S-Video out for Widescreen T61, R61

Yes, it boggles the mind why Lenovo did not include S-Video out,
when every other laptop on the planet does (HP, Sony, Dell, et al).
With the unbeatable build quality, keyboard and stunning good looks
of the T61, it’s really sad that its designers didn’t make this the killer
media machine it was meant to be (By contrast, check out the pdf
manual from Dell's support page to see all of what that otherwise
cheapy Vostro 1400 can do. I was blown away. And don't get me
started on what the new Intel macbooks can do).

Whether or not VGA (for viewing DVDs) is better than S-Video, it does
the user little good if the TV in his/her hotel room or school auditorium
has only an S-Video input. Omitting this simple, yet valuable feature is
idiotic, especially since the nVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M graphics chip
option for the T61 14" widescreen fully supports S-video. Ditto for
DVI out. This was confirmed by a quick phone chat with Nvidia
pre-sales. Or check the specs yourself at nVidia's site for that chip.

So what to do if you want to play widescreen DVDs on your Thinkpad
T61? Well, there are VGA to S-Video converters that start at around
$120. They may give superior conversion and other features, but may
not be very portable. But I just saw this item at
http://www.aver.com/ppd/comparison_averkey.pdf.

Has anyone ever used Avermedia's quickplay model to play DVDs?
It's apparently USB-powered and relatively inexpensive. If yes,
please let me know how well it plays widescreen DVDs on TVs
32" and up!

 

See that's where you're wrong/mistaken. ThinkPads are not media machines nor were they ever meant to be. They are a business laptops built for durability and productivity. I don't think a businessman is going to want to connect their laptop to a TV for what ever reason.

That's just my take on it.

 

Exactly, beat me to it

 

On business trips, if I want to watch a movie, I usually just order it up in the hotel since the company is paying for it anyways. Whatever movies that I do bring with me, I just watch them on my laptop and sometimes using earphones.

I had an R60 that was equipped with an s-video port and I never used it once while on trips. On my older Dell Inspiron 8100, I used the S-video out twice in the 5 years that I owned it and both times were at home.

I use my laptop more like a stereo/radio when on the road.

However, it would be nice to have an s-video out, DVI, or HDMI interace if it didn't make the laptop heavier or larger.

 

I don't disagree with your argument, but I do want to understand why my company issused T40p has S-video out but my new T61 doesn't. Is the T40p a less business-oriented machine? I think it wouldn't be unreasonable for someone to use the S-video for a PowerPoint presentation occasionally, right?

 

S- Video sucks for video quality any ways.

IMO they should added a hdmi interface for the models that have blue Ray Disk options. That is a no brainer combo IMO.

Other than that for decent video play back most HDTV LCD displays do have VGA in. Add that with a left and right audio splitter through the headphone jack and play be should be decent.

Not HDMI though. Probably better than S video though.

 

So instead of answering the question asked, y'all just start throwing rocks at the fact that someone might possibly want the ability to send the T61 output to a TV. So helpful!

Anyway, to go back to OP's topic, I DO have one of these Avermedia Quickplays. It does what it says -- you can get your display onto a TV screen -- but the video quality is pretty mediocre. I tried a DVD running off Windows Media Center and it was watchable but you lose so much color depth that you can see weird blocky homogenous areas of color instead of smooth shifts. So in a pinch, it's not bad, but set your expectations low. Also, it's still a pretty expensive solution.

 

What is the big disadvantage to having S-Video or HDMI out? Seems like a harmless request!

 

I agree. Even though I can't say that I have ever missed not having S-Video out it couldn't hurt having it. And as far as presentations go VGA+projector is how it's done.

 

I think you have a good point that the y61 omits any standard television capability. I always assumed that it would work with a vga tv adaptor, (the $5.00 kind) and it is news to me that the only way to do it is with vga conversion. I hope I never have that need.

But comparing to a dell 1400 is a bit of a low blow. Dells omission of any dvi possibility, seems like a much more significant long term glitch.

Thanks for the report on the Avermedia though. I always wondered if/how those things worked.

 

i agree with most here but have to say it would be nice to have an HDMI, DVI, or someday displayport out for presentations and what not. especially since the discreet cards are all HDCP and HD capable. we often use the display-out for presentations over a projector. the Dsub works but would crispen up our screen when trying to show spreadsheets and text. maybe someday, for now the 15 pin works.

this allows for dvi-out through usb.dont know if it would really help but might at least be a better resolution

 

I didn't ignore his question. I gave him a an example of a way to use VGA to HDTV.

 

My R50 has an S-video, which I use it to hook up to my TV sometimes. I agree with you but not on the whole thing, even HP business line includes an HDMI on the notebooks. Thinkpad are not for media entertainment and that's %100 right, but some ports should not be left out.

 

Discussing the matter with a Lenovo manager recently, he agreed that business users want to watch TV sometime with their laptop. Maybe they are in a hotel, or just at home. He told that this problem will likely be solved with DisplayPort.

 

so, this won't work?

 

search for "Lenovo X200" in this forum. That thread contains specs about the upcoming Montevina chipset, which includes DisplayPort. DisplayPort can be turned into a DVI, HDMI, or VGA port with a simple adapter. Release date is June 2008.

 

I deleted that post. It's not s-video, it's ps/2 . I think for my situation with the x31, I may have tv-out ability. For the T61, I think we may be limited to something like the Averkey lite.