Video & sound from notebook - TV? What do I need?

I have several notebooks. I would like to use it as a DVD player if possible. My tv is a 27" Sony Trinitron. I have components, composite, and S Video to choose from.

What I would like to do is have my digital movies that will play with VLC come out on my tv so we can watch movies and such on the couch instead of in front of a computer screen in uncomfortable chairs.

Can I do that with what I have? None of my notebooks have an S video out, but do have HDMI, VGA, USB, E-SATA, firewire to work with.

The tv is 4:3, but I'm ok with watching widescreen on it as I already would have to do that with a DVD player.

 

Purchase a VGA to composite/S-video converter box (it doesn't have to be from eBay though..).

And for audio get one or two cables together to make something like this (3,5mm to RCA, from the headphone jack).

 

Kind of related, my apologies for hijacking at all

I was considering using my laptop screen as a monitor for my xbox 360 instead of using this older tv that i have that does not look very good on a number of games.

What would i go about obtaining and doing in order to get the 360 to play on the screen???

 

the most likely port to use is VGA or USB, because all other stuff are digital outputs while your TV has analog.... for USB, there are devices... for VGA, there are cables like VGA->component, but this depends whether your computer's VGA port has Y PbPr stuff (i think)... most likely your laptop isn't supported...

next time, make your own thread...

you would need a device like a USB TV Tuner to accept input from your xbox360 onto your laptop... these devices usually have some lag to it, so probably not a good choice... most laptops do not accept input from A/V sources...

 

Best Solution (quality wise) - Hava

Cheap solution - Capture Device like the Game Bridge, no sense in getting a tuner card thats not your goal.