# How to Connect Laptop to TV?



## crushbone (Aug 5, 2004)

Hello Everyone!

I am in need of some help here.

I bought a cable that has one end RCA and the other end S-Video.
At the back of my laptop I connect the RCA part and on my VCR (which is connected to my TV) I connect the S-Video. I don't see any picture on my TV and I was wondering if someone could help me with my problem.

Thanks in Advance.


----------



## Ghaleon (Dec 12, 2004)

Right click on your desktop. Go to settings/advanced/displays. If you have a video card that supports it (which i'm assuming you do as you have an s-video plug) click the power button on the tv tab and hit apply. that should do it. 

Be sure to set your tv to the primary display device if you're watching a dvd. it's the circle button in the tv collum.

if you still aren't getting anything, check your function buttons. If any of them have something like 'lcd/tv' written on it you should activate it. For me its alt f8.

-Ghaleon


----------



## crushbone (Aug 5, 2004)

Hello Ghaleon, Thanks for your reply!

I have done everything that you have told me and I still cannot get a picture on my TV. After changing all of the settings you told me to, I pressed the button on my laptop that has a picture of a TV which puts the laptop into TV Mode. After 5 seconds it comes up on the screen and it says 

"There was a problem enabling TV Mode. Check the TV cable and try again."

Anyone else have a solution?


----------



## kiwiguy (Aug 17, 2003)

Check with the supplier of the laptop.

Not all laptops have "standard" S-Video sockets. Does the number of pins on the cable exactly match the number of holes in the socket? Or are there more holes on the socket than pins on the plug?

Look at this site for help
http://www.s-video.com/laptoptvout1.html


----------



## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Are you sure the S-Video jack on the VCR is "in" and not "out"? Have you tried connecting it directly to the TV (if it has an S-Video "in"). You might also just try RCA on both ends. I don't see any difference in quality, but that probably depends on the system. Beisdes, I've seen more, longer, cables with RCA on both ends for video and the standard, small, sound jack on the computer end and RCA on the other end for audio, than I have long S-Video, "combo" cables that also carry sound.


----------



## crushbone (Aug 5, 2004)

kiwiguy: The number of the pins on the cable doesn't match the number of holes in the socket. Does that really matter?

Elvandil: I am 100% sure that the S-Video jack on the VCR is "in" and not "out". I cannot connect it directly to the TV because it doesn't have if it has an S-Video In. With RCA on both ends, where do I connect the RCA to the TV or VCR? I haven't checked yet if there is a part on the TV for RCA.

Also any other solutions please. Thanks.


----------



## kiwiguy (Aug 17, 2003)

Without knowing any details of what laptop make and model etc, its all guesswork.

But my apologies, I now see that you have S-Video at the VCR and and RCA at the laptop. Thats exactly opposite from most!

I have never found Video or TV out on a laptop using RCA. Only S-Video (or a form of S-Video that is often non standard).


----------



## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

crushbone said:


> Elvandil: I am 100% sure that the S-Video jack on the VCR is "in" and not "out". I cannot connect it directly to the TV because it doesn't have if it has an S-Video In. With RCA on both ends, where do I connect the RCA to the TV or VCR? I haven't checked yet if there is a part on the TV for RCA.
> 
> Also any other solutions please. Thanks.


They vary, of course. My old VCR has RCA but no S-Video. I thought that maybe yours had both. Just a suggestion. It's sometimes hard to come up with just the right combination.

And then, after I got the cables all connected, I had a hard time figuring out how to configure my ATI Control Panel to actually get video. My greatest discovery was "theater" mode whereby all video from media players is full-screen on the TV but not on the monitor. I can surf while others watch a video on TV with my media player minimized.

Eventually, with a device that transmits video on any unused TV channel, I got video on all the TV's in the house wirelessly. Of course. that means my neighbors can watch it too. I hope they like the line-up .

Did you mention what video card you had?


----------



## crushbone (Aug 5, 2004)

My video card on my laptop is an ATI Radeon IGP 340M which is an integrated video card. I am still in need of help. Any other ideas?


----------



## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Do you have the most recent Catalyst for that video card and the Control Panel?

It may not be your connections, if you are pretty sure you have them right (VCR using one of the 'Input" modes). Maybe it's the settings in the ATI Control Panel.


----------



## crushbone (Aug 5, 2004)

I don't have the most recent Catalyst for that video card and the Control Panel. Do you know where I may find them?


----------



## crushbone (Aug 5, 2004)

OK, I tried connecting it to another TV (more recent because the other TV was too old) and I couldn't get the picture but it was flickering a little bit, I could see a tiny bit of the desktop but other than that I couldn't get a picture. I installed the catalyst drivers for the laptop. Maybe it is the cable I bought. I bought it from a Computer Swap Meet at a Market, maybe it is best to get one from somewhere else. I am beginning to think that it is the cables that is the problem. What do you recommend me to buy? I have AV on another TV which I will use but I will need to connect RCA to the laptop.


