[galpinos]

Right, I'm a bit of a technical dunce. I'm trying to hook the missus laptop up to the TV so she can have scrolling photos on it at a party this weekend. There's a normal monitor out socket on the laptop (VGA?) and a varying array of stuff on the TV, definitely including s-video and RCA, maybe a HDMI but I'm not sure.

At the mo, I'm thinking a

http://www.amazon.co.uk/VGA-to-S-Video-RCA-Adaptor/dp/B000P3UB24/ref=pd_cp_ce_1

as this'll plug into the laptop, then a

http://www.amazon.co.uk/5m-Video-SVHS-cable/dp/B000PJ60IM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1268147575&sr=1-1

as both the S-video connection on the TV and the above adaptor seem to be female.

So far, so good, I think. But......

Is S-video fine. Will it work for showing photo and maybe the video we did of our last holiday? Is s-video better than RCA? Is it worth waiting till tonight to check whether we've got a HDMI input into the telly (I'm not confident as it's not that new a TV). Will HDMI be better/easier to configure?

Finally, will my efforts be potentially thwarted by the missus' laptop if it's lacking in some software or do laptops come with all the necessary bits to let you use an external monitor/TV?

[Jaspersharpe]

Hmmm. I know nothing of these terms but I just plug my netbook into the tv with a normal monitor cable (VGA?) and then a 3.5mm audio cable from the headphone socket. Works a treat for watching iplayer etc.

[slackline]

What TV is it, and what laptop is it (and if possible the graphics card on it)?

Failing that pics of all the ports would facilitate in answering.

If the TV is flat-screen it will most likely have a VGA socket which you can line your laptop into. 

If its a new flat screen and "HD-ready" then it will have an HDMI port.  The question then is whether your laptop has an HDMI output socket.  A lot of new ones do, but they're not ubiquitous.

As for what software, it will depend on the OS, but I've successfully linked four different laptops to various TV's without any special software requirements under Linux, mainly through VGA, but I did line-out a Dell Latitude (forget the model) which had an on-board nVidia grahpics card to an older CRT TV using something that went into the normal aerial socket on the TV from an S-Video socket on the laptop.

Possible useful reading

[Jaspersharpe]

I just plugged mine into the tv and pressed Shift and whichever F key it is to switch to external output (the little screen sign). That was it.

[SA Chris]

I know this may sound a bit obvious, but your telly might just have an SD card input. I only noticed recently ours has one.

[Jim]

If its just photo's you want on, just get a long vga monitor lead.
Its normal [function] F5 to switch between laptop screen/dual screen/tv screen

[slackline]

If its just photo's you want on, just get a long vga monitor lead.

....providing you have a VGA socket on the TV.

[galpinos]

If its just photo's you want on, just get a long vga monitor lead.

....providing you have a VGA socket on the TV.

which I'm pretty sure I've not got. 

It's a tv my missus inherited at some point in a shared house and is now "ours". It's a flat screen but nothing fancy. I've definitely got the RCA and S-Video inputs. There's another option above the scart sockets so I'll check what that is tonight. Trying to work out options I've got from descriptions of sockets by the missus isn't easy.

Cheers for the help so far guys. 

[Paul B]

You can get VGA to scart, we just need to know whats on your laptop and whats at the back of the TV.
Have you got an HD devices that you use through the TV? If so you'll probably have a hdmi socket. Which laptop are you using?

[galpinos]

You can get VGA to scart, we just need to know whats on your laptop and whats at the back of the TV.
Have you got an HD devices that you use through the TV? If so you'll probably have a hdmi socket. Which laptop are you using?

Having got home and actually had a look myself, there's a VGA on the laptop, a Philips Freevents, and HDMI, Scart, S-Video and RCA input on the TV.

Thin kI'll go for an VGA to HDMI. Does that make sense?

[account_inactive]

Does HDMI also do audio and if not why?

[galpinos]

Does HDMI also do audio and if not why?

Didn't think of that, I assumed it would.

I was going to get one of these:

http://www.overstock.com/Electronics/Eforcity-6-foot-Black-M-M-VGA-to-HDMI-Cable/4457412/product.html?cid=133635

Would that work?

[Jim]

vga to hdmi will only do video if at all

[soapy]

vga > rca will work

vga > hdmi may not because:

"NOTE: Your Video card must support digital signal output through VGA port function. Please consult with your VGA card's user manual for more information"

AVforums thread here

[Jim]

vga is analogue and hdmi is digital so will not work without some sort of converter box which tend to retail around £50+

[galpinos]

Cheers everone.

Ended up using S-video to S-video pff my laptop in the end. Easiest of the bunch top set up. The hardest bit was getting the TV screen sorted. I couuldn't get the TV to show my laptop screen, I could only get it to work as a secondary screen with my desktop spread over the two screen, as per my CAD machine at work. Bit of a pain but got it working in the end. Even managed to bore everyone with the video I made of our skiing holiday.

Thanks.

[SA Chris]

have we been bored with this video yet? Or is it too uninteresting to merit viewing. Almost all my skiing this year is vicarious.

[Jim]

did you use [function] F5?

[galpinos]

have we been bored with this video yet? Or is it too uninteresting to merit viewing. Almost all my skiing this year is vicarious.

Nope, I'm too embarrassed to post it. It was made for the missus' family as they lent us their appartment for the week and as such is an amalgamation of incredibly poor out of focus footage (and not much of it) shot on our stills cameras and lots of cheesy photos of us grining into the camera.

[galpinos]

did you use [function] F5?

Yep, didn't seem to work. The TV is a bit tempremental though. I eneded up dumping all the photos into powerpoint and using the presenter slide show option to get the photos scrolling through on the TV. The resolution is really ppor despite spending hours fiddling with settings so I lost some enthusiasm.

I might have another go at some point but I had so much to sort for the missus B'day once I got it working that was it. Cheers for the help.

[SA Chris]

I expect this bird has long flown, but you can get one of these for playing SD Cards or USB sticks onto your telly

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sumvision-Cyclone-Micro-Media-Player/dp/B0030DL3SC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1285708681&sr=8-1

Plugs into HDMI port