VGA and S-Video

[legenderycity]

My Inspiron 6400 has a 7-pin S-Video and a VGA output. I want to connect it to my Panasonic Viera X-Series HDTV with HDMI, RCA, PC Input and S-Video. Which cable should I use to get the best possible quality with audio on my HDTV to view videos?

[edDV]

VGA. Try to match display native resolution.

Audio? What audio output other than the headphone jack do you have?

[legenderycity]

VGA. Try to match display native resolution.

Audio? What audio output other than the headphone jack do you have?

What do you mean by 'match display native resolution'?

About the audio, it means that after connecting it to the HDTV the audio comes out from the TV's speaker and not the laptop's one.

The problem about VGA is that only my laptop has it while my HDTV has a similar looking VGA input but it is black in color and not blue. Any idea on what port is that?

[edDV]

"Native resolution" would be your display spec. If you can't figure it out, give us the full model number for the TV.

The "PC input" would be VGA. It should have a couple of RCA audio connectors in the same block. In addition to the audio cable above, you need a VGA to VGA cable like this.

[legenderycity]

"Native resolution" would be your display spec. If you can't figure it out, give us the full model number for the TV.

The "PC input" would be VGA. It should have a couple of RCA audio connectors in the same block. In addition to the audio cable above, you need a VGA to VGA cable like this.

As stated in my first post, my TV is Panasonic Viera P42X10K

The black VGA is at the side of my TV and has the three RCA ports(AV4) below it. How do I connect the audio cable? If I plug the audio cable into the AV4 below the VGA, wouldn't the sound come out from AV4 and not the PC input anymore?

[edDV]

The P42X10K has a resolution of 1,024 x 768 pixels.

You don't know how to plug in an RCA connector? Your laptop should have a audio out mini-jack.

[legenderycity]

What's with the VGA Male/Female thing? Is there a difference?

[edDV]

What's with the VGA Male/Female thing? Is there a difference?

Both should be male as pictured.

[legenderycity]

The P42X10K has a resolution of 1,024 x 768 pixels.

You don't know how to plug in an RCA connector? Your laptop should have a audio out mini-jack.

So does it support my laptop?

I know how to plug the RCA connector. But the PC input does not have RCA with it. The RCA is the AV4 which is a different AV from the PC input.

Is the audio out mini-jack the jack where I plug in my earphones?

[edDV]

Most likely the connectors close to the PC-Input VGA will be used. See your TV manual for PC connection.

Yes the earphone jack with the cable shown above.

[legenderycity]

Why did you choose VGA instead of S-Video?

[edDV]

Why did you choose VGA instead of S-Video?

Because the quality will be much better.

VGA matches your display 1024x768 resolution.

S-Video will give ~ 640x576 but more blurry than you expect.

[legenderycity]

One more question, my VGA on the laptop is blue in color. Will the black one fit in? Is it compatible? And should I get the male or female one?

[edDV]

One more question, my VGA on the laptop is blue in color. Will the black one fit in? Is it compatible? And should I get the male or female one?

VGA cables use DB15 connectors and are usually male to male as shown in the picture above.

[legenderycity]

I read the manual for my HDTV yesterday and found out that the best resolution for VGA is only 852x480 while the highest resolution can be obtained by using XGA cable which is 1366x768.

Currently, my laptop's resolution is 1280x800. Shouldn't the XGA be a better choice?

[guns1inger]

There is no XGA cable. XGA is just an attribution for VGA video at higher than standard VGA resolutions. The cable is the same (VGA). Yes, you want to run at 1366x768. If you split the display between the TV and the laptop, the laptop will also run at this resolution, which will look less than optimal.

[legenderycity]

There is no XGA cable. XGA is just an attribution for VGA video at higher than standard VGA resolutions. The cable is the same (VGA). Yes, you want to run at 1366x768. If you split the display between the TV and the laptop, the laptop will also run at this resolution, which will look less than optimal.

What about SVGA cable? Does it run at 1280x800? I just don't want the output in the TV in 4:3 ratio.

[guns1inger]

There is only VGA when it comes to cables. The various acronyms you are citing are to do with resolution, and nothing to do with the cable. The cable you need is a VGA cable. Period. As has been discussed previously in this thread. There is no XGA cable, or SVGA cable. Just VGA.

Your TV requires a resolution of 1366 x 768 if you connect your computer via the VGA port. While some other resolutions may work, most will be ignored or will give you a distorted image. Regardless, if you use any other resolution, the picture quality will be lowered substantially.

You laptop requires a resolution of 1280 x 800. It has more freedom when it comes to other resolutions, but again, any other resolution than 1280 x 800 will produce a poor quality image. This is just how LCD screens work. They only produce a clear, quality image at their native resolution.

If you connect an external monitor (be it an LCD, CRT, TV or projector) to the VGA port and switch the image through, the resolution will be changed to match that device (hopefully, sometimes it needs a manual hint). Most laptop graphics are simple in ability. They can only do one resolution at a time. So if they are connected to an external display, they will adopt that resolution until they are disconnected. If you choose to have the display on both devices, one fo them will not be the native resolution unless both devices have the same native resolution. In your case, the native resolution of the TV will be adopted while the TV is connected and the video is directed to it, and the laptop screen will get a distorted, soft and fuzzy image if you try to have the display on both.

[legenderycity]

i just bought the VGA cable and connected it to my HDTV, but there is a problem with the resolution. The TV's resolution is 1024x768 while my laptop's is 1280x800, as a result there are two borders on top and below of the show I'm watching while in full screen mode. Any ways to get rid of those two borders?

[edDV]

In display properties, change the TV resolution to 1024x768.

[legenderycity]

In display properties, change the TV resolution to 1024x768.

I changed both the notebook and TV resolution to 1024x768 but those two borders are still there! Any help here?

[edDV]

The Dell Inspiron 6400 is supposed to have an IntelMedia Accelerator 950 display chipset. The chipset is capable of driving your laptop display at 1280x800 and your HDTV separately at 1024x768. Dell may or may not have enabled that feature. If dual display isn't explained in the manual, call Dell tech support.

Also, look in your laptop Help files for "dual display".