# Watch movie from Laptop to TV



## Zamah (Jan 6, 2009)

I have connected my Laptop (Toshiba A100) to my LG rear projection tv, and use a VGA cable. All works fine, desktop comes up, and I can navigate around, and even view videos from You Tube. The problem is when I go to watch a movie I have downloaded (AVI or converted file), the screen on the TV goes black with 'No Signal' appearing on the screen. Media Player does comes up when I click on the AVI file, then for a split second you see the movie, but as I said it goes to the black screen with No Signal appearing. Can anyone help please. Thanks


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## exerguy (Nov 10, 2008)

Is the movie still viewable on the laptop's screen when the TV is black? Are you using Vista, and if so are going in and connecting to an external display? Vista also has an option for displaying your desktop on both the laptop and tv. That option works with my latest laptop.

Depending on the video card your laptop has you may need to fiddle with some of the settings.
If the card is made by NVIDIA you will need to go into advanced display options, and enable full screen for the TV. I don't quite remember how to get to this option, but I had it on an older laptop.
With ATI you may need to enable theater mode depending on the model of the video card.

Hope this points you in the right direction.


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## Zamah (Jan 6, 2009)

Yes, can still see on laptop once tv goes black. Am using XP with VIDIA card. Have tried ticking external display. As you said, is prob a case of tinkering around with the settings and crossing the fingers. Thankyou


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## exerguy (Nov 10, 2008)

Hope it works for you.


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## buffoon (Jul 16, 2008)

Zamah said:


> I have connected my Laptop (Toshiba A100) to my LG rear projection tv, and use a VGA cable. All works fine, desktop comes up, and I can navigate around, and even view videos from You Tube. The problem is when I go to watch a movie I have downloaded (AVI or converted file), the screen on the TV goes black with 'No Signal' appearing on the screen. Media Player does comes up when I click on the AVI file, then for a split second you see the movie, but as I said it goes to the black screen with No Signal appearing. Can anyone help please. Thanks


For .avi movie files I'd recommend to download VLC player from videolan. It's free. WMP doesn't like .avi.
Set your movie files (.avi) to "always open with VLC player".
Also "toggle" screen display by using the Fn + F? key (it's F3 on mine but may vary).
I also find that whereas I can have both screens display when working from the desktop, I have to toggle to the external monitor only when watching movies. VLC comes up in the "both monitor" setting but the movie plays "black".


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## tex0gen (Jun 10, 2007)

this happened to me but i have a base spec chipset intel graphics... i think it was a case of changing the tv to my default/replica screen and turn all screen savers off etc. i then did the same with the t.v and all is well.


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## John_jay (Jan 1, 2009)

An absence of a proper video codec might cause the problem,
try to reinstall you media player or install media codec!


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## Zamah (Jan 6, 2009)

Finally got it. Making TV as primary display and changing res etc and using VLC media Player. Thankyou to all


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## buffoon (Jul 16, 2008)

Zamah said:


> Finally got it. Making TV as primary display and changing res etc and using VLC media Player. Thankyou to all


Great:up: Good luck.
Remember to mark this thread "solved"


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