Connecting a notebook to a plasma TV?

I'm not sure but I heard of this today at school...

Someone said that is it possible to connect your desktop to a big plasma TV of for example 42 inch. Is this possible with a laptop?

Main reason is, the 42 inch will be in the living room and while having a Duo Core laptop, it has enough power to run 720p/1080p movies. So I was thinking, can I connect this to the TV so I can watch it the movie on TV via my laptop?

If yes, what are the requirements for it? What must I have on the TV/laptop? I don't own any of them at the moment but planning to get it though, if possible.

 

Some plasma TVs seem to have an issue with the VGA output/input, however they'll work just fine if you use the HDMI output from your laptop if available. I connected a Vaio NR and then a Vaio Z to a Panasonic VIERA TC-P54V10 using VGA and I could only connect at lower resolutions 1024 or less. I used the HDMI output from the Z and it connects at the maximum resolution of the TV and I get sound too. Anyways... I connected to 8 different LCD TVs and everything worked like a swiss watch... started right up with max resolution. Try to avoid plasma TVs, they seem to use a lot of power, they have 2 or 4 cooling fans on the back (they must be there for a reason) and they have a warning about some sort of radiation in the manual (rear TV external enclosure is made out of solid metal)

 

42-50 inch TV uses about 400-500W of power. A plasma TV is the same thing as a monitor. If you can connect to a computer monitor, you can connect to the plasma TV.

 

Yes they use about 500 to 700 watts, depends on contrast, using the TV tuner or not settings that's why some come prepared with fans... First time I've seen fans inside a TV.

 

Hmm I might buy a LCD TV instead, but as far I see.

Both the TV and laptop needs a HDMI slot right? What else is important on the laptop?

Since 720p movies are usually 1280x720 format, I don't think I need to use a bigger resolution for the TV (most laptop GPU aren't top notch). So a it will use less wattage right?

I'm total noob on this >.<

 

The LCD TV will use 150 to 250 watts and it'll work fine on VGA input... make sure it's there before you purchase it (PC/RGB/VGA input). You need a separate cable for audio. It's a 3.5 mm male jack on both ends cable. HDMI would be nice but not necessary.

 

Wait, I need to buy both audio and video cable to connect through my laptop? Do they cost alot?

 

No they're not expensive. The VGA to VGA cable you may already have from your desktop to monitor connection, it's the same one except DVI. The audio cable cannot be more than $3 to $7.

 

Clarification: There are basically two ways of connecting a laptop to an HDTV.

Method 1:
VGA (on laptop) to VGA (on back of TV) for picture
---and---
3.5mm ("headphone out" on laptop) to 3.5mm ("PC audio in" on back of TV) for sound

Method 2:
HDMI (on laptop) to HDMI (on back of TV) for picture and sound

Method 2 is the preferred one for several reasons. HDMI passes both video and audio. HDMI also passes 1920x1080 or 1080p in TV jargon.

For Method 1 - VGA, you run into some problems: First of which is, some TV manufacturers limit the VGA input resolution on their TV's to something 1024 or less. Also, using VGA, you need two cables: VGA for video and 3.5mm for audio. Finally, some TV manufacturers don't put a VGA-in port on the back of their TV's which makes using VGA impossible.

 

There are a few problems with this statement. First, while all 720p movies are 1280X720, not all movies are 720p. Second, unless you buy a ULV or netbook or something, decoding and displaying video, all the way up to 1080p, shouldn't be a problem for modern laptops. Yes, laptop GPUs are relatively weak, but video decoding is also a relatively lightweight task by those standards, and much of the time runs on the CPU anyway.

Third, it is usually best to have a display that is higher res. You can always get things running at a 1:1 pixel ratio some way if your res is higher than the material, but if you're res is too low, you never can. Lastly, as I think others have said or at least hinted at, the power is mainly consumed by the backlight (I believe), so running at a lower resolution or any of the other things you mentioned don't really have anything to do with power consumption.

 

sirmetman thanks for the nice explanation.

What I mean is, can't I put the movie to "full screen" mode like I do on the laptop? This way the 42inch TV will be also on "full screen"?

Also I don't understand the power comsumption part... These 3 latops I'm kinda interested at the moment (all near same price). Which one is better to watch movies in train/school and also connecting it to a TV? And will they last longer?

MSI X340
13"4 inch
Intel Celeron 723 (ULV?)
GMA 4500MHD
2GB RAM
4-cell battery

Acer Ferrari:
15"6 inch
AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60
ATI Radeon X1600
4GB RAM
9-cell battery

HP CQ61-320SD
15"6 inch
Intel Pentium T4300
GMA 4500MHD
4GB RAM
6-cell battery

Also, is there a difference between the 4500M and 4500MHD?