and it worked fine. But obviously the quality isn't as good as pure s-video, so I would like to figure out what the problem is.

In comparing the s-video converter with my existing s-video cables, I noticed that my old cables have the standard 4 pins, while the converter has 7 pins. Is this what is causing my problems? Is there an easy fix, or do I need some sort of 7 pin to 4 pin converter? Thanks for the help.

Are you ensuring that your TV is turned on before turning on/rebooting your PC. With S-Video cables (at least on my laptop) it will only detect the TV if you switch it on before your PC.

Yes, I turned both off, plugged the cable in, turned the TV on, switched the TV to the correct input, turned on the computer, and nothing.

The fact that I can "hot-plug" the converter in and it'll work made me believe this (TV having to be on first) wasn't the problem, but I wanted to make sure. Anyone else have any thoughts?

I have the same problem

Did you find a solution? I'm having the same problem now..please email me at: FlusherREMTHIS@sensewave.com

Thanks

Re: I have the same problem

Actually, yes, I did figure out my problem. It was a lot simpler than I could have imagined: somehow my cable went bad. I replaced it with a brand new S-Video cable, and now it works perfectly. I wish you luck figuring out what your problem is.

You are saying the female connector on the board is a 7 pin DIN?
If so that isn't just a S video connection, but possible a in/out or multi use jack that a supplied break out cable would be use with!

There were 7 pin Y/C connectors for some professional S-VHS decks, but they used another type of connector.

AFAIK 4 pin DIN's are the only S-Video plugs/jacks used for consumner electronics (at least in the US).

You guys have any problems with not seeing the whole windows taskbar.

All I see on mine is the word "TART" not "START", and over on the right, ah, you get what I mean.

Yes, I tried advaced settings.

Card: Vision Tek XTASY 9600 & Radeon 9600 SEC

Then DVI cable out to TV

any thoughts......

well..

u can use the ati catalyst utility from ati.amd.com/products/catalyst/index.html (sorry I can't post links yet) and calibrate the video card, even if it's the non radeon card, pretty sure any card works with catalyst

The S-Video jack on the video card is always a 7 pin female. To the best of my knowledge there's no compatibility issues between that and consumer S-Video cables. It's obvious but, you couldn't plug a 7 pin male into a 4 pin female. The 7 pin females might just be wired redundantly to interface with other cable configurations. As far as the "tart" issues, computer output to NTSC TV always seems to display oversize and suffers clipping. I think there may be a few timing scan lines before the actual picture information is displayed. Broadcasters compensate for this,but the computer video card does not. Especially with a CRT TV, since there's always the qualifier, 20" but only 19" viewable.

I know this doesn't help a great deal, but I think you're looking in the wrong place for the problem. It might be a configuration issue.

ive connected the pc to tv but image coming on the tv is blurred, black and white, and flickers nonstop. any possible solutions would be great help

It's like an old time movie........

The flicker sounds like a refresh rate mismatch. NTSC TV is only 30 FPS interlaced. (Actually 29.97 FPS)