Connecting laptop VGA to TV S-video

[tezarin]

Hi,

I am new to this forum and searched through the forum before I post my question but was not able to find my answer…

I have a Dell Inspiron1501 laptop which has only VGA output. On the back of my TV, there is only S-Video input and some RCA input/outputs.

I would like to connect the laptop to the TV so I can watch movies on the big screen.

So I bought the following:

1) S-Video to VGA/RCA adaptor cable which looks like this:




2) S-video cable which looks like this:
http://tomcom.ca/catalog/images/S-video.jpg


3) RCA sound cable which looks like this:




What I did was:

- I connected the VGA end of the first cable to the VGA output of the laptop.
- Then connected the S-video cable (second cable) to the S-video end of the first cable.
- Finally I connected the second cable to the S-video input of my TV.
- Connected the single end of the third cable to the laptop’s sound output.
- Connected the two other ends of the third cable to the audio inputs of my tv
- I didn’t know what to do with the yellow end of the adaptor cable so I didn’t connect anything to it

The sound worked but the video didn’t. I hit Fn+F8 but nothing appeared on the TV.

Please help me with this, let me know if I did everything correct and if I need anything else to get this to work.

Thanks in advance

Edit - I just uploaded these pictures, the links were not working...

[Baldrick]

1,3 : The image links doesn't work. Looks you copied this text from another place.

[usually_quiet]

Welcome to the forums. For future reference, there is more than one way to search this ste. The Google search in the top right hand corner of the webpage (not your browser) would have come up with a number of hits on this topic if you typed in "vga to s-video".

Here's a recent one that will tell you what the solution is, an external scan converter:
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic345015.html

[tezarin]

Baldrick,
Sorry about the pictures. I uploaded them again, it should work now.

usually_quite,
Thanks! I just saw that thread and looks like the only option I have will be to get a converter box...There are many of them out there, which one do you think I should get?

Thanks

[jagabo]

I don't have any particular suggestion for a scan converter but you should be aware that your laptop's native 1280x800 resolution will look pretty poor after conversion to s-video. It will be resized down to about 640x480. This is OK for watching DVD or lower resoltuion video but the Desktop will be mostly unreadable. I just want to make sure your expectations aren't too high.

[tezarin]

Sure, I understand and am ok with that... as long as i can get something viewable on the tv, i'd be happy...

[usually_quiet]

I have never used a scan converter. I merely read some of the threads about going from VGA to S-Video. The only advice I can give is the same as in the linked thread: Read the user reviews for the models that interest you.

[jagabo]

User reviews are often unreliable with items like this. Many users don't know what to expect and may be disappointed with a perfectly good VGA to s-video scan converter because they thought they would get VGA quality out of their TV.