Hi,

I have just taken my first, tentative steps into the Media PC world by building a Shuttle PC. All is well, except I'm having difficulty getting a colour picture on one of my TVs. Here are the details:

1. The Shuttle PC BIOS is set to output PAL-I (the UK standard).

2. When I attach this to a UK TV (a Philips) using the onboard S-Video I get a colour picture. Hoorah!

3. When I attach this to a TV I bought in France (a Thomson), I see a black and white picture. I know French TVs receive SECAM, but read on before telling me again :-)

I think the Thomson model number is 28DK25E S, or it may be 431/ICC17-EN. Both numbers on the back panel, but one may be a serial number.

On the Thomson TV, there is no specific option to set the PAL type, but there is a country setting (which I have set to UK).

In addition, I have a standard antenna plugged into the TV, and it displays a colour picture with no problem from UK stations.

I also have plugged a Sky digibox receiver into the SCART port of the TV, and this displays colour pictures with no problem.

Finally, I have plugged a PAL model Sony Camcorder into the S-Video input of the TV, and this displays in colour.

One other piece of info. I have a HiGrade laptop with an S-Video port, and this behaves exactly the same way as the Shuttle - in other words, black and white on the Thompson and colour on the Philips.

Why is the "PAL" from a PC output different from the "PAL" of a Skybox or camcorder?

Cheers,
Geoff

[BigRD]

Although you have set the BIOS to PAL-I have you checked the software for your video card driver? My Nvidia card has a TV ouput via composite or S-Video but I still have to select PAL or NTSC in software.

HTH