----------



## crushbone (Aug 5, 2004)

Sorry Guys, I got a little bit confused but after doing some research, I found out what I actually have.

On my laptop, I have S-Video on the back. I have RCA on my VCR which I think is also known as AV? I don't have RCA or AV (whichever you like to call it) on the old TV but on my new TV I do. I know it is a little confusing for people reading this but I will get some new cables and sought this out myself, I will let you all know how I am going. Thanks for all of you help.


----------



## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

The Catalyst drivers you would need would not be the standard ones that most people use, simply because it is a laptop card. But it does appear that ATI has an updated IGP driver that corresponds to their regular Catalyst 4.12 release. I don't know what driver you have now, or what controls you have in it, but the Control Panel in ATI's drivers certainly adds a lot more control than the drivers supplied by Windows. In addition, the ATI drivers offer support for OpenGL, which may come in handy for you at some point, even if you are not a gamer.

This looks like the one, but you should read the notes to be sure since you know the details of your machine:

http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/...e=igp&prod=IGPXPdriver&submit.x=12&submit.y=8


----------



## kiwiguy (Aug 17, 2003)

Sounds like my initial assumption was closer.

S-Video "TV Out" on many laptops is a hybrid, and to get a conversion to RCA you either need the right plug (with the extra pins connected to feed the RCA) or an "adapter" built in which will regenerate the RCA from the S-Video signal.


----------



## crushbone (Aug 5, 2004)

OK, I visited a couple of computer places and asked for advice. They told me what to do but I have already tried them. The things he told me were mostly things that you both have already mentioned. I might try kiwiguys suggestion to get the cable with the extra pins and see if that works. But the guy at the computer shop told me that it wouldn't matter and it still should work.

I download the catalyst drivers that Elvandil told me. That didn't seem to work. I really want to solve this problem. I still think I am doing something wrong. Everything is connected properly but it doesn't seem to function. The guy also told me that it could be my software. Does he mean the drivers or something. Do I need any software to make this work?


----------



## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Does the image on the right under the Displays tab show the TV to be connected?

Under the Overlay tab, pressing the button at the bottom (Theater Mode Options) will give you a choice of clone-mode options. What setting do you have there?

Have you tried a 640x480 resolution size on the second display device?

Do you in fact have 2 display adapters listed in Device Manager?

(All this assumes that you have the same settings as the standard Catalyst Control Panel.)


----------



## kiwiguy (Aug 17, 2003)

To repeat my previous posts:

RCA is not natively available from normal SVideo without a "resistive mixer" circuit, and a proper conversion cable should have this included.

Often the TV Out SVideo socket has real RCA (Composite Video) available on the "extra pins" though.


----------



## crushbone (Aug 5, 2004)

I emailed ATI and got a reply. It doesn't say much. Anyway, in the Overlay tab, there is no button on the bottom accept default, so I cannot do the rest of what you told me. Why isn't the button there? It does show that the TV is connected but nothing happens. What am I doing wrong?


----------



## crushbone (Aug 5, 2004)

I only have 1 display adapter listed in Device Manager.


----------



## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

It may be dofferent on your built-in ATI card, but I don't see why it would be that different. I have 2 display adapters listed--the ATI one for my monitor and a second, almost identical, except for being labelled "secondary", that is for my TV-out S-Video.

Did you install the new ATI driver and did you remove the old one before trying the new one?

I may be barking up the wrong tree if the laptop card is significantly different from the desktop one, bit it seems to me that your TV-out should be listed in the Device Manager in some form.


----------



## crushbone (Aug 5, 2004)

Where would I find TV Out in the device manager?


----------



## crushbone (Aug 5, 2004)

I aslo found this:
http://support.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-006316.htm

Should I do what is says on the website?


----------



## crushbone (Aug 5, 2004)

Is there anyone else out there with any other solutions?


----------



## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

It wasn't listed as "TV-out" in the Device Manager, but only as a second display adapter.


----------



## crushbone (Aug 5, 2004)

I only have one device under display adapters. I have three devices in monitors.


----------



## Jedi_Master (Mar 13, 2002)

Howdy folks...

crushbone...

Not sure which laptop you have, but with My Dell Inspiron 7500, the Television Port and the Television Type has to be set in the BIOS...

Television Port: [Enabled]

Television Type: [NTSC]

If the port isn't enabled, or the type isn't right ( set to PAL ) I get the same error, but that is of course on mine, and it has an ATI video...


----------



## phabba (Aug 22, 2007)

hello.. i have a HP dv6510 laptop. i have a S-video out on it. i bought the S-video to RCA cable in order to connect it to the TV. and it is showing in black and white. i thought it was the cable problem so i swiched it to 7-pin S-video to RCA cable and it is still black and white..
please help me out.. what shoud i do ?

best regards 
phabba


----------



## aseem1234 (Mar 26, 2008)

If you're interested in the different methods to connect a laptop to TV, check out this article on Online Tech Tips:

Hopefully it helps you!


----------

