Wrong colors on TV Headend (Composite Video Out)

[Bierdieb]

Hello, guy, pls help on my annoying issue:

I use to use wheezy.
Everything is fine for, using the hdmi video out.
But as soon as i switch to composite video ot by editing config.txt (hdmi_ignore_hotplug=1) the colors are all wrong for some issue. i cant get into it so far.
it cant be a hardware thing because it works well as i use another sd card with xbian. There the colors are correct on tv headend.
I had the same issue one or two weeks ago, as i used openelec on my 2nd sd card. after some reboot the tv headend screen showed the same wrong colors as now. i couldnt solve the problem so i installed xbian which worked well by now.
its annoying i cant switch my wheezy installation to the tv now, because of the wrong colors.
ive played around with almost all settings in config.txt but nothing seems to affect that issue. pls help.

[dom]

Tried this?
http://elinux.org/R-Pi_Troubleshooting# ... hite_image

[Bierdieb]

Yes, ive figured around with the sdtv settings, but nothing happens changing the modes. the colors stay messed up, with no respect to mode or aspect settings.

the hdmi out works fine with the dvi adaptercable.

i tried to disable the colourburst too, but instead of enhancing the quality the desktop looks much more worse than ever.

if the issue happens, the raspberry-logo in the bootscreen shows up in the wrong colour instantly. its somewhat like blue or purple instead of red, but the sharpness and quality of the image is okay, only the colors are messed. am i the only one with a problem like that?

i tried to use the config.txt of the xbian installation, which is working well actually, but the same thing is happening when using wheezy.

[Bierdieb]

Meanwhile im quite sure its a thing with the newest firmware.

I bought a new sd card to check, installed the most actual raspian img and: switching to the tv causes wrong colors, which is not the case as the used system does not use the latesft firmware.

pls tell me some ich checking that one and it will get a bugfix.

is there a possibility to downgrade the firmware?

[Burngate]

Would it be possible for you to post a photo of what you get on your TV?

I can't work out how the colours of the composite signal could be wrong,without the monitor / TV being faulty, and your statement that "i tried to disable the colourburst too, but instead of enhancing the quality the desktop looks much more worse than ever" (which should have given you monochrome) leads me to the same conclusion.

[Bierdieb]

thx for your reply.

ill describe this one for you as im not able to upload a photo. (ive only the raspi here to work from).
the colours are wrong in that way: on bootscreen usually the raspberry icon is red. when switching to composite video the raspberry logo shows up somehow blue. thats enough for me to know, in this session the colours are messed.
You know the blue backround of xbian and openelec media centre? as soon i switch to composite video out the backround of the openelec media centre is somewhat like orange. in short discription id say blue and red are switched, but its not that easy as you have a detailed look at it. green still seems to be green and yellow stays yello so far but in detail its not really the same as it should be.
if i try to look at a movie, the "switched" colours still appear. so the normally red desert backround of the movie look like a cold iced landscape.
red and blue are somehow....******.

When disabling colourburst the image is suspected to be more sharp and better in contrast, but in my case its a monochrome image with very bad sharpness, like a bad carriersignal. (might be of my desktop picture, which is a 32bit coloured image normally.

its exactly like described it. there cant be any hardware issue, because my xbian installation still works fine, even on tv headend. the only differnce i found was, my wheezy and the actual openelec use the new firmware, but not my xbian.

i also played around with sdtv mode settings, but there was no affect at all.

Also all systems work as expected in hdmi mode. i use it with an hdmi to dvi adaptercable.
there is only that composite-colour problem on the actual standalone openelec and wheezy installation.

if you need more information ill do whats possible to help reproducing the issue.

