Thanks to Garry Dunbar for the following question about Freeview showing in Black and White:
“I have a Fujitsu monitor that doesn’t take a SCART. I use the svideo port, when playing ps3 I have a ps3 to svideo lead which gives me perfect picture and sound, however when I watch TV, it’s black and white.
I plug in SCART to the back of the Freeview box and run audio lead from SCART to s-video, which gives me sound. However, when I run s-video from SCART to the s-video port on the TV, the picture is black and white (with sound).
Please help, as I’ve tried everything! It’s just a standard Freeview box I have.”
Black & White S-Video
The problem here, is the video format that the Freeview box is outputting. Equipment is normally capable of outputting one or more formats, which are typically:
- HDMI (for high definition)
- Composite Video
- RGB Video
- Component Video
- S-Video
Most standard-definition set-top boxes support Composite and RGB video only… which is what’s used for a SCART connection.
If you want to watch on a monitor that supports S-Video, then you have to set the Freeview box to output S-Video. In simple terms, this is to make sure that the correct video information gets sent down the wire. You’re getting Black and White because the S-Video connector on the monitor can’t see anything on the ‘colour’ wire.
Somewhere in your Freeview’s on-screen menu, you should find a set-up screen that may give you the option to change the “Video Output type” to a different format. You can try checking to see if S-Video is supported, but in most cases, it won’t be.
If your Freeview box doesn’t support S-Video output, this means that buying a simple SCART-to-Svideo lead isn’t going to work, as the Freeview box isn’t outputting S-Video
The alternative
You can look for an RGB SCART to S-Video converter. These are typically small mains-powered devices that cost between £50 and £70 – far more than the cost of a basic Freeview box.
The cheaper option is to connect to the monitor in a different way. See if your monitor supports Composite. This is normally a yellow phono socket. If so, a Composite SCART lead to phono lead should do the job.
SCART to 3 Phono Leads – note the Yellow for video
SCART to Phono leads with three phono sockets (yellow for video and the other two for audio) are available from Amazon and Maplin.