Member Avatar for jjk118

Hi all
Basically i want to play my films from my pc on my TV....but i havent got S-video on my TV only on the graphics card, so i have connected my pc via s-video to my dvd player which has s-video which is then connected to my TV via scart! but i cant seem to get it to work.
I have tried most things i can think of but the tv just stays on the dvd player "screensaver" when the pc says that 2 monitors are there!
any ideas at all??
Thanks all help appreciated!

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Dani AI

Generated

Likely causes and quick diagnosis

The thread points to two common failure modes. First, many consumer DVD players will not pass a live S‑Video input through to their SCART/output, so chaining PC S‑Video → DVD player → SCART → TV often produces the “DVD player screensaver” symptom that reported. Second, SCART and S‑Video are different signal formats (Y/C vs RGB/composite) and cheap passive adapters frequently do not assert the SCART switching signal or map Y/C correctly. ’s reminder to enable TV output in the display driver is valid, but even a correctly configured GPU can show nothing if the cabling and SCART wiring don’t match the TV’s expectations.

Quick diagnostic checks

  • Bypass the DVD player: connect the PC S‑Video output directly to any S‑Video input on a TV. A visible picture here isolates the DVD as the problem.
  • If the TV only has SCART, confirm that SCART accepts the expected input by testing it with a known composite/S‑Video source.
  • In the graphics driver set a TV‑compatible mode (clone/duplicate display and a TV resolution/standard such as 480i/576i or 480p/576p depending on region) before switching sources.
  • Replace passive adapters with an active S‑Video→SCART converter or an S‑Video→HDMI converter if the TV is modern.

Why the direct-TV fix worked

A TV with a native S‑Video jack removes the adapter/SCART mapping and switching issues. That explains why ’s swap to a TV that had S‑Video produced an immediate result even after driver tweaking failed.

Practical takeaways

For reliable PC→TV video: avoid chaining through a DVD player unless it explicitly supports passthrough; prefer direct S‑Video or an active converter; ensure the GPU output standard (PAL/NTSC) and resolution match the TV. These steps explain the behavior seen in the thread and give a predictable path to a working connection.

Member Avatar for jjk118

Right a little update i have decided to make it less complex. i went a brought a scart converter today so now i have the s-video cable in my graphics card connected to the converter which is then in the back of my TV but once again no matter what i do it still doesnt work!
please help me! i spent about £30 on cables i wanna get this thing working!
thanks

Member Avatar for Shinjuku

first off you need to go to your advanced section. control panel, display, settings tab, advanced. then click the monitor tab and make sure the button for the TV is enabled. you should unclick it before unplugging your s-video cord or you can have some hassles restoring your resolution.

Member Avatar for jjk118

thanks for the reply
i did try all of that and messing around with nvidia nview and stuff but i couldnt get it working...so i swapped mt TV for one with an s-video port and viola it worked straight of the bat. i dont think my old TV was s-video compatibale cause i meesed with it for 2 days and didnt get a hint of it working anyways thanks for trying to help.

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