s video or vga to television

[thinger62]

I'm guessing it is pretty close, but which would be the best way to connect a laptop to an hdtv, s-video or vga.? Those are the only outputs the laptop has, the tv has both inputs. This is just a one-time deal, only for a few hours.

[redwudz]

I think VGA would work better. And an advantage is you may have a spare VGA cable you can borrow from one of your computer monitors to try it out.

[olyteddy]

VGA if you have the cord. S-Video would be fine for watching video, but don't expect to read any text through that connection.

[jagabo]

VGA is better. S-video only has about 640x480 resolution for the luma and 320x480 resolution for the chroma.

[thinger62]

Thanks, I found both cables in my box of old stuff.... I guess I won't even try the svid....thanks again all..

[edDV]

Thanks, I found both cables in my box of old stuff.... I guess I won't even try the svid....thanks again all..

Set your VGA resolution to the "native display resolution" of your TV.

[thinger62]

Thanks, I found both cables in my box of old stuff.... I guess I won't even try the svid....thanks again all..

Set your VGA resolution to the "native display resolution" of your TV.

If only... the nVidia control won't let me adjust it. It's close to the native resolution, but not exact. I'll have to look into it.

[surfmonkee]

Thanks, I found both cables in my box of old stuff.... I guess I won't even try the svid....thanks again all..

you should at least try it, so you can see for yourself how it will look, (crap or otherwise) that way when you see a question like this again you might be able to offer advice too and also gain a little more knowledge

[redwudz]

If only... the Nvidia control won't let me adjust it. It's close to the native resolution, but not exact. I'll have to look into it.

I found a major difference in quality between 'close' and the native resolution of my widescreen monitor. My Nvidia card had a setting similar to 1600 X 1200, while native is 1680 X 1050. I tried several other settings and none of them looked right.

The text, especially, was a little 'ghosted' and difficult to read. I updated to the latest Nvidia driver and it now looks great at the native resolution. Very clear. I just used my monitors 'auto-adjust' feature to set the screen position properly. It may be a bit easier with a 4:3 monitor, but I would dig around until you find a driver that will give you the exact native resolution.

I'm using the monitor from two Vista computers over a KVM switch. I went to Nvidia's website for the one driver. The other computer has a ATI card and I also had to DL a driver from ATI. The default Vista drivers and the ones on the setup discs didn't have the proper resolution settings.