How do i connect my old laptop to my tv?

[Geoggy]

Is it possible to connect an old IBM laptop ot a 28' widescreen tv?

I want to watch divx movies downstairs.

How do i do it - or is there a wireless solution?

I have a home network with my pc upstairs and my laptop downstairs.

Cheers

G

[techincs_man]

does the laptop have TV out?

[bumfrog]

firstly, how powerfull is the laptop, ie is it powerful enough to run divx movies and secondly, like technics man says, does it have an svga or composite port on the computer. If not, you'd need a third party interface in order to get it to work.

[Geoggy]

its an old ibm - the only outputs i can see on the back of it are the standard outputs for a pc monitor.

i would assume its only got on board graphics.

doesnt sound too promising!

my pc upstairs has an nvidia 6800 geforce graphics card - the only problem is that the tv is downstairs.

so what are my options? im getting fed up of burning dvdr's all the time to watch divx movies

[bumfrog]

either get a divx dvd player or a special xbox

edit:- Just say you didn't want to burn dvd'rs. Then the cheapest/best option is a special xbox and streaming over the network. That's about all I'm allowed to say on the matter I'm afraid. I'm sure there are a few other boxes that do it, but as to wether they are any good or what price, I'm afraid I can't say.

[Geoggy]

there are some 10 metre cables on EBAY (http://www.dpbolvw.net/click-582776-9479574?loc=http%3A//cgi.ebay.co.uk/10M-PC-TO-TV-DVD-LAPTOP-CONNECTION-KIT-UK-RAPID-POST_W0QQitemZ5809429666QQcategoryZ67859QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

will they do the job?

[CPM]

its an old ibm - the only outputs i can see on the back of it are the standard outputs for a pc monitor.


What's the specific model? I've had a succession of IBM ThinkPads over the last several years and most of them have a TV out.

The company I work for switched to IBM in about 1997 and my first ThinkPad, a 765E (equipped with the then mighty Pentium 166mmx), had a TV out, However it was only when I got my current T41 about 4 months ago that it came with a sensible S-Video connector. On the earlier models the TV out used a tiny custom 3 pin connector that can't have been more then 3 or 4mm in diameter, it's very easy to miss.

Double check the laptop for a very small circular connector that accepts a 3 pin plug or post the exact model number, for example my ThinkPad is badged as a T41 but the bottom it has a type number of 2374-QG6 (the type should be in the format XXXX-XXX), if you go to the IBM website and use the type number it will tell you the exact spec of the laptop when it was shipped, and it will tell you if it has the TV out port.

If it does have a TV out let me know. I have about 4 TV out adapters for ThinkPads (one with each of the Laptops I had that used the silly connector) and as the T41 uses an S-Video connector I don't need them, and they're currently collecting dust in my box of potentially useful connectors (cables enter but they never come out)

[Geoggy]

hi mate,

i think it does have tv out - there is a small circular conector with a symbol next to it that is like a small screen with an s in it and an arrow pointing out

as for the type the label underneath simply says Type 2647.

what do you reckon?

[shand754]

Sorry to hijack this thread but I was wondering this too for my Dell Inspiron 5100. It has what looks like an S-Video out on it with a symbol of a TV screen and an arrow pointing outwards. I want to watch Windows Media files on a Panasonic plasma. Any help appreciated.

[James45]

i think it does have tv out - there is a small circular conector with a symbol next to it that is like a small screen with an s in it and an arrow pointing out


Sounds like s-video, is it a multi-pin connector?

[Geoggy]

Sounds like s-video, is it a multi-pin connector?

yes mate - looks that way.

CPM if the offer is still there i'd be really grateful for sorting out one of your spare connectors.

let me know - cheers

[CPM]

Geoggy,

Without the missing three digits from the type number I can't tell exactly which ThinkPad you have as Type 2647-XXX covers the T20, T21, T22 and T23.

Having said that I think you going be in luck. I did have a T21 and it had a TV out on the back, in fact one of the guys in the office here has a T23 and there is a TV out port between the Serial port and the Kensington lock 'hole'. The good news is that it accepts a standard S-Video connector (even thought it has a couple of extra connectors) so you can nip out to Dixons/Maplins/PC World or shop of you choice and buy a standard cable that should work. I'm 99% sure you won't need the cable for the older IBM specific connector, but if you do I'm more then happy to stick in the post to you.

