Getting that projector working….

October 18th, 2005

Our first test on Sunday 16th Oct was unsuccessful:

We tried connecting the laptop to the projector via the composite* out port of the laptop. We attached a composite to S-Video adaptor to this as the projector has a S-Video input port. The signal was then taken to the projector using a 5m S-Video video cable.

This didn’t produce any picture on the projector! The fault could’ve been one of the following:

1) The Laptop wasn’t sending out any signals due to it not recognising the projector. (I read somewhere that the projector should be turned on way after the computer is switched on). Also, there were 4 options in the display settings (output section):

– CRT
– LCD
– TV
– YPbPi (can’t remember, Martin?)

Both CRT & LED were enabled while the other two were disabled – there was no way to change any if these settings..

Check this PDF file for some tips.

2) The S-Video/Composite video adaptor was faulty – possible?

3) The projector’s S-Video input port was faulty

One test that will show us what the problem was, is to connect the laptop to a normal TV – if that works then the fault is with the projector. and not the computer or adaptor..

———————————————
What next?
———————————————

We found out that the projector has SCART sockets at the back (2 of them).

We could do the following tests next Sunday (23th Oct):

1) Use a SCART to S-Video adaptor – £13
2) Use a VGA to SCART adaptor – Chris may have one otherwise it’s quite expensive
3) Use a SCART to Composite adaptor – I’ve got one but then we need to use our Composite to S-Video adaptor – not too sure..

The trick will be to get the computer to recognise the projector – the only way we can do this is by testing at the venue…

References:

Some pictures of what different video cables look like and how they work:
http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/howto-av.html

Some very big pictures:
http://t3.k12.hi.us/t302-03/broadcasts/1210/demosmore.htm

Some good how-to-do guides (PDF)

*Note: Composite Video is the same as RCA

Posted by bobak Filed in Reference
7 Comments »

7 Responses to “Getting that projector working….”

  1. martin Says:
    October 18th, 2005 at 7:53 pm

    Thanks Bob. Some of this I know, the rest I’ll have a look at. The plan was to set up a puter that has S-Video out anyway (will be working on that tonight), but as I hadn’t had time to do so I was hoping that the composite would do for the purpose of a test. My TV has SCART in, but nothing else. I guess I should go get an adapter tomorrow.

    If that doesn’t work then there’s VGA to SCART or just editing some stuff together and burning it on DVD (it might be worth finding out if John’s DVD player plays DivX etc?). I have the necessary software to convert and burn, but not really editing.

    I seem to be a bit low on energy at the moment though, I took Monday off work, feeling rather fluey, but will keep soldiering on… (I’ve also got quite a bit to do if I’m to manage a set that isn’t a complete embarrasment).

    Ps. What are we doing about music for the main bar?

  2. martin Says:
    October 18th, 2005 at 8:00 pm

    ps. “*Note: Composite Video is the same as RCA” – actually no it’s not. It is carried over a cable that uses RCA plugs (aka Phono). A bit like saying that TCP/IP is the same as RJ45…

    Sorry for the pedantry, but I couldn’t let you get away with that 😉

  3. bob Says:
    October 18th, 2005 at 10:17 pm

    I thought as I don’t know much about this stuff, then it’s worth learning a bit and what better place to write my notes than this blog thang? 🙂

    Cheers for the comments Martin..
    I guess as long as we’re prepared for another test on Sunday then all is good..

    Let me know if I can get any of the parts as Maplin’s is very close to where I work..

  4. ras Says:
    October 19th, 2005 at 3:57 pm

    Havnt really thought about music in the main bar as
    John wants to ‘close off’ the pub area after 11ish (probly later)
    (license, neighbours etc, not sure how it will work) but I guess we could play a mighty fine collection of CDs or something up until then. Ola might play his laptop.

  5. martin Says:
    October 19th, 2005 at 7:32 pm

    I have the adapter….

    Ps. The site was very slow/inacessable this afternoon.

  6. martin Says:
    October 19th, 2005 at 10:39 pm

    Ok, update:

    I have an S-video to SCART Adapter plug.

    I have built a “new” computer out of spare parts (quite respectable specs).

    I have succesfully played full screen video out of the S-Video on the puters video card into my TV via SCART.

    I’m quite confident this will work. If it doesn’t I think we’re looking at DVDs instead…

    Laters…

    🙂

  7. bob Says:
    October 19th, 2005 at 11:36 pm

    Fantastic!!!

    Been feeling so crap today – this makes it all so much, well, better!!!

    I’ve been trying to write this bit of software to take in any avi, wmv, mpeg and asx movie files and play them one after another – at the moment it cannot do DivX 🙁

    Some progress: it’s looking ok on my pc at home and there’s fade transition between each movie which makes the whole thing look/feel smoother than just jumping from one movie to the next..

    Going to add some keystroke functions to: change speed, loop segments, play random etc

    Need to get it tested on your pc at some point..

    Maybe we can test it at yours tomorrow? or Friday? Could leave it till Sunday to be honest..

    Also, I’ll find out how to get DVD material in one of the above formats..

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