Laptop to TV

[aocon]

Hi All,

I am new to this forum. I am looking for some help. I was wondering if anyone has connected up their laptop/PC to their TV. I have done so using a VGA cable and it has worked fine In the Control Panel/Display menu I clicked on Settings and 2 boxes appeared for both monitors. When I switched to use the TV as the main monitor the picture came up very small on the TV i.e I have a 32'' and it was only using about 18'' of the TV. Does anyone know how to maximise this picture to make it worthwhile transferring the picture to the TV. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Aocon.

[Paul Komski]

Which laptop and/or video card.

Here's (http://tips.inmatrix.com/data/softwareplayers_tip0007.shtml) a post relating to Asus cards..

[aocon]

The Laptop is an Inspiron 6400 Core2Duo Prsr 1.73GHz with
Genuine Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005

The Graphics Card is a 256MB ATI MOBILITY RADEON X1400 graphics card

[Rick]

You will need to go back into your display properties again
Click on the TV and look for a settings / resolution adjustment on the bottom of the panel.

Just like the one you have for the normal monitor

I'm not sure . BUT I don't think that video card supports much in the way of high resolution for the TV output

[aocon]

Thanks Rick,

I think I tried that but changing to anything higher than ~ 1280*800 Resolution and the TV doesnt display the picture, so your probably right and the card doesnt support any higher. Does changing Frequency make any difference?

[Whyzman]

Here's the specs: http://ati.amd.com/products/mobilityradeonx1400/specs.html

I'm not all the up on being able to wade through the lingo... It appears that it may be able to work. I would suggest having a look at the manual to see how things need to be set up to handle what you are attempting to do...

[Whyzman]

Do you have the latest and greatest drivers?

http://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894&task=knowledge&questionID=21578

It also appears there are troubleshooting and FAQs available on the link...

[George Hallam]

what TV do you have?

a HD? or a normal TV non HD (the ones with the big back forgot their name :p)

[PrntRhd]

the ones with the big back forgot their name
Projection TV?

[George Hallam]

o ye could be one of those no i meant just a normal TV like this

http://www.childrenfirst.nhs.uk/teens/images/goshtv/tv_homepage.gif

[Rick]

Thanks Rick,

I think I tried that but changing to anything higher than ~ 1280*800 Resolution and the TV doesnt display the picture, so your probably right and the card doesnt support any higher. Does changing Frequency make any difference?

Yes the Frequency makes a major difference
Check the spec's for the TV you want to connect and match them if you can
Like any other monitor . Make sure you do NOT go past / exceed it's limits

The TV may have it's spec's on the back panel.
if not try a search online and get it's exact spec's

also remember that the TV is about half that of a computer monitor
Try using a lower resolution. ( Lower than the 1280-800)

[aocon]

Its a Toshiba 32'' HD TV.:)

[aocon]

Thanks Rick,
Will have a go at changing the frequency with a lower Resolution

[Rick]

I don't know what model you have exactly
But I did find this on one model
a display resolution of 1366x768.
Active Vision M100 or 100HZ

Other wise it may be under the normal 50 or 60HZ

Sorry I have not jumped onto the HDTV band wagon yet
So I can't give you more details
But again be very careful how far you take it

[aocon]

The model I have has that spec all right, I will give it ok and revert, thanks for the help.