Went out and picked up a second s-vid connection and it works flawlessly. So not knowing which one of the component vid cables is the culprit, I am taking htem both back and getting new ones. Somthing I noticed after reading your post sjdgpt, looking at both sets of cables, one end of one one of them has a different look to it, mangled around the casing, hard to notice unless you look. SO back they go.
THanks for the problem solving, helped a lot.