Help...
First, i'm a complete novice at this stuff...
Can you not mix digital & S-video with RCA connections?

I run everything thru my receiver
VCR and Playstation are connected with red/white/yellow (RCA?)cables - and it all shows as b&w.

DVD and DSS are connected with digital coax and S-Video
TV - S-video and yellow RCA video only

The problem is how do i get the VCR and Playstation connected so they show in color on the TV.

Help!

Paksen
-a very new newbie

If I understand you correctly that all video sources go to receiver, and then you have an s-video connector from the receiver to the TV, you probably don't need the rca connector from the receiver to the tv. If the RCA is connected to the same video input "number" as the s-video, this might cause some problems. Try just disconnecting the rca, and make sure the tv video input is set to the s-video input.

Don't use S video and RCA (yellow) vidoe in conunction.

I tried disconnecting the RCA video into the TV. It didn't make any difference. If instead I disconnect the S-Video the game works, but I get no DVD picture.

The TV has 3 settings, Ant, Vid1 and VID2. I have it set to Vid1 since nothing is plugged into Vid2 or Ant.

S-video is going to give me a better picture than RCA right?
Digital connections are for sound only right?

Any other ideas?

Paksen

Paksen:

You are correct, S-video gives a higher quality picture than composite (RCA) video, and the digital connections are for your audio signals, not the video.

Other ideas: I had a similar situation. I don't know if yours is the same, but here's what happened to me and how I fixed it. Hope this helps.

Problem one: Although the Monitor Out section of my AV amp has both S-video and composite RCA sockets, the output signal format to the TV matches the input signal format it got from the source. In other words, my DVD signal comes into the S-video socket on the amp's "DVD input" section, and the amp sends the DVD signal on to the TV through the S-video "Monitor out" socket. So far, so good.

But when my VCR composite RCA signal goes into the RCA socket on the amp's "VCR input" section, the amp sends THAT signal on to the TV through the RCA "Monitor out" socket. It will NOT use the S-video cable that was already hooked up. RCA in = RCA out! And never the twain shall meet...

Problem two: Although each video input port on my (Pioneer) TV has both S-video and composite RCA sockets, the TV will only look at one of them at a time! I have to go into the TV setup menus and tell it (for example) that Video1 is S-Video, and any RCA signal I sent to that port afterwards is either ignored or looks like garbage. So although I can physically attach both an S-video and an RCA cable to the same port, I cannot USE both of them unless I want to go into setup and tell the port to "use the other socket" everytime I change the source.

So, my first suggestion is to leave the S-video plugged into Vid1 (you did say the DSS and DVD worked, right?), but plug the RCA cable into Vid2. Check your TV's documentation: If the ports -- as on my TV -- have to be programmed, set Vid1 to S-video (it's probably there already if your DSS/DVD look good) and set Vid2 to composite (RCA) video. If this works, it doesn't cost anything, but you will have to switch back and forth between Vid1 and Vid2 depending on your source.

My final solution cost about $30, but is simpler to operate. For around this price you should be able to pick up a small dongle that will take RCA composite input and reformat it to work with an S-video cable. So my VCR now goes from its RCA socket into the dongle using a standard RCA cable, but then out the dongle's S-video socket into the amp over an S-video cable. Since all video devices now come into the amp through S-video sockets, I only have to use a single S-video cable out from the amp to the TV, and I only have to program the one Video1 TV port to accept an S-video signal.

Note: The dongle DOES NOT actually increase the quality of the composite video signal, so it won't look any "better" than if you can get a regular composite connection to work right. It's designed for convenience only, just for the way I'm using it: to "fool" my amp into thinking that it's also an S-video feed, so that I only need one S-Video output cable to the monitor. I bought my dongle at http://www.keene.co.uk for about 13 British Pounds plus shipping.

Good Luck! -Bruce

Unfortunatly as Bruce said, S-video and composite video usually do not run through the same reciver unless you have discrete s-vid and composite vid out. In that case you would need a tv with multiple inputs and say vid1 one being composite and vid2 be s-video. Then you would need your remote to emit a macro code to switch between your video inputs on your television as you select your source material.

The Pronto works very well in this regard, I'm using the Pronto to actually switch my Marantz AV9000 pre which has composite, s-vid, and Component outputs....thus when I select my DVD or Playstation 2, the preamp switches to the proper input, and the televison also switches to the component input along with putting it (tv)into 16:9 mode. When i select my VCR the Pronto then emits code to select the composite input on the tv and switches out of 16:9 mode.

You can be very creative and complex with a learning remote such as the pronto.

BTW, I'm use a Home Theater Master MX-500 learning remote, an excellent control. Although less flexible than the Pronto, it does everything I need to control my relatively complex system.

Bruce's suggestion #2 (the dongle) is exactly what I have employed, and it works flawlessly.

Tom

Bruce,
Like Tom, the dongle worked great! I didn't know such handy things would work. BTW, I found mine at Radio Shack for about $20US

Cheers,

Paksen