Hooking my XPS m1530 up to a 42in plasma?

Hey Everyone,

I am a total noob when it comes to TVs. But I am moving in a few weeks and will have access to a 42 in samsung plasma tv. Its 720p and has an hdmi connection. If I plugged my XPS m1530 laptop up to it with an HDMI cable, would my laptop just use the tv as another monitor? I would think so, but ive never done this, so I was just wondering how this all worked. Could someone exlpain?

Heres the hdmi cable i plan on buying... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812339006

Thanks!

 

Hey Lith, yes this is entirely possible.

Basically you have a few modes for these setups, you could either have clone (so the display shows both of the same desktop and icons etc, so a mirror basically, you look in and you see yourself)

Dualview, this allows both monitors to act independantly except one is primary and one is secondary (so you could be sat playing tetris on one screen and watching youtube on the other)

And i think extended desktop, i cant remember it, but this is like two halves make a whole (you have a stick split into two, you putem back together and you get the stick as one again, maybe just a bit broken)

So this means that you would have your 1530 screen and the 42 inch screen half and half hehe (probably not the best idea) but hey its up to you entirely.

Personally i would use either clone or dual view.

Hope i've shed some beginners light

 

If you already have a VGA cable you could try that first. Your TV probably has a VGA connection too.

 

The only thing I'd comment on as far as the cable goes is the length - 10 feet isn't that long unless you've got a remote for your notebook.You might want to consider waiting until you see where you're going to be using it before you get a cable. Either that or get a 12-16' cable to be positive. Always get a cable that's longer and not shorter. You can deal with the excess if needed, but dealing with a short cable isn't as easy. Price is right too - Sony's website tells you to get the cheapest HDMI cable you can find.

You can use any external monitor as either a clone (same display on the laptop and external), primary display (the external is your main display) or multiple display modes (the external and laptop displays are configured to show different data/programs). Of course it depends on the GPU, but most notebooks today have that capability.

The only exception is if you've got a Blu-Ray drive in your notebook. You cannot use a clone or multiple display setup while playing a BD movie to an external monitor due to copy protection. In this type of use, the external must be set as the Primary display and used to view the BD content.

HDMI carries both sound and HD video, but sound from your PC must be redirected to the HDMI cable manually - it's not done automatically like video is when you setup the external display settings in your GPU. You must go to tyour Sound options in the Control Panel, and set the Digital Output Device to Default in order to redirect the HD sound to the external monitor.

Most HDTV's also have multiple inputs, and HDMI inputs aren't always auto-sensing - in some cases that must be turned on. If they aren't auto-sensing (the HDMI input senses a signal from the input cable and switches to that channel input) and/or that capability isn't turned on, you'll have to set it manually or tell the HD monitor that a signal is present buy selecting the HDMI input channel. It'll tell you in the setup directions for the monitor. If it's not there where you're going, look up the model number then Google it to find the Manual.

 

Thanks for the help guys! I cant wait to try it out =]

oh, and Cyber, you have convinced me that i need a bigger cable lol