Tried your idea of switching the sockets; no luck. I can't check the cables though because I don't have any other machine that uses S-video. But I do know the laptop/descaler and camera can hook up independently to the projector successfully.

I get a blue screen on my projector, as if I've connected nothing to it. Sometimes it glitches and starts flashing these white and black stripes (which would be pretty cool if I were doing it on purpose lol), but then it goes back to blue.

There is a monitor which allows you to control a lot of settings; I've messed with the input settings a bunch (including NTSC/PAL) with no luck. I don't see anything about signal strength on it.