I think the slowest processor the Type 2647 could be ordered with was a 700Mhz Pentium 3, so even the earliest T20 should have enough horsepower to decode DivX movies, it won't set the world alight but it should be fine for DivX playback. The later T23's use the Pentium M.

This page explains how to enable the TV out, but it would be a good idea to download the latest driver for your ThinkPad as support for TV out got better with the later releases, just work out what those last three digits in the Type number should be, it makes life a lot easier when downloading the driver;

Enabling TV-Out - ThinkPad General (http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-58625#s3)

[shand754]

For S-Video out on a PC to a TV, this looks like a decent site for leads

http://www.cableuniverse.co.uk/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1005

Anyone know how to enable to display for S-Video out on a Dell Inspiron please?

[CPM]

Anyone know how to enable to display for S-Video out on a Dell Inspiron please?

Have a look at the link I posted in my last post, it might be specifically for the IBM T series of laptops but the T series used several graphic chips over the year s and there's a pretty good chance that various IBMs and Dells shared the same chipset.

While it might not cover the exact chipset in your dell, you'll find that most TV outputs are enabled in the same way so have a look at the IBM instructions and it should point you in the right general direction.

[Geoggy]

thanks cpm.

i cant find out what type my lappie is. the serial number sticker on the bottom is gone. when i run the prgramme on the ibm website to automatically detect the type it fails

i downloaded divx player on it last night and it worked fine on screen, so i assume it will output ok through the s video port.

one question re the leads - the link posted by shand seems to convert the s video signal to the 3 coulored leads

would it not be better (as my tv has s video in) to keep the video signal in s video and have an audio cable running from the lappie direct to the audio port on th tv?

[shand754]

my thanks too cpm

[CPM]

thanks cpm.

i cant find out what type my lappie is. the serial number sticker on the bottom is gone. when i run the prgramme on the ibm website to automatically detect the type it fails

i downloaded divx player on it last night and it worked fine on screen, so i assume it will output ok through the s video port.

one question re the leads - the link posted by shand seems to convert the s video signal to the 3 coulored leads

would it not be better (as my tv has s video in) to keep the video signal in s video and have an audio cable running from the lappie direct to the audio port on th tv?

There's a very nifty utility for IBM laptops called "ThinkPad Configuration". It can be used to configure various aspects of the hardware but it can also tell you the exact model number and serial number of you laptop, even if the sticker has come off!. It should be installed on your ThinkPad as it's included in the standard build. (Try the control panel or any IBM Groups under the Programs menu) If however your laptop has been rebuild at some point and the utility wasn't installed you can download it from the IBM web site.

It will tell you the exact model number of your laptop. Once you have the exact number enter it on the IBM web site and it will tell exactly which one of the many video drivers you will need.

In order to get sound and video from the laptop onto your TV you will need two cables, the cable in Shand's posts simply combines the Video and Audio into one cable run. You plug the S-Video connector into the S-Video port, plug the 3.5mm plug into the headphone socket and then plug the three phono connectors (Video, Audio Left, Audio Right) into you TV. You might want to think about S-Video rather the composite video used in the cable Shand suggested, but either will work.

EDIT: Whoop, managed to delete half my post

[shand754]

[QUOTE=CPM] You might want to think about S-Video rather the composite video used in the cable Shand suggested, but either will work.[QUOTE]

Can you recommend anywhere to get such a lead mate?

[CPM]

Can you recommend anywhere to get such a lead mate?

I'm not the greatest bargain hunter in the world, I tend to value connivence over price, mostly because I work abroad and getting stuff delivered is a nightmare. So I can't recommend any on-line retailer but for video and audio cables I don't think you can go wrong with Maplins, but to be honest the cable you pointed out looks fine (and at a decent price). I'm sure they'll do a S-Video version of the same cable. As most laptops and TV can easily cope with S-Video it seems a shame to 'downgrade' to composite video.

