What cable to output to a TV?

[Victor Hen]

I had a laptop that I used in the classroom to show (among other things), some PowerPoint presentations. The laptop had an S-Video out and the TV has a S-Video in port. I got a new laptop and it only has a vga video port. I thought I read that there was a cable that went from vga to S-video, but only works if the vid card supports TV output. Well, I'm pretty sure mine does not. In fact the vid card is part of the motherboard. It's a Mobile Intel Series Express. What options do I have? BTW, the TV also has the 3 RCA plugs (red, yellow, and white) - I forget what that's called.
The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 1545 and I put Win XP Pro on it.

[jagabo]

You'll need a VGA to s-video or composite scan converter. They start around US$50 and go up to several hundred dollars.

[Victor Hen]

I checked today and in addition to S-video and the R,Y,&W RCA connectors there is a panel called component input. There are 5 RCA connectors: 2 red, 1 blue, 1 white, & 1 green. Could I use those somehow?

[jagabo]

Does your laptop have a 7 or 8 pin DIN connector? Something like this:



If so, you may be able to get component video from there with a simple adapter cable from the laptop manufacturer. If not you will need a VGA to component scan converter to use the component video inputs on the TV. If you have an HDTV the picture will be significantly better than s-video or composite. With an SD TV it will be a little better than s-video.

[MOVIEGEEK]

You need something like this:
http://sewelldirect.com/PC-to-TV-Converter.asp

[jagabo]

Some problems you might run into with the cheaper VGA to s-video/composite scan converters:

They often have limitations on the resolution of the VGA signal. Sometimes as low as 800x600 (the one MOVIEGEEK linked to handles up to 1024x768). You may not be able to run your laptop at it's native resolution when using the scan converter. More expensive converters allow for higher resolution and some have pan and scan modes where you can zoom into the VGA picture and pan around.

Inexpensive converters are often very noisy. You get random snow, or stripes of noise or light/dark bands that run up or down the screen.