[whippetlegs]

Hi all,
Im using a G4 1.33Ghz powerbook running the latest version of panther, here is my problem. I have in the past connected my pb to a television which was at least 5 years old with no problems, I have just moved house and bought a new tv(21inch denver electronics and yes ive never heard of them before), using the same cable as I used before I have connected my pb but all i get on the tv is a black and white picture. What gives I am driving myself crazy, would it be a tv problem? All help appreciated and go easy on my im fairly new to macs.

Thanks all.

[Nick]

Have you pressed F7 or whatever? I mean multiple times out of frustration hoping that will fix it? Also TV off TV on etc.? All that good stuff.

I assume it is a B&W picture of your desktop with pointer, files and everything, just in B&W?

[thuh Freak]

Welcome to AppleNova.

Any chance its a b+w tv? Other than that, what kind of wire are you using? I'm not totally familiar with the 1.33MHz pbook, but I just bought myself a 1.67 and they probably have most of the same stuff. Mine has dvi, s-video and i think one or two other video-outs; which one in particular are you using?

Another thing I could think of is display settings. Perhaps you've modified those? I can't remember where exactly they are, but it should be somewhere within the System Preferences program (located in the utilities folder). I'm not infront of a mac right now so I can't figure out which one.

My guess is the display settings have gone awry, failing that something really really strange is happening with the wires.

[whippetlegs]

Hi,
Yes im getting a black and white view of my desktop and ive pressed f7 and i get a mirrored display but still b+w. Im using the svideo socket, not sure what the wire is called but it connects to the svideo and headphone socket of my pbook with a scart connection to my tv. I even deleted the display pref plist file in case it was something to do with the old tv i was connected to in the past. Any more help?

[bassplayinMacFiend]

Are you sure the cable is good? Can you try using the connector that came with your PowerBook (not sure what it's called but it's a single RCA looking connector)? Do you get color with the connector that came with your PB?

[whippetlegs]

Ok ill try out the rca thing when i get home, pretty sure the cable is ok its fairly new and hasnt been used much. What is the rca connector by the way?

[bassplayinMacFiend]

Originally Posted by whippetlegs Ok ill try out the rca thing when i get home, pretty sure the cable is ok its fairly new and hasnt been used much. What is the rca connector by the way?

It's a little converter cord that changes S-Video to I think what's called composite video but I could be wrong. Basically there's a female RCA connector. Then you use a RCA male-to-male cable to connect from the converter to your TV. There should be a yellow female RCA receptacle on your TV. Plug your cord into that. Then set your TV to the proper video mode and see if the input shows up in color.

Cables can be borked out of the box. It's rare but it can happen. That's why I suggested trying the Apple-supplied doohickey to rule out a bad cable.

If you know of someone who has an S-Video input on their TV you could try on theirs to see if you get a color picture. This would then mark your TV as being the issue.

[whippetlegs]

Does that mean that i have to get anew cable to connect to the rca adaptor or can i use the one i have now?

[bassplayinMacFiend]

You would need a different cable. The easier alternative might be to take your existing cables and try to connect to a different TV that accepts S-Video input. Bring it to where you bought your TV and tell them why you need to test this.

[ghoti]

A black&white picture usually means a broken cable and/or a signal of the wrong format. Can you set the TV input to a different format (PAL/NTSC/SECAM)? Try changing that, and also on the PB output. If the cable worked with your old TV it should also work with the new one ...