I've also found that both my laptops (IBM ThinkPad for work, Apple Powerbook for pleasure) seem to 'behave' better when using S-Video. Can't offer an explanation as to why this is the case, it might just be my TV but as there's practically no difference in cost I would go for S-video unless you have aTV that can't cope with it.

[shand754]

Where I am getting confused is on the sound - if I buy an S-Video to S-Video cable will it carry sound to the TV too? The cable I was looking at buying has a phone out lead too for connection to the PCs headphone socket.

[CPM]

Where I am getting confused is on the sound - if I buy an S-Video to S-Video cable will it carry sound to the TV too? The cable I was looking at buying has a phone out lead too for connection to the PCs headphone socket.


S-Video is designed to only carry a video signal, the link to the cable you posted earlier simply had the Audio cable 'stuck' to the Video cable.

The cable is labelled as a PC to TV connection kit because it contained all the cables and connectors you required to connect a PC to a TV, but you could just as easily use a S-Video cable and a separate Audio cable, the cable you found is just tidier way of getting both signals to the TV.

I don't think the cable you pointed out is the best cable to do the job, but it definitely will do the job, and you could easy spend a lot more then £8 trying to do it differently.

[shand754]

Thanks for all your help cpm.

[Cinesister]

Anyone know how to enable to display for S-Video out on a Dell Inspiron please?

I have a Dell Inspiron 1100 and it has an S-Video out connection. I bought an S-Video to SCART cable from here:

http://www.svideo.com/index.html

They gave me all the info I needed and had great customer service, I definitely recommend them, they know their stuff.

It's actually an S-Video to RGB cable, with a SCART adaptor, which also works if you don't use SCART on your TV. It also has an audio splitter to feed the audio into your TV's speakers, but I use a seperate 3.5mm stereo cable and feed the audio straight into my 5.1 speaker system. Works a treat. :)

To enable S-Video on a Dell Inspiron, first make sure the s-video cable is plugged into the socket, and that the scart is plugged in to the TV and that the TV is switched on. Then do the following:

Right click on the Desktop>Properties>Settings Tab>Advanced>IntelRExtremeGraphics (or similar)>Graphics Properties

In that menu you should then have the choice of choosing your notebook or TV monitor. :) The TV option will only be displayed if the TV is plugged in and turned on.

[shand754]

Cinesister - thanks a lot for taking the time to help, much appreciated.

I have found the setting to switch to TV output but it is greyed out at the moment, I assume because I have not got a S Video lead connected to the TV. I have a lead on its way so will try again when its all hooked up.

[Geoggy]

cpm i have finally found my type number - it is 2647-3RG

looking around the think pad config it seems it does have s video.

[shand754]

Geoggy have a look at the site Cinesister's post - theres some really good info there.

[CPM]

cpm i have finally found my type number - it is 2647-3RG

looking around the think pad config it seems it does have s video.

So that would make it a T23, really not that old at all, and with a 1Ghz Pentium M you should have no problem with performance. I'd be tempted to stick more memory in it if it's still running Windows 2000 and if it hasn't been upgraded already, but it's a very nice piece of kit, and if you look at the specs I pasted from the IBM website below you can see that it even mentions the TV out in the basic specs

PIII-M 1.0GHz (512KB), 128MB RAM, 20.0GB HDD, 14.1 XGA(1024x768) TFT LCD, 8X-3.3X DVD-ROM, Modem(MPCI), Ethernet(CDC), TV out, Li-Ion battery, Win2000

Looking at the IBM site it appears that this is the Video Driver you need;

Video driver (SuperSavage/IXC16) for Windows 2000/XP - ThinkPad T23 (http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-4Z8NTP)

It probably has a reasonably recent driver as the T23 was the last of the T series ThinkPads and the drivers were pretty mature by then, so a S-Video plus an Audio cable and the link I posted earlier describing how to enable the TV out is all the hardware you need to watch DivX on your TV

Shand754,

I had a look at the site that Cinesister posted and this is the cable I would buy;

http://www.svideo.com/proscart12.html

Assuming that you TV has a SCART socket then this does exactly what you need, but you should probably find a UK supplier, all the prices are in $, which is odd because I thought they didn't use SCART connectors in the US

[Geoggy]

thanks again cpm. im quite tempted myself to get that cable as it would be "tidier" to have the input as scart around the back of the tv instead of hanging out of the side where the s video in is.

is it likely i would lose any picture quality this way or would you stick to s video?

