Why is My DVD Player Playing in Black and White on the TV?

The DVD player black and white issue is most likely to be caused by the incorrect cabling. As you know, many DVD/Blu-ray players have more than one connection type. Generally, a DVD player can be hooked up to a TV set via an HDMI, composite, A/V, component or S-Video cable. HDMI is the most modern connection that offers the best quality with only 1-step simple cable connection. However, if you have an older DVD player that does not have an HDMI output, you could probably make a mismatch between the three or five colored jack-plugs and the output sockets on the DVD player.

The DVD player is recommended to be connected to a TV set directly, for the commercial DVDs, to protect copyright, a DVD is designed to play only when the DVD player is directly connected to a TV. In this case, again, make sure you match up to corresponding colored inputs on both DVD player and the TV. I've seen a dozen cases that a composite cable is plugged into a component connection by mistake and the like. Also, check if the cable connection is fully plugged in, sometimes lose cable connection can cause loss of video signal.

If you ensure the connection is correct, here is another case. Many TVs have a shared composite and component video input which can do switch automatically between composite and component. But sometimes, you'll get a B/W picture if it doesn't work well. So you may need to do it manually. There's always a menu for that but the access may vary due to different TV models, so I would suggest you check out the instruction manual and drill down to find it. Also, despite a very small possibility, you may just want to check if your TV display mode is set to black and white.

Modern TVs support both NTSC and PAL as do DVD players. But for the old models, if your DVD & DVD player is not compatible with TV broadcast format, e.g. connect a PAL DVD player to an NTSC TV, you likely ended up with an image in black and white, and vice versa. So, to connect PAL and NTSC equipment together, it will require something to change the signal format. That's the need for a gadget named PAL to NTSC/NTSC to PAL converter. Fortunately, it's easily available on most shopping platforms. But frankly, it's more expensive. In contrast, I would prefer to purchase a modern low-cost, region-free PAL/NTSC DVD player. You decide!

The magic solution is to transform your physical DVDs to digital movie files, so that you can simply enjoy the movie on TV via USB drive, Plex, Roku, Kodi, NAS, etc. without those complex cable connections, settings and operations. At this point, the only necessary program is an outstanding DVD to digital converter. WonderFox DVD Ripper Pro is a literally excellent assistant that stands out in every respect: ease of use, DVD decryption and conversion speed. Free downloadFree download the program and experience the amazing 3 simple steps.

Step 1. Insert a DVD into DVD-ROM and launch WonderFox DVD Ripper Pro. Click "DVD Disc" to load the entire DVD content. DVD ISO image and Video_TS folder are also supported.

Step 2. All DVD copy protection will be removed during the analyzing process, then it will mark the main movie title automatically. Select your preferred video format or device profile on the right side.

Step 3. Specify a destination directory and hit "RUN" button to start the Disc-to-video conversion. After done, you can enjoy the movie with ease.