Wanna Connect my rig to a TV

Hi Gang,

It's been awhile but I'm desperately in need of your expertise. I know you won't let me down!

I have a Dell xps m1210 and I want to the ability to connect my notebook to TV's and Projectors for presentations in increase viewing pleasure (I love my m1210 but the screen is the size of a matchbook).

I want to get an adapter that will allow me to connect my rig to any TV or projector.

Any suggestions??

Cheers
The Biggest Dude

 

Your notebook has two connections you can possibly use to connect to a television. If you are using a CRT television, then you will have to use the S-Video connection, on the side of the notebook. If you have a newer LCD or Plasma, then it will probably have a VGA connector. Use that if it the case. Hope this helps.

 

Thanks for the reply,

I'm aware of the two different types of connections... the problem is that i don't have the cable or adapter to connect my computer with. Can you recommend an adapter from Dell or any other manufacturer that will make these connections possible?

Cheers

 

I want to know if it is possible to connect my laptop to a tv if my tv doesn't have svideo.

 

Yes it's possible, basically you need two things, you need something to connect the video and something to connect audio (optional?)

For S-Video out from the laptop you need an S-Video to RCA cable (almost every modern TV has an RCA input, if yours doesn't it might just be time to upgrade the TV).

For Audio you need a 3.5mm headphone jack to RCA cable, both are readily available although the S-Video to RCA cable is normally not cheap (from my experience)

 

Just to clarify, no special hardware or adapter is needed, you just need a cable. If you have a VGA port on your TV then just go to CompUSA or BestBuy or RadioShack and get a standard VGA cable. If you only have an S-Video port (round, looks like a PS/2 mouse port) on your TV then get an S-Video cable to connect your laptop to your TV. Both your laptop and your TV must have one of these connection types in common, be it VGA or S-Video.

If your TV only has the RCA ports (white, yellow, red), then see the helpful post above about getting a splitter cable that will convert the signal instead.

 

You actually don't have to spend a ton of money. I've got an M1710 and bought a cable off e-bay cheap. I got a 25' 3.5mm to RCA (red/white) and S-video to RCA (yellow) for $18. 25 feet is much longer than I needed, but you can get 6 or 12 feet for closer to 10 or 12 bucks. Just check what input you want/can use on your t.v. and buy accordingly. I think there were even s-video to composite if you've got an hdtv with available inputs, so there's plenty of options, but 3.5mm and S-video to RCA is probably the simplest/most likely to work. Hope that helps.

 

an s-video to s-video should do the trick...

 

Thanks guys...

I'm heading to Yodobashi Camera this weekend!

Cheers,
Jake

 

what if your laptop doesn't have an s-video port? Can you use the VGA-out to connect to a TV?

 

My laptop did not have s-video out so I bought an adaptor which plugged into its VGA port and converted it to Component/Composite/S-video. But I no longer use that laptop, but one with an s-video port, so I don't need it any more.