VGA to Component Video

[kayliebug]

I have a Radeon 9250 (256M PCI card) in my computer and it has VGA and S-video out. I have s-video hooked up my tv and it works ok. I also hooked up component video (I have a vga to component cable) I have it going from my video card to the component inputs on my TV (Phillips 27"). The s-video input works fine but when I turn my tv to component it looks like a bad signal with rolling colors. I set up the card on the s-video channel and it does recognize the component because it shows 2 monitors in my settings (the component says VGA monitor)
but I can't see the picture when I turn my TV to CVI (component)
Any suggestions. Do I need an adapter or anything because I was told the cable would work.

[PaulG]

I know ATI's official component dongle works and is supported in the drivers.

[kayliebug]

My cable goes from the VGA directly in to the component in the TV. The TV is not HDTV but has component inputs. Someone told me even if I get it to work it won't help the picture.
Should I give up or what. I NEED HELP! Experts?

[elvis]

My cable goes from the VGA directly in to the component in the TV. The TV is not HDTV but has component inputs. Someone told me even if I get it to work it won't help the picture.
Should I give up or what. I NEED HELP! Experts?

Sounds to me like you are feeding VGA (~31KHz)  or higher resolutions to a ~15Khz television.

Your TV cannot handle the high resolutions you are sending.  You need to create custom low resolutions to send to your TV.  A good way to do this is by using powerstrip, and the powerstrip guide here:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=43728.0

[StephenH]

Try the following:

1) Make sure you have a component (NOT RGB) cable.  If it is coming from the VGA port, and not a dongle, it may be an RGB cable.  Note: many component cables have Red, Green, and Blue colored plugs, so make sure.  Component video is YUV, not RGB. 

2) I would make sure your output in your video card is set to 480i.   This is the resolution for standard (non-HDTVs).   480p and 720p are the resolution for Enhanced and High Def TVs.   1080i is for High Def TVs only.   To enable this, you may need to set your video resolution to 640x480 or lower. 

3) The other thing I would check is possibly you have swapped a connection on the TV.  If you plug the wrong plug in, or if one is loose the picture will not be reconizeable.



If none of these solve the problem, you may want to try connecting something else to the component input (such as a DVD Player) that you know is good, and see if it works.  If it does, you know the problem is the computer or cabling.  If it does not work either, there is a problem with your TV itself.

[elvis]

2) I would make sure your output in your video card is set to 480i.   This is the resolution for standard (non-HDTVs).   480p and 720p are the resolution for Enhanced and High Def TVs.   1080i is for High Def TVs only.   To enable this, you may need to set your video resolution to 640x480 or lower. 

Clarifying a bit there, standard 640x480 res out of a PC is equivalent to "480p" (or 480 lines, progressive scan) in HDTV land.

To create a 480i (480 lines, interlaced) standard-def mode you'll generally need third-party tools like PowerStrip.  AFAIK video card drivers won't let you create low-res interlaced modes.  I know Nvidia cards come with utilities to create custom modes, but from memory they are all progressive scan modes for 31KHz or greater output only, from what I can tell.

[kayliebug]

The cable is a component video because It has a shield on it that says HDTV and it is very heavy. I just bought it from radio shack.

1. How do I change the resolution to 15Khz
2. How do I set my video card to 480i

 I downloaded powerstrip but it doesn't list these options.
Should I get a DVI to component cable and get a video card with DVI out? I just want to get a little clearer picture and thought I could with a TV with component input.

[elvis]

The cable is a component video because It has a shield on it that says HDTV and it is very heavy. I just bought it from radio shack.

1. How do I change the resolution to 15Khz
2. How do I set my video card to 480i

Read the PowerStrip guide I linked to above.  It is a sticky in this forum.  There's a good chance you will need to add it as a custom resolution.  Again, read the sticky!  It has everything you need, step by step.

I downloaded powerstrip but it doesn't list these options.
Should I get a DVI to component cable and get a video card with DVI out? I just want to get a little clearer picture and thought I could with a TV with component input.

