Viewing Laptop Content on a HDTV

[somu76]

Hi,
I have been able to use a standard 4-pin Male to Male S-Video connector between my laptop (Dell Inspiron E1505) and a standard TV (Sony WEGA CRT) in the past, but once I got my new HDTV (Panasonic Viera 42PZ77U) I am no longer able to get the same result...

I have a ATI card in the laptop, and have the ATI Catalyst Manager installed. This is what I use to configure the connection, and I am setting it to Extend or Clone the desktop to the TV (Same result on both)

The screen is really dark, with shades of color now and again. Not able to see anything on the screen clearly...
I have a 7-Pin S-Video port on the laptop, so I just now ordered a 7-Pin to 4-Pin connector to see if that helps..
Also ordered a S-video to Component cable connector to see if I can use that...
Unfortunately, I don't have HDMI on the laptop, and neither are there any free HDMI slots on the TV, so that is out.
TV doesn't have a VGA port for the PC I believe, so that is out....

My laptop maxes out at 1280 x 800 , so am not going to be able to match the HD TV's resolution (1920x1200 - 1080P). Is there a way around this or is it absolutely required to be matched? Also, I have no idea how to reduce the resolution of the TV to match the laptop's (if it is even possible)... When connected to the TV, the resolution seems to be taken down by ATI automatically, and I was trying to keep it at 640 x 480, with no luck...


any ideas/guidance is very much appreciated...

[guns1inger]

s-video will most likely limit you to 800 x 600, with the TV's built-in upscaler making up the difference. This model does not appear to have a VGA port, so you are pretty much screwed. A new cable may fix the brightness issue, or may not. You will just have to try it and see.

The only other possibility would be a VGA-Component converter, which would allow you to use the component inputs on the back of the TV and might give you a better image.

But honestly, TV is not designed to be used with a computer, and your laptop isn't really up to feeding anything that large.

[jagabo]

S-video will run about 640x480 resolution via the cable (your desktop may run 800x600 or larger but that will scaled down for transmission over the cable). You may be able to plug an s-video cable directly into the 7 pin DIN connector on the laptop. The four s-video pins often line up so that you don't need an adapter. Windows is basically unusable with this type of setup. It's OK if you just watch standard definition (or less) videos. This is a good solution if your graphics card supports "theater mode" where whatever is playing in a media player (even when windowed) appears full screen at the s-video port.

The s-video to component cable is a 7 pin DIN (not s-video) to component cable. This requires that your laptop have the component signals on the DIN connector and on the correct pins for the cable. Manufactures change these around all the time. If it's not made specifically for your laptop it may not work.

If your laptop has DVI (DVI to HDMI cable) or HDMI out that will be your best bet. And it will probably allow you to select 1280x720 or 1920x1080 resolution.

[cpotoso]

You may be able to output the VGA (which is really RGB) to the component in (but probably not).

[edDV]

The 42PZ77U has no VGA port.

So you need a new laptop (with DVI, HDMI or analog component) or a different TV.

[somu76]

to bring this discussion to a close, I got the SVideo connector (7pin-4pin) from here (http://www.svideo.com/pro724.html) and I couldn't be happier... I didn't have to mess with resolution or anything... Just enabled the TV in my ATI Catalyst Manager, and am good to go.

thanks for the assistance here guys.