SAA7134 card only BW with one device

[kadajawi]

Hello,
I have got a Terratec Cinergy 400 TV in a computer running Windows 7.

VirtualDub, DScaler etc. all show a perfectly fine video in color when I use a Sony SLV-SE20 VHS player or a Pentax DSLR as a source, hooked up to the composite input (when I select PAL). But when I use my Sony TR810E (PAL) it will be black and white, regardless of composite or S-Video, composite over S-Video, PAL, NTSC, ... I previously used a Hitachi Hi8 camera on the TV card and it worked great. But it doesn't support LP, so I had to buy the Sony.

The video camera works absolutely fine when connected to my TV, my HDD/DVD recorder, all no problem.

So basically my TV card works fine with all devices except for the video camera, and the video camera works fine with all devices except for the TV card. The only combination that actually needs to work...

Sometimes I do get what looks like color... but just short flashes of it. What's wrong? Could the signal be too weak? Anything I could do about it?

[Asmodian]

Well that is odd for sure, as a wild guess I would suggest something like a Time Base Corrector (https://www.google.com/search?q=time+base+corrector). One of these would probably work but would also probably be overkill.

[kadajawi]

Hm. But there is a TBC inside the camera. If it is a signal strength issue then something, anything to amplify it should probably work? I can digitize using my MiniDV camcorder, but sadly I have the one model that introduces blocking artifacts when using pass through, and it inverts the V channel at the right border... I suppose I can live with those issues though, if I can't find another way (using the DVD Recorder to amplify it would introduce small compression artifacts as it has a timeshifting function...).

[Asmodian]

I don't know anything specific about your camera but TBC usually doesn't equal TBC, if you understand what I mean. There is no specific set of features that the industry agrees on as a "TBC".

I don't think it is "strength" as in raw amperage or voltage level but it is more likely to be a timing or quality issue with a sync signal in the chroma.

An AVT-8710 is a cheaper option that should work but again there might be a better or cheaper solution. Anything that does a lossy compression in between (blocking artifacts) would be unacceptable to me but nothing is truly lossless either so.. as long as it works for you. :)

Edit: even a new cable might do it.

[Ghitulescu]

Run the camcorder through the SLV-SE20 or DVDrecorder. If it works then the camcorder outputs a wrong signal, and has to be configured correctly. Most TVs are very relaxed when accepting a signal.