W3J outputting to TV performance

I don't think this is a common thread, but I could be wrong. One feature that I've always wanted to try out was the s-video output to TV. Tonight, I had the opportunity as the tv was free to be used.

I quickly hooked up the s-video adapter and the headphone output to the composite cable (old school i know) and fired up FF7AV and I couldn't be happier. The sound was coming through and the picture was as good as you could get on a Non-hd regular tv. I was running off batteries and I figured i'd let it run down before i plugged the charger in.

So I had MSN running, firefox open on my default laptop screen and media player classic playing FF7AV in full screen on the TV (mind you, i was playing the movie off my desktop harddrive via my wireless card) and I gotta say the W3 barely flinched. the video ran pretty much perfectly except for a few times that it hiccupped during high action scenes, but I was impressed. ... but i digress..

So time to plug in the charger, and to my surprise, a humming noise started to come out of the tv, (as if a speaker cable wasn't plugged in properly) and the picture started to have white bars scroll up the screen. This happened as soon as the charger was plugged in. When I removed the charger, everything worked fine and dandy.

Any ideas about what's causing this? possibly drivers? I've read something about powerplay.. although i dont know what that is. I've attached pictures. 2 of them you can see the bars, the other one is quite noticeably uniform.

I've got stock ati drivers installed on my w3j (t5500,100gb, 1gb ram) Any suggestions would be nice.

Thanks!

 

Yeah, it's hard to run a high res system on a tv that's really supporting 800 x 600 or less..... but movies aren't bad on it if you're in a pinch for downloaded movies and games..

About the noise, I hate to say something like this is normal because it's what some people say to shut people up.... I think it's a grounding issue... You don't get that humming through the speakers of the notebook itself or headphones? How about external speakers? If the answer is no, I deffinately know what you mean. I believe it's a ground loop issue and I have to say it's normal. If you're using a low quality cable, that could also be the cause of the ground loop or just low quality in general.

I think more people would run into this if they actually used their s-video hook ups... Two years ago, people were up in arms when the V6 came out and it didn't have s-video.... basically every model since had it (at the cost of one less usb), and I think I've heard of 2-3 people even attempt to use it since... Another case of something everyone wanted and no one really needed.

 

The thing is, it only hums and has the bars appear when i even just touch the charger to my laptop. As soon as I pull it out from the notebook, everything works FLAWLESSLY.

I was thinking it had something to do with the electricity being dirty flowing from my outlet. Or maybe just having an external source of electricity coming in causes interference in the output of the s-video? Ahah, i'm just rambling off the top of my head.

Also, the sound comes out from the TV, when i pull out the cable, i DON"T THINK i can hear the sound, although maybe it's just low enough that I can't hear it properly.

Anyways, S-video out, something I've always wanted and it's actually really nice to have a notebook powerful enough to play full screen video on a 2nd screen and still free me to do whatever i want.. .mind you.. if you're playing a video on the second screen, why I'd be doing something else at the same time puzzles me. hhaha.

 

Is the laptop charger and TV plugged into two different outlets? If so, try having them both plugged into the same outlet or powerstrip.

 

Yeah, that'll do it..... i'm more convinced it's a ground loop now.