I've been noticing this on my 703 for the last month or so. If I scan through a disc, it'll sometimes go to black and white. I assume this has something to do with the spindle or something going out of sync and affecting the output. I'm also guessing I'll have to have it repaired at some point. So I am boned or what?

What are you watching it through? Has that changed lately?
The "Clear Scan" feature relies on the digital memory circuit to grab in-sync fields as you zip past them. The video put out in that mode is somewhat nonstandard, & some modern processors/displays have trouble handling it.

Try the S-Video output as the composite is a simple recombine of the separate Y/C signals from the S-Video

krbahr: The 703/4 actually has a separate video DAC for composite...

Does this happen on all TV's? If it only happens after scanning it might be a circuit glitch somewhere along the line. Try toggling NR on and off, that might knock some sense into it (unlikely though) - also try changing inputs on the TV, it might be getting befuddled.

isn't that due to the laser or spindle, when they go bad you may get black and white.
I thought I remember reading that once?

or a guess, could it be the rubber pad that is drying up and slipping when searching???

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Has anything changed in your setup? New Monitor? New Receiver? An Upscaler? I doubt it's a problem with the player itself.

It's a Toshiba HD CRT. Might have f***ed something up by trying to play something while moving my media stand a while back. Oops.

Will try that out.

Nothing has changed. Haven't added anything new to my setup in a while.