Connecting A Laptop To A Tv

[deejaymitch 0]

OK folks, I've found a decent karaoke player that I plan to install on my laptop and put all my karaoke tracks on a hard drive to play through it. Is it possible for me to connect the laptop to a TV for the picture to be displayed on there? If so, how? Please keep it simple as I'm a technophobe and don't pick these things up too quickly.

 

The laptop has a VGA connection, I'm not sure if it has a S-Video one (I will check when I get home, I hadn't heard of either of these terms until today). The TVs in the venues I'll be working in only have Phono/RCA connections. (One might have a SCART).

 

Any guidance would be much appreciated.

[Robster 0]

most karaoke programs use the " extended desktop" feature on "display properties" so you have your control screen on the laptop and the lyrics screen on the second monitor

right click on a blank piece of the desktop area on the laptop screen select the properties option you are now at display properties

select the settings tab

you will see to blue squares with numbers 1 and 2 on them the 2 might be greyed out click on the number 2 screen after you have connected the vga cable up and switched the monitor on

there is a box called extend my windows desktop onto this monitor tick this box and then it should work once applied and saved

 

Normally this works , most lap tops will do this automatically if they are turned on in the right sequence after set up.

 

If this doesn't work look at the softwares instructions

 

if the screen is a TV and doesnt have VGA use the lappys tv S-video out to the second monitor and do the same thing as above you will have to change the resolutions etc to get it right but after a while of playing about you will soon get the hang of it. maplins and the like have little adaptors that change s-video to composite which can be plugged into the yellow connector or used with a scart adaptor

 

what software have you decided on to host the show

 

this might help to

 

Video connectors

 

 

Composite video

 

Composite video is called by the CVBS acronym, meaning any of "Colour, Video, Blank and Sync", "Composite Video Baseband Signal", "Composite Video Burst Signal", or "Composite Video with Burst and Sync". Or better known as the "yellow one" basically all the picture elements are sent down one cable a composite of everything that's needed for picture.

 

In typical home and KJ applications, the composite video signal is typically connected using an RCA jack, normally yellow (often accompanied with red and white for right and left audio channels respectively). BNC connectors and higher quality co-axial cable are often used in more professional applications.

 

Composite is the lowest quality of direct video connector. Do not confuse this with Component which is one of the highest quality video connections (see below). Most TV's have a composite input this can be either the yellow RCA connector or via the SCART connector on European TV's

 

 

 

 

S-Video

 

S-Video stands for Separated video and also known as Y/C is an analogue video signal that carries the video data as two separate signals, brightness (luma) and colour (chroma).

 

S-Video, most commonly carries 480i or 576i resolution video, i.e. standard TV definition video, but does not carry audio on the same cable.

 

S-Video is better picture quality than standard Composite video but not as good as component video

 

People often call S-Video connectors S-VHS connectors .S-VHS was a video recording tape system that used S-Video connections and the separate processing of the colour and brightness signals to give better picture results than standard VHS and used special video tapes to record on.

 

Many laptops have a hybrid S-Video connector on them they are Non-standard 7-pin mini-DIN .The 7-pin socket accepts the 4-pin plug (unlike the standard 7-pin socket) and the S-video signals are available on the matching pins. When a 7-pin plug is inserted, one of the extra pins carries a composite video signal for non S-video displays.

 

Some graphics cards require the remaining two pins to be shorted together to enable the CVBS mode. Many newer cards (especially those with inputs and outputs) will also require the 7+ pin connector and will not take the s