Don't bother with DVI.  DVI-I carries both analogue and digital signals.  Typically when you use a DVI->Component converter you are actually just using the analogue RGB signal carried over that cable, and converting it to YCrCb.  The quality will be IDENTICAL to that coming out of the normal VGA adaptor.

Could you perhaps take a photo of the VGA to Component converter for us, so we can see what it looks like?  I'm still not sure if you just have a simple component cable (that might be carrying RGB, which won't work in most component TVs) , or a proper YCrCb transcoder.

[kayliebug]

Here is my cable.

[kayliebug]

Elvis - does this look like the right cable?

[elvis]

That looks like an RGB cable, and not a YCrCb cable.  RGB->YCrCb transcoding requires some electronics to convert the signal mathematically, and that looks like a straight DSUB15->RCA cable with no transcoder attached.

If your TV's component in requires YCrCb, then it won't work.  Find out what your TV can and can't handle via the component inputs.  It should be listed in the instruction manual.  In most cases, this will be YCrCb (Sometimes called YPrPb or YUV also) and not RGB.

If on the other hand either your TV can accept RGB in over component (unlikely, but possible) or support YUV out from your VGA card (highly unlikely) you could be in luck.

[kayliebug]

My TV has 3 sets of plugs (AV, DVI, AV out) and also s-video, in the instructions it says to hook the device to the in (Y, Pb, Pr) input jack on the TV for component.

It also has a hint at the bottom that says:
The description for the component video connectors may differ depending on the DVD player or accessory digital source equipment used (for example, Y, Pb, Pr; B- Y,R-Y;Y,Cr,Cb)

[elvis]

OK, simply put your TV will only accept YCrCb.  The cable you have is RGB (as it takes output directly from your video card, which is RGB).  These are not the same type of signal (despite the fact that they often use the same plugs, just to confuse the issue), and will not give a correct picture (or even a picture at all in some cases).

It's easy to get confused, because component cables are often colour coded with red, green and blue stripes (like yours above).  Cables don't imply colour standards, and this messes things up frequently for people.

RGB is simple Red, Green, Blue (and often there are two other cables, for Horizontal Sync and Vertical Sync, and sometimes these are combined into composite sync).  YCrCb is Y-Luminance (ie: the brightness), Cr - Chrominance shift Red, Cb - Chrominance shift Blue, and the sync signals are carried on the Y cable.   If you want to know how these work (and why they aren't compatible), you can read these:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_video
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YCrCb
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YUV
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RGB

Long story short: the cable will not work the way you want it to.  You need a transcoder (a device that converts RGB to YCrCb for you) in between your PC and the TV.  It's probably much cheaper just to buy a video card with TV-out than it is to bother with a whole transcoder, and then using Powerstrip on top of that to add extra complexity.

[kayliebug]

What do you mean by TV out. My video card has s-video, VGA out, and a vid out (yellow).
Will TV out be better than s-video?
What cards have tv-out? Will the quality be better? Are there 3 plugs for tv-out?
Thanks for all your help.

[elvis]

What do you mean by TV out. My video card has s-video, VGA out, and a vid out (yellow).
Will TV out be better than s-video?
What cards have tv-out? Will the quality be better? Are there 3 plugs for tv-out?
Thanks for all your help.

"TV-out" is a generic term for getting a signal out of a video card that is compatible with a television.  It doesn't refer to any particular type of signal, but rather a family of signals and connectors that are "TV-friendly" so to speak.

Most TV-out capable PC video cards connect via a 4-pin din cable that is called an "S-Video cable":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-video

S-Video is worse in visual quality than true YCrCb Component, as well as RGB Component.  But it is still OK.  It's better than the yellow composite video plugs that put all video signals on one cable causing great interference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composite_video

Particular to your card that you mention, I would use the S-Video cable.  This will give you the absolute easiest way to connect to your TV (no converters or hacks needed), and will give better picture quality than the yellow composite out.

[elvis]

My TV has 3 sets of plugs (AV, DVI, AV out)

HANDBREAKS!

Your TV has DVI-in?  I totally missed this part!  (Just had my morning coffee, and am feeling awake now).

Is your TV a digital (TFT/Plasma) HD-compatible device?  Is this proper DVI-digital in?