Question From a DVD Newbie...

jArgHA

I have just recently got access to a fairly high spec laptop that has a DVD/CD Drive. Thrilled at seeing the DVD symbol on the drive I ran straight out to me nearest movie store and rented 'The Shining' and watched it on the laptop.

The quality of both picture and sound is perfect, but watching a laptop at the wrong angle makes all the colours go darker/brighter. Rather than having 4 people crouched around a laptop screen can anyone tell me is there a way of hooking up the video output to a TV screen ?

I would imagine this would involve purchasing some kind of TV Card - can anyone advise on the cheapest option (and are TV Cards compatible with laptops ?)

Any help or pointers appreciated ....

Slán,
jAH

bombidol

most laptops have a TV out on them , usually of the Round kind, and you can switch the out put to that but pressing FN and 4 (usually)

Bomb

Krusty_Clown

Does your laptop have a TV-out already?
Many high-spec latops already have this feature..

This would typically be in the form of an s-video out connection..
The output quality can be questionable though (i.e. pretty low-res).

Failing that, yes, you should be able to get an MPEG PCMCIA card, which will allow you to output to TV.

You might try Margi's website.. I had a Margi card which did the job...
e.g. Have a look at DVD-to-go

<cheaper to buy a dvd-player though! - unless you work for a company with an over-healthy hardware budget!>

jArgHA

Heya,

Thanx for the suggestions. Unfortunately the laptop does not have a TV Out, so I may look into the MPEG PCMCIA card option....although it does look fairly costly.

Slán,
jAH

ozpass

Well,

You could either purchase a unit like this:

http://www.smarthome.com/7743.html

Or if you're feeling adventurous, build your own:

http://tacashi.tripod.com/elctrncs/vga2tv/vga2tv.htm

Just google "PC to TV" or "VGA to TV" and you'll find plenty of solutions to your dilemma.

jArgHA

I tried using a standard monitor with the laptop, hoping it would work by just powering it up and hooking up the cable to the monitor output port on the laptop. However, doing this gave me no video signal whatsoever, even after a reboot.

To use an external monitor with a laptop, does one need to configure it, or should it just 'plug and play' ?

Slán,
jAH

ozpass

My laptop's a Dell and I use it for presentations etc. all the time. When i need to use the projector/laptop screen/both I press a key combination (Ctrl +f5). However the graphics chipset is an ATI Radeon 7500 Mobile and it's designed to output to multiple devices simultaneously (even has S-Video out).

There's no way to give a de facto solution to your problem as we don't know what kind of laptop you're using.

My personal reccomendation in cases such as these is "Google is your friend". Find some tech. support pages for your particular make and model of laptop. It could be something as simple as a BIOS setting.:)

sceptre

Originally posted by jArgHA
Heya,

Thanx for the suggestions. Unfortunately the laptop does not have a TV Out, so I may look into the MPEG PCMCIA card option....although it does look fairly costly.

If you're seriously thinking about getting the Margi card, get it from ebay. There are a few people/companies selling new ones. Get one with a dongle (make sure it's listed) - some sell them without one (which will be sod all use to you if it's for external viewing you're wanting it)