• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

laptop to sdtv

pontifex

pontifex

Lifer
my friend has an old laptop and an sdtv with just rca and s-video connections.

is there a way he can connect the laptop to the tv to use it as a monitor?

He bought some sort of vga to s-video/rca adapter but it doesn't seem to work.

Does he have to change the resolution on the laptop to match the tv, so like 640x480 or whatever or is there something else he needs to do?
 
pontifex said:
Does he have to change the resolution on the laptop to match the tv, so like 640x480 or whatever or is there something else he needs to do?
Click to expand...

My guess would be yes you need to set the rez to 640x480 however at that rez the desktop is gonna be pretty tough to navigate.
 
Last time I setup an sdtv with composite out from a laptop I used nvidia drives to enable a second monitor mirrored with the correct output resolution.

Seems odd to me that the computer would try to output anything besides 480i over svideo/composite output, unless it's some sort of breakout adapter.
 
IIRC back in the day I used some flavor of Voodoo card and was able to output 800x600 over S-video to a 32" CRT. A little fuzzy but readable.

That said, definitely lower the res to 640x480. Too bad his laptop doesn't have an analog video or s-video output.
 
just forget it
people didn't use sdtv back in the day for monitors or even watching video because sdtv output was horrible, even with svideo. sdtv isn't made for displaying text, it is a blurry mess even at stupid low resolutions.

video is also a mess since you have to play with over scan settings and the rest, likely you are going to get a cropped or flickery mess.
 
He's going to use it to watch tv shows he has stored on the laptop or on dvd that isn't in a playable format on a dvd player.

He doesn't own an HDTV at all.
 
you can do any res to svideo but its scaling like projectors the real resolution of svideo is defined by ntsc standard. i would even go so far as saying svideo is not SDTV since there's nothing digital about it. but you can feel free to argue that one.

might be worth picking up a used 32" with vga input - the going rate for hdtv is about $150 around here
 
I'm stupid, I thought I read he had an svideo out on the laptop.

Yeah, you'd want to try to force 640x480 on the vga at 29 or 30hz.

If you cant do that the TV isn't going to know what to do with it.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top