Connection of laptop to TV

[nigelf1234]

Is it possible to connect a laptop to a TV? I want to watch one of these Demand Five shows we forgot to record.
The TV only has a Scart, aerial or 3 phono plugs as input. The laptop has a video output, headphones and USB sockets.
Any ideas would be most welcome.

[rojash]

"The laptop has a video output," doesn't actually tell us anything; what kind of video output - composite, S-video, VGA (D9)?

[nigelf1234]

Its a VGA output. In other words as you would use to connect it to an external Monitor. There appear to be no other connections other than the usual parallel port and network connections.

[LeMarchand]

If you only have VGA out, you will need an adapter. This is the first one I found, I'm sure you could find something better or cheaper if you look around: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Laptop-PC-VGA-to-AV-TV-c onverter-Scart-Adapter-III_W0QQitemZ2602817743 15QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item260281774315&_trkpar ms=72%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3 A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

With the model shown, you'd also need a suitable VGA cable and a suitable leads to connect your headphone socket to the two audio (usually red and white) phono sockets on your TV and you might as well use the yellow composite video socket on the device to connect to the yellow phono socket on your TV.

[nigelf1234]

Hi,
I got this device from Aria:
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Peripherals/Swi tch+Boxes/HiPoint+VGA+to+TV++Convertor?product Id=28626

Which seems to very similar to the one illustrated. So I connected the VGA from the laptop to the socket, power supply from USB and then yellow composite video to the TV. I made sure the laptop was in the mode for driving an external monitor, but nothing appears on the TV. Does it need to be tuned in to the channel? Is the device faulty or do I need a cable to connect the S-video socket to the S-video input on the TV or to a scart socket. Any ideas please?

[LeMarchand]

Apologies if I'm stating the obvious, but you will need to try the different "AV" or "EXT" channels on your TV. The phono type inputs are normally number 3 or 2 (depending on the number of Scart sockets etc available).

Also check the device for switches - sometimes you have to specify the output type. If it came with an AC adapter, try using that rather than USB - some ports don't quite have enough power for certain items, or you may have too many USB devices plugged in. You could also try the PS2 connection if your lappy has one.

You'll also need to take care of the sound as in my previous post. You could use S-Video or an S-Video/Composite video and sound to Scart adapter such as http://www.amazon.co.uk/Psylins-Scart-Adapter- Switchable/dp/B00077DC60/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s= electronics&qid=1220470965&sr=8-1 (first pic I found - normally �1 from your local cheapo emporium) but only if you don't want to use the 3 phono sockets (admittedly, these are normally on the front, so it would at least hide them).

Finally, some laptops, even if you have set them to 2-monitor output need a bit more prompting. There's usually a Function (Fn) key that cycles between both screens/one screen/the other screen.

If none of the above works, post again - I can think of at least one more thing to try, but suspect that using the correct AV/EXT channel is what you need to do.

[nigelf1234]

Many thanks for all your assistance with this. I managed to get it all working using a lead connecting S-Video to SCART. I never got phono to work at all. For some reason only one scart works correctly giving full colour, the other gives black & white. You were correct about the AV input ; I was cycling through the laptop outputs OK, but didn't think of the AV input as well. Anyway all working OK now, so many thanks for all help.

[LeMarchand]

Glad you got in working!

At a guess, the Scart colour discrepancy is due to one socket being RGB enabled and the device not or vice versa.