USB Connection In Front of TV - How Can I Make it Work?

[Coldkilla]

I haven't taken the time to try anything yet but I'd like to take the video I made from my computer and watch it on television without having to take hours rending any sort of dvd.

I have a USB port in the front of my tv, along with 3 rca jacks. I was wondering:

1. I have an external hdd, would this be accessible via usb?
2. I have a 30gb 5th gen vid ipod, could I drag the video in there and use the cord that came with the ipod to connect it?
3. I have a sony cybershot camera with a 1gb memory card, could I drag the video in the camera's "MISC" folder - would that work?

I prefer USB but if those wont work, i'll take any other ideas yall may have.

 

[skriefal]

Some TVs do allow you to connect a hard drive via firewire and use it to record and play back hi-def content, as a sort of PVR. Even then, it needs to be a special firewire enclosure that supports additional "AVC" commands -- a standard firewire enclosure won't work. I've never heard of this with a USB drive. The USB port is probably there to allow viewing of photos from a USB memory stick. You'd need to check the manual to determine what can be done with the USB port.

The easiest way to display video on the TV would be to feed an S-video signal from your video card to the TV's s-video input -- assuming of course that your video card has an s-video output. If not, you could use VGA output to the TV's VGA input (if it has one) or the TV's component input (if your video card supports component output). Those last two will require quite a bit of tinkering and reading -- including which refresh rates and resolution to use, getting the correct aspect ratio, avoiding extreme overscan, etc. That may be worthwhile if you intend to do this often, but otherwise it'll be easier and quicker to burn a DVD.

If you're interesting in those last options, then the place to go for support would be the Home Theater Computers forum at AVS Forums.

 

[Coldkilla]

I have the s-video connection in the back of my tv in 1 of 3 video slots. I put it in video 1 and tried it, I didn't see anything, is there a way to make this work?


edit: got the video to work, however i just see my desktop. No mouse, no icons, no windows popping up.. whats up?!

edit 2: I know that the tv is my second monitor now. However, can I make the tv the primary? and the computer's secondary? also - is it possilble to get sound to come out of the tv? thx

 

[sonoma1993]

Originally posted by: Coldkilla
I have the s-video connection in the back of my tv in 1 of 3 video slots. I put it in video 1 and tried it, I didn't see anything, is there a way to make this work?


edit: got the video to work, however i just see my desktop. No mouse, no icons, no windows popping up.. whats up?!

edit 2: I know that the tv is my second monitor now. However, can I make the tv the primary? and the computer's secondary? also - is it possilble to get sound to come out of the tv? thx

for soundout put, you'll have to connect the outputs from your soundcard to your tv audio inputs.

 

[skriefal]

You should be able to make the TV the primary out through the Settings tab in the Display control panel applet. You may need to go into the Advanced options. The exact steps seem to vary between video card manufacturers, so I can't offer too much help with this.

 

[morkman100]

Instead of making the TV primary video and your laptop LCD secondary, just uncheck Extend My Windows Desktop onto Extra Monitor. This will basically just show your laptop desktop on the TV.

 

[Coldkilla]

Alright - Got it to work! Just one more thing - is there any way to make the images/text clearer? Other than a resolution change? Thx!

 

[morkman100]

Originally posted by: Coldkilla
Alright - Got it to work! Just one more thing - is there any way to make the images/text clearer? Other than a resolution change? Thx!

Besides a resolution change? Check the Font Smoothing Setting (Display Properties- Appearance- Effects) and see if enabling ClearType help.

But it really is just the limitation of the connection/TV screen.