[dom]

Is the TV PAL? Put
sdtv_mode=2
int config.txt. Reboot and report output of:
vcgencmd get_config sdtv_mode
tvservice -s

[Bierdieb]

okay, im trying to do as i was told:

hdmi output looks like this one (everything ok):
http://yfrog.com/mmmmmzqj

#sdtv_mode=2
#sdtv_aspect=3
#sdtv_disable_colourburst=0

force_turbo=0
gpu_mem=128

hdmi_ignore_hotplug=0

disable_overscan=1
#overscan_top=17
#overscan_left=26
#overscan_right=2
#overscan_bottom=16

composite output like this one(all messed):
http://yfrog.com/ob2edepj

sdtv_mode=2
sdtv_aspect=3
#sdtv_disable_colourburst=0

force_turbo=0
gpu_mem=128

hdmi_ignore_hotplug=1

disable_overscan=0
overscan_top=17
overscan_left=26
overscan_right=2
overscan_bottom=16

i really hope u guys do believe me now.

[redhawk]

Looks like red and blue are swapped that is indeed weird since it's virtually impossible to mess up the composite signal in this way (unless you have a weird TV).

When Raspbian boots up does the Pi logo in the top left corner look red with green leaves or blue with green leaves??

Richard S.

[Bierdieb]

as i already posted, the raspberry-logo looks blue with green leaves, in case the colours are messed up. i cant say, if the first rainbow-coloured screen after powering up has swapped colours too, because it appears only for a second and i didnt really notice until now.

[Bierdieb]

ive tested again the sdtv modes now.
In any case, except sdtv_mode=1, the colors are swapped.In mode=1 the image shows the typical fragmentation when choosing the wrong tv mode, (pal/ntsc) but the colour of raspberry-logo is red. On desktop the image is fragmented and the colours look even strange.

The only thing switching to pal is a better quality in contrast and sharpness of the image. Still, as i boot xbian, the composite video is okay.

what else can i do/check? does it matter, in which lineup the commands are listed in the config.txt?
i wont give up with that, id like to use openelec again, but this messed colour thing drives me crazy.

[Burngate]

For the past couple of hours I've been looking at your pictures, and thinking hard.
Using all my thirty years of experience in TV, I think I've come to the conclusion that ... I've no idea.

I don't suppose you could find a jpg of colour-bars, such as and give us a picture of what that comes out like?

EDIT the image should have been from wikipedia, SMPTE color Bars
Here's another:

which also doesn't want to work but should be called Pm5544-768.png from the same place

[Bierdieb]

Dear Burngate,

im thankful, that ure trying to investigate my problem. An image of colourbars? im not sure if i understand what u mean. i guess you'd like to have something like a testscreen which has been used 20years ago when the tv-station went offline at night?

Im just wondering, if iam the only one encouting those problems by now. and again, im quite sure that issue is happening since ive updated dist on that wheezy thing. if iam right there must be a few more users with the same problem in the very near future.
i would really start testing and measuring around my hardware, my wires and everything as there wasnt the correctly working xbian.

[Burngate]

Okay, having total failure with the wikipedia images, I've put a couple of test cards up on my google site.


Let's see if they work!

YEY!

[Bierdieb]

okay, ive done as you suggested:

1st one:

http://yfrog.com/oddr2pxj

2nd one:

http://yfrog.com/nuvhgfsj

now its your turn again....

[Burngate]

It's impossible !
Red and blue are swapped. Cyan (no red) and yellow (no blue) are swapped.
Green (no red or blue) and magenta (red and blue but no green) are ok.

As far as I know, all the distros - xbian, wheezy (Raspbian?) and so-on - just put the picture onto the frame buffer and let the videocore do what it will. So it must be start.elf that's screwing it up.
How it's managing that, I've no idea.

We need a guru here.

Dom? DOM! DOM!!!!

[dom]

Well it's red and blue swapped but green is okay.

Do you only get this with framebuffer applications (e.g. X and standard linux console apps) or do you also get it with OpenGLES or openmax
(e.g. hello_video, hello_triangle, penguinsopuzzle, omxplayer).

Do you get it with (in config.txt)
framebuffer_depth=32

Do you have another composite display you can try?

[michele.x]

It's impossible !
Red and blue are swapped. Cyan (no red) and yellow (no blue) are swapped.
Green (no red or blue) and magenta (red and blue but no green) are ok.

I've manage to get the same results with a fresh raspbian image, just downloaded from this site, the culprit triggering the effect is the line

hdmi_ignore_hotplug=0

commentin it makes the red/blue swap happen. Not having connected any hdmi cable makes the composite out displayed correctly.

