Macbook to SDTV (S-Video)

[joshaube]

Someone, please help. I am so close to just throwing this Macbook into my TV, destroying them both. I bought a Mini-DVI to S-Video/Composite adapter. I hooked the adapter into my Macbook, and the resolution changed. I now plugged the S-Video into the adapter, and then into the TV. PROBLEMS. I can see that the Macbook is being displayed, but the video on the TV is a mess. It's fuzzy, black & white, and has lines running like TV static. The picture is going everywhere; jumping, and slanting. What's wrong?

I tried setting the display settings... but that didn't help. I set it to both mirrored, then not mirrored... using all resolutions available. I assume it needs to be 640x480, but not even that works.

I have a STANDARD DEFINITION TV. No widescreen, no lcd, no HDTV. Just the regular old SDTV, 4:3. I have tried using both the S-Video and the Composite cables, both do the exact same thing - so I assume it's on the Macbook side where the problem is occuring.

 

[samh004]

I think your issue lies in changing the settings from PAL to NTSC, or the other way around. I can't recall if this is done on the mac through the display settings (most likely) or on the TV.

 

[joshaube]

I have an NTSC TV. My display settings, are, well... useless. Many have spoken about nifty features like overscan options, and whatnot. Mine doesn't have that. When I connect the TV I have "Display" and "Colour LCD". I assume Display is the tv, while the LCD is my laptop's screen. The tabs are... display, and colour. That is it. No other options other then grouping the windows.

 

[joshaube]

Someone said that my display settings should be Colour LCD *and* NTSC/PAL, not simply 'Display'. Is the adapter not recognizing that I am hooking this up to a tv? I have tried on three different tv models, nothing is working - what can I do?!

 

[samh004]

If you extend your desktop you should have a window appear on the TV screen, no matter how messed up it is, that has options on it (when displays settings in system preferences is open). Have you tried changing setting in that window independently ?

 

[joshaube]

While I can see that a window is there, I cannot SEE the window. If that makes sense. The video is so messed up tht I cannot read or make out the settings on the window. I can just see the frame of it, jagged and sliding vertically across the screen admist snow, fuzz and noise.

 

[TheStu]

Press Gather Windows then to pull that one back to you, then you can fiddle with its settings.

This is so weird, I have never ever had any problems connecting my MacBook to any external, over any connecter. It always sets it to the correct Res for what I am doing.... Have you tried having the TV already plugged into the adapter, and then plugging it into the TV?

 

[joshaube]

I pressed gather windows, and I got the 'Display' window. It only has the following options:

Resolution (with refresh rate)
Colours (256, Thousands, Millions)
Gather Windows
Turn on/off Mirroring
Rotate (90, 180, etc)
Colour Tab (with colour profiles)

Nothing else.

From what I read the tab should be called NTSC/PAL and have options such as "Video Mode" and "Overscan". It seems my adapter does not detect that it is connected to a tv.

Faulty adapter? I got it cheap.

 

[TheStu]

Depending on how cheap you got it, yes it could be faulty. Mine were $19.00 a piece (i have all 3, never know what you need to connect to) so how cheap were yours? $19 is a little steep for a display adapter, but not exorbitant.

 

[joshaube]

It was 19.99$ Canadian, the Apple brand adapter was 44.99$...

 

[TheStu]

It was 19.99$ Canadian, the Apple brand adapter was 44.99$...

you must be joking. Yep, definitely $19US each on Apple's website. i think someone may have been trying to shine you on.

 

[tiernansmith]

Same fuzzy mess

I am having the same trouble connecting my macbook to sdtv. I am using a mini displaypost to vga adapter connected to a vga to s-video adapter, then the s-video input on sdtv. The best i can get from the sdtv is greyscale, skewed, split image of my desktop. The auto resolution the macbook seeks for the "vga display" is 640x480 @ 59.9mhz and it does yield the best picture of all other resolutions. I'm hoping to use it to watch streaming netflix movies without having to buy a $100+ digital video play (read: it's not cost effective to spend much more on more silly adapters)