S video question: seems very simple but I can't figure it out.

On my recently purchased e1405 I connected an s video cable with an adaptor to my television. After I did this, I went to Graphics Properties to change it to television display. There is a checked circle saying 'notebook' and underneath it says 'multiple display -- note: two displays must be connected to the computer before you can use this feature. Please connect another display.' (yes the tv was on)

On my desktop, all I would have to do it go to the graphics properties on my Ati 9500 pro and enable tv once I connected the s video. Why won't my dell machine give me the tv option? I am pretty sure the tv was set up correctly because right after the s video was working on my desktop I took it straight from the desktop and put it in the notebook, yet no go.

This seems so simple but I cannot figure out how to get this to work...

 

The S-Video cable should be connected before you switch on the laptop..
1) Shut down the laptop
2) Shut down the TV
3) Connect the S-Video cable
4) Switch on the TV
5) Switch on the laptop

You should be able to see the TV in the display properties page
If that doesn't work either, try using the "Force TV detection "option on the display pproperties page

 

Restart your laptop, make sure all connection are in place and simply use the video out quick key...

FN + ...... (there should a TV or screen symbol is another colouron one of the keys on the keyboard. It is usually the same colour as the FN key).

Then cycle through the AV input channels on your TV.

As simple as that.

 

I tried those two things. All I get when the s video cable is plugged in is black and white "fuzz" on the tv screen. When I unplug the cable, the tv goes black. So the tv is definitely getting information, but when the cable is plugged in, there is no option to enable tv or to enable another display.

I tried all of the troubleshooting tips on the intel support page, even updating the BIOS. The computer would not allow me to update the graphics drivers, but nothing worked.

Could it possibly be the tv?

 

I've had EXACTLY the same problem. The image on the screen only seems to appear when you run certain entertainment/multimedia programs such as Windows Media Player. I don't think you can use your desktop on a CRT TV, probably because of the resolution limited at a very low 640 x 480 pixels.

I'm not too sure why this problem occurs though? Could someone clarify this?

 

hmm when I play something in media player the fuzz changes, but its still just fuzz. Like it will go from "vertical fuzz" to "horizontal fuzz" haha, this doesn't make any since because it works perfectly fine on my desktop.

 

you need to change the resolution of the s video output to something that your tv can handle

 

Yeah play around with the resolution. If you have it puttin in at 1280x1024 or something like that, it wont work. TV's dont support resolutions that high, well regular TV's dont, HD TV's do I believe. But just play around with it, that should do it.

 

changing the resolution did not work.

The svideo goes through an adaptor to an rca cable and then to the tv. Is it possible that the adaptor that I was using with my ati radeon 9500 pro is not compatible with anything else and Im just using the wrong adaptor with the laptop?

I was under the assumption that all tv outs on video cards were s video but perhaps not and Im just using the wrong adaptor...

edit: All of the images of s video adaptors I find on google have four pins while the adaptor I have been using with my other video card has 8 pins. aren't all svideo cables created equal?

edit2: After looking over several reviews of the 9500 pro, I have discovered that the adaptor I am using is an s video to coax. Perhaps s video to coax wont work with the dell video card?