Video out in windows 7

kelbal

Hiya. I have a new laptop with windows 7. I'm trying to connect it to my TV so that I can view movies from my laptop on the TV. The only video out option on the laptop is VGA. I bought a VGA to RCA adaptor (picture attached). I've hooked it all up, my TV has scart and RCA input (yellow, red and white connections). But I can't seem to get windows to send the display out on the vga port. I've messed around with everything I thought would do it but no joy. Can anyone give me a step by step guide?

thanks

P

CptSternn

When you hook something to the VGA port it acts as a second monitor. You need to right click on a blank area of the desktop and then select SCREEN RESOLUTION.

You should see two monitors listed. If not, then with the TV/VGA plugged in reboot your machine and see if it shows up.

If it still doesn't show up you may need to enable the second monitor via a keyboard shortcut. Usually it is the function key (Fn) plus a number. Look for an icon on the number keys with two monitors.

Shane O' Malley

Also most laptops will have a function button for the purpose of switching between the LCD (Laptop) screen and the external screen. On mine i hold down the function key (Blue Fn key beside Ctrl) and F7

RolandIRL

+ P brings up display options.

Also note that VGA doesn't provide any sound out, so you'll need an audio jack as well. i think the size is 3.5mm to whatever is suitable for your TV (check to see if headphones fit into your telly and are too small/big/perfect)

Shane O' Malley

Roland Deschain wrote: »

+ P brings up display options.

Also note that VGA doesn't provide any sound out, so you'll need an audio jack as well. i think the size is 3.5mm to whatever is suitable for your TV (check to see if headphones fit into your telly and are too small/big/perfect)

Didn't know that one.

Brilliant. Will have to remember then.

RolandIRL

Shane O' Malley wrote: »

Didn't know that one.

Brilliant. Will have to remember then.

think it only came in with windows 7. don't think it existed in Vista afaik

For Vista/7 (not sure about XP) users, there's also + X to bring up the Mobility Centre, and you can see External Display as an option there.

There's a list of keyboard shortcuts here

kelbal

thanks, will have a look at all these options and let you know

kelbal

There's something wrong with the cable I'm using - I connected my laptop to a vga monitor and it worked straight away - so my vga to rca converter (pic attached) doesn't do what it says on the tin. Any other ideas how to connect my laptop to the TV?

RolandIRL

Based on the pic attached, it looks like you plug in the RCA connections to use with a VGA monitor (say xbox to monitor). doesn't look like it works the other way

Does your telly and laptop have any other connections (HDMI etc) that you could use? there's various tutorials on converting vga to scart via google but i don't know how effective they are.

Capt'n Midnight

Double check if your TV has a VGA input.

VGA would only work if your vga card put out a signal the TV could understand.

A US TV would want something like 60Hz interlaced 640x480
interlaced means you 30 times a second you send two pictures containing every second line of pixels, the second picture is out by one line.
Here TV's run at 50Hz

TV's also use very different sync. Front porch and all that.

In short it's extremely unlikely to work unless
the TV will accept just about anything (ie. a fancy monitor)
AND the video card will output just about anything (possibly special hardware, defo special drivers that warn you about damage to monitor)

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/usb-powered-vga-to-composite-s-video-converter-box-1280-1024px-max-26804
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/vga-to-cvbs-s-video-pc-to-tv-video-converter-adapter-65726
this piece of junk would do what you want, you will be disappointed with the results as TV's flicker , it might be better than the display from a 1980's home computer or maybe not