Have i got the correct S-Video cable?

I want to connect my Laptop to my TV so I brought a Philips S-Video cable. On both ends of this cable, there are 4 pins and my Tv S-video port has 4 spaces for the pins, so far so good. But my laptop has space for 7 pins despite the cable only having 4 pins on each side. So have i got the correct cable to view video on my TV, or do i need a different cable?

Thx for ur time

 

Best thing to do is plug it in and see if the picture comes up on ur TV. i don't have my cable here with me, so I can't check, but i think mine are both 4 pins..i could be wrong.

One thing u need to make sure to do, is enable the extended desktop or the clone desktop if your computer does not automatically detect the connection. that is one of the key things that some ppl i know get stuck on.

 

Can you pls tell me how to extend my desktop? I will give rep to anyone who tells me

 

I know u got Nvidia so its going to be a little different. for ATI, i just right click on the little ATI icon in the systray and tell it to extend the desktop. sometimes, i need to actually go into the ATI control panel and tell it i have a TV connected. sometimes, it won't work until you reboot with the cable connected.

sometimes, you may even be able to do it in the Display Settings in windows xp, don't know about vista.

 

Thx for the advice and ill try out the cable out if someone else can confirm that i have the correct cable then that would be awesome.

 

Yes, you have the right cable, more pins would be better, it would transfer more information but since your tv only has 4 pins, you wouldn't be able to use a 7 pin cable anyways. To extend the desktop, goto personalize then display settings then click on the second monitor and check off "extend the desktop onto the monitor".
A better way to connect a tv would be using hdmi(best), dvi(better), vga(good) s-video is so-so
Hope that helps.

 

Thx for the info and i have added rep. Unfortunately my TV is pretty old so it does not have a HDMI, DVI, or VGA connection except for S-Video so its S-video for me i guess

 

what you can do is get a VGA to RCA cable which would allow you to get higher resolution then a Svideo cable =) if you know how to build cables here is the map or you can hit up your local radio shack or the source if your in Canada and pick one up

 

If your tv isn't a HDTV, s-video would be fine, I think that it can handle up to 1024x768 at 30 or 25ish fps.

Also the picture chinmonkie posted would be a little incorrect because the vga would not carry audio signals, so it would only have yellow plug.

 

lol I know someone was going to go there =P but that was the only picture i could find on google =( but yes yellow is video and the red and white is audio

 

This is not correct! Svideo separates luminance and chroma (brightness and color). As such it requires ONLY 4 cables, 2 each for luminance and chroma.

The connectors are generally referred to as "mini din" and come in a variety of pin configurations. The 4 pin and 7 pin are interchangable (The 4 pin will work in the 7 pin socket). I believe there are also 5 and 9 pin connectors.

Thus the laptop manufacturer used a 7 pin socket for whatever reason, but Svideo cables only have 4 connections. 7 pins would not affect your picture in any way and would make the cable incompatible with some televisions.

That said, I'm sure there is a manufacturer somewhere using a special cable to transmit svideo using 4 connections and using other connections (5,7, or 9 pin) to transmit audio or control signal, etc. This would not be a standard Svideo cable that you would buy at your local store.

 

Yeah, I use to use the 4 pin cable to connect my laptop to my television. Now I use a wire that has the 7 pin at one end and a yellow video input on the other end.

 

Thx for all the info guys

I tried my 4 pin S-Video cable and the quality is not as good as my laptop screen (1440x900). The video (I Am Legend DVD Rip) seems to lag i bit when theres a lot of action on screen, in the sense that some of the screen changed frame before the rest of the screen. I might consider buying a VGA to RCA but will this solution increase the quality alot?

 

VGA to component will provide much improved quality over svideo, but it sounds like your dvd was encoded poorly.

 

Thx for the advice, ill see if i cna get a VGA to RCA cable

 

i don't think its the cable issue that is causing the lag.

I've played countless dvd rips, 2 CD rips, 3 CD rips and even DVD, output straight to the TV.

And with an older TV, u probably wouldnt even notice the difference in quality. I used a new samsung flat screen tube TV and all videos looked perfectly fine.

I say, it could be old drivers causing a lag. or possibly a fragmented drive (altho it would be very very very fragmented). Because if you are using your Vostro 1400, I can't really see any other reason why it can't perform better than my older 5672wlmi. unless like stated earlier, the DVD rip wasn't done properly, altho in this day and age thats hard to do.

Also check the resolution of the TV output. you should be able to change that too so things fit nicely on the tv.

I'm not sure what else would make a lag as i've never really had that before, except when the HDD is trying to do something.

 

Im guessing its the DVD rip as its a new film and its actually a dvd "screener" so its not technically a dvd rip.