As I'm shooting, I am trying to view my footage on an external TV through the component cable, but for some reason the video playing on the TV is just black and white. Any thoughts on why?

Even though I am taping in HD mode the signal coming out is SD 480i.

Thanks.

Jon

Silly question, but are you hooked up to an HDTV set or the old tube-type 4:3 set?

Old 4:3 set.

If the TV/monitor can accept component and you have the switch set to composite you will only see one channel which will be in B+W. Some Sony monitors required two buttons to switch in between component and composite. If the monitor can't accept component then you will only see B+W from a component output

Jon,

If you're connected to a older 4:3 set than 480i is all you'll ever see. It doesn't have the capability to accept HD signals so even if you had "component" inputs (separate cables for RGB input) the TV simply can't show you HD content - ever. In that situation the best you could hope for would be a down-converted signal that would be SD-widescreen, just like a DVD that had HD content downconverted to SD standards.

Try this; put the camera in one of the SD modes and then look at your component outputs to the TV. Chances are you'll see full color. But if you want to actually see the HD output of the camera then you need an HDTV set or HD monitor. There's no way around that.