Inspiron 8200 with ATI 9000 and TV out gives no color?

Question

I've hooked up my Inspiron 8200 to my 35' RCA via the S-VHS cable. I can see my computer desktop on my TV and movies will play on it, but I'm not getting color at all. I've gone into the display settings and all the defaults are selected. The color saturation slider is all the way to the right. Why am I not getting color?

Nihilistic · Answer

I hooked the TV up directly to the laptop via S-VHS instead of going through the amp first. It works! I've got color and DVD's and DIVX movies look surprisingly good. Videos are DVD quality, despite the fact that the desktop doesn't look that sharp on the TV. I can't see using the TV to do word processing or surf the web, but it works great for watching movies :)

Thanks for your help!

spiked_martini · Answer

Are you set to NTSC, rather than PAL? Outputting in PAL mode will sometimes show black and white on an NTSC tv.

Nihilistic · Answer

It says NTSC M on the screen where you switch displays. Pretty sure it's not outputting PAL. I know it's not the cable, and it's the same whether I use the dongle or just go straight S-VHS to S-VHS. I've tried tinkering with all the settings and I just updated to the latest video drivers from DELL for the ATI mobile Radeon 9000. I know the TV is ok, because my home DVD player goes through the same input via the amp. I'm gonna try going straight to the TV instead of through the reciever and see what happens.

spiked_martini · Answer

Well, my suggestion wasn't that helpful, but I'm glad you got it fixed! :D

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