[Cinesister]

I had a look at the site that Cinesister posted and this is the cable I would buy;

http://www.svideo.com/proscart12.html

Assuming that you TV has a SCART socket then this does exactly what you need, but you should probably find a UK supplier, all the prices are in $, which is odd because I thought they didn't use SCART connectors in the US

That's the cable I have and it works great. It is an American store because that's where they shipped my cable from, not sure why they have SCART although technically its an RGB cable with a scart adaptor so maybe they're just doing that for the European market?

Had a quick scan on www.maplin.co.uk and they seem to have a pretty small range, but it shouldn't be too tough to find an S-video to RGB cable in the UK, then just get an RGB to SCART adaptor (which are 2 or 3 pounds from most electronics places).

[shand754]

I am thinking of going for this one http://www.svideo.com/svasva.html, as all my scart sockets are in use and I have a S-Video socket free which is easy to access. Does everyone think this looks okay?

[CPM]

thanks again cpm. im quite tempted myself to get that cable as it would be "tidier" to have the input as scart around the back of the tv instead of hanging out of the side where the s video in is.

is it likely i would lose any picture quality this way or would you stick to s video?

First of all, I've just realised that the cable I so heartily recommended actually passes a composite video signal into the SCART adapter, not S-Video. The easiest thing to do might be to buy a SCART adapter that has a S-Video connector as well as composite, and then buy an S-Video to S-Video cable and a 3.5mm to 2 x Phono cable. I'd have a look on-line to find one for you but our entire team here in Warsaw is about to dragged on a 24 hour team building exercise by the Polish company we're working for, so get yourself down to your nearest friendly Maplins, they'll now exactly what you need.

Secondly, a lot of SCART sockets on the back of TV support S-Video, if your TV is one of those then passing a S-Video signal into the SCART socket will give you the same quality as using the dedicated S-Video connector on the front/side of you TV, and as you pointed out, it's a lot tidier, there's usually a cryptic mark next to the socket on the back of the TV to tell what signals it can deal with.

As I move through the AV channels on my Sony TV the AV indicator in the top left of the screen changes to indicate if it's using composite (AV1, 2, or 3 is displayed), S-Video (AV channel and the letter S is displayed) or RGB (AV Channel and three dots).

[Geoggy]

well thanks for all the help guys - ive ordered this :

http://www.cableuniverse.co.uk/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=113&products_id=1004

seems cheap enough as not sure how much i'll use it.

[shand754]

I have gone for that too as a quick fix - might get a better lead is the picture quality is poor.

[hookbeak]

First of all, I've just realised that the cable I so heartily recommended actually passes a composite video signal into the SCART adapter, not S-Video. The easiest thing to do might be to buy a SCART adapter that has a S-Video connector as well as composite, and then buy an S-Video to S-Video cable and a 3.5mm to 2 x Phono cable.


This is what i do - and get an excellent image. I bought the cable from svideo.com a while back and the picture quality was very poor - the drop when you switch to composite is very pronounced.

I use an svideo cable to svideo-scart connector plugged into AV2, then i get a 3.5mm headphone to two RCA that also goes into the same connector. The result is a clear, stable image good enough to read web pages on without getting a headache :)

[shand754]

Has anyone watched video via windows media player on their TV?

[hookbeak]

yes.


http://www.thedvdforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=389550


(just in case you were about to ask what i thought you were...)

[shand754]

Cool I want it for watching TV stuff on my plasma.

[shand754]

Thanks to everyone that helped with this - I successfully managed to get my PC display onto my plasma last night and managed to watch some media files without problems. The S-Video to composite lead gives a mediocre picture so I will be investing in a better lead soon.

[Geoggy]

understatement mate.

my lead came today - audio is fine but the video pic is awful.

i'll keep the lead for the audio and buy another s video lead. cant put up with this,