[Bierdieb]

@dom omg, im a linux noob and do not know what tha heck u want to know from me! i'll check the 32bit framebuffer next 10 mins.

but actually im not able to tell about these apps u listed, because i dont know them, except of omx player. i did never use the omx player from comandline, i always used to use the xbmc media centre, which also has its colour swapped.

@michele.x okaaay.... im ashamed i didnt figure that one out, as iam messing up with the settings for two or three days now.

Still its quite annoying if you have to plug out the wireings any time you like to switch the screens. i did not check your way to make it work correctly by now, but id be happy if the guys working on the firmware could correct that one.

thx at all thread supporters, especially to burngate. luv ur way to scream for some "guru" ^^

[Bierdieb]

Okaaaaaay.....
Setting the framebuffer to 32 made me ending up stranded on a black desktop with no mousepointer and no chance to edit my config.txt.the only thing that was on the screen has been the clock on the right bottom and the icon text of desktop icons without the icons itself....

i managed to ssh onto my pi (the first time i used ssh ever) from a smartphone to set back the framebuffer thingy.

so after that adventure im back on the hdmi screen.... can i do anything else to provide information or try out anything?

[michele.x]

Well it's red and blue swapped but green is okay.

Do you only get this with framebuffer applications (e.g. X and standard linux console apps) or do you also get it with OpenGLES or openmax
(e.g. hello_video, hello_triangle, penguinsopuzzle, omxplayer).

Do you get it with (in config.txt)
framebuffer_depth=32

Do you have another composite display you can try?

I've tried with a flv video of a test card using omxplayer

with hdmi_ignore_hotplug=0

i got this fine PM5544 image:

normal

snap-AV-20130217-223014-1.jpeg (33.86 KiB) Viewed 6621 times

but when i switch to hdmi_ignore_hotplug=1

I get the signal with reverted red and blue below:

I haven't tried, but it should be interesting to see when both a composite and an hdmi monitor are connected what happens... if both monitors are displaying something it could be interesting. Whint hdmi_force_hotplug=1 no composite signal should be generated...

[dom]

Okaaaaaay.....
Setting the framebuffer to 32 made me ending up stranded on a black desktop with no mousepointer and no chance to edit my config.txt.the only thing that was on the screen has been the clock on the right bottom and the icon text of desktop icons without the icons itself....

Ah you may also need:
framebuffer_ignore_alpha=1

[Bierdieb]

ok guys, as im already in practise trolling about:

there is something more i need to tell you: on my further investigations in the config.txt ive played around a bit and first i tried the 32bit framebuffer with ignore alpha this time. the colours have been screwed as described above.

so, as i really wanted to use the tv headend now, i commented out the hdmi_ignore_hotplug and also unplugged the hdmi cable. happy to see my colours are correct as expected now...... BUT:

there really is something else screwed up with the sdtv_aspect and/or the overscan settings, which dont have any effect any more on that composite video out. i only can manage to get the full image on the screen by using tv settings (automatic and superzoom and those ugly things) because the overscan settings can be set to whatever, without any effect on the screen. Ive set the overscan_bottom=60 but the desktop bar can never be seen as the tv is in 16:9 mode. need to zoom to get anything on.

pls, may anyone tell me to downgrade the firmware ?

[dom]

pls, may anyone tell me to downgrade the firmware ?

sudo rpi-update <githash>

pick a githash from here:
https://github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-firmware/commits/master

e.g. for Jan 1st 2013

sudo rpi-update c274e602f7ef38aa7e11ae12dc8afa20ea2fd593

[Bierdieb]

Thx dom.
Any suggestions which version is straight before the one causing that problem?

is there a chance, the developers-team get to know about this colourswap thing, so they may correct it in one of the next releases? i dont know how to and where to leave a usable bugreport.
I hope ull leave the essential information for the guys..(if you arent the guy himself^^).?

is there any threat where i can get information about the ascend, or ist hat hexxe-webpage already the 1st hand information for me? (questions and questions......)

Thx for your help @ all.