Getting high quality video from PC to TV

[thesummers]

Ok, second stupid question of the week. In my last post someone replied that you could only expect 200x300 resolution using an s-video connection to send output from notebook to TV.

Now, how do you get a good picture onto your TV from a notebook? I have a very good graphics card (if that makes any difference) and I was going to buy an HDTV mainly because I wanted the output from my laptop onto it to be of high quality. Can someone perhaps just run me over the basics of connecting your computer to a TV and how to get the best picture?

Many thanks in advance

Luke

 

[jaxvon]

You need to use a connection that supports HDTV, this being a DSUB (the blue, 15-pin connection) or DVI.

 

[bpape]

Zactly. If your laptop doesn't support DVI out, then you need to run DSUB (whatever flavor of VGA) out to the TV in. Many HDTVs will accept this directly. If you want to do this, make sure that you make this a priority when you start shopping.

 

[GMann]

First of all, having a good graphics card or a great graphics card here doesn't really matter. As long as you can set the laptop to the appropriate resolution. The real issue is what is the native resolution of the screen you are attempting to display the image on and is your laptop cable of that setting? For exampl, since you are looking for an HDTV, we'll assume 1280x720. Make sure the HDTV you buy has a VGA in and set your laptop resolution to the 1280x720.

The key is always set your PC/MAC resolution to match the native resolution of the display device.

As for s-video, it supports up to 480 lines, which is clearly more than 200.

 

[mustang_steve]

I was the one to make the 320x200 statement. As far as I can remember, that's about standard TV resolution. If it does 480, that's my bad.

Either way, the windows desktop looks really sad on a TV via S-Video. I know, I've tried it. Now, I've pretty much put better speakers on hold, so I can buy either a Plasma HDTV display, or a similar sized LCD....whichever is the better buy once I get enough dinero.

Either way, VGA out, or finding a USB or firewire adaptor to do DVI out would work.

 

[jaxvon]

The reason windows looks bad is because most people run a 1024x768 resolution, far above what S-Video is capable of.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Buy HDTV with DVI and/or SVGA inputs on the back.

Connect computer to DVI or SVGA input on the back of the TV.

Turn the output from the video card to the TV to 'ON'.

Set the resolution of that output to the native resolution of whatever TV you buy. Quite often this is 1280x720 but 1365x768 is common in 50" plasmas. If you have a 42" plasma that is HD, run it at 1024x768.

That should do it.

If necessary, you may need a program to tweak the video output from your laptop, and there is a link on this site to the software you need.

 

[GMann]

One warning with regards to the DVI input...there are different types.

DVD-A: Analog; supports VGA to DVI adapter
DVD-D: Digital only; does not support VGA to DVI adpater
DVD-I: Combination of DVD-A and DVD-D; supports both analog and digital connections

If you are going to use the VGA output from your laptop, be sure the display you purchase a display which supports an analog connection (DVD-A or DVD-I).

If you use an SVGA or DVI output from a computer, you do not need to "Turn the output from the video card to the TV to 'ON'" as this feature is for the S-Video output only. SVGA/DVI output from a computer requires enabling a monitor out connection which supports a higher resolution.

As for Plasma vs. LCD...Plasma will give you a more accurate picture as it has a larger color palette along with a faster refresh rate.