I have a Sony Dvd player and it plays foreign dvds in black and white, i've tried using an RGB scart lead but it doesnt seem to solve the problem? Any suggestions?
Either that, or the DVD player's MPEG decoder does not handle video standards conversion. A DVD player that has a decoder able to do such a thing is required to properly play foreign region DVDs meant for different video systems.
Since the original poster indicated the use of a SCART lead, I must guess that he is in an area of Europe, probably the United Kingdom, which uses the PAL standard and has attempted to play a DVD meant for NTSC equipment. In addition to the fact that PAL (625 at 50 Hz) and NTSC (525 at 60 Hz) has different horizontal resolution and refresh ratings, they also modulate the chrominance (color) at different frequencies. This explains the loss of color. The luminance (greyscale with sync) for both NTSC and PAL can be displayed without problems as the refresh and resolution differences are not "different enough."
He may have to find a player that uses a Mediatek MPEG decoder as they can perform standards conversion. Newer Pioneer players have them and they can be modified to be multiregion by downloading a hacked firmware image, burning it to a CD-R, and then loading the disc into the player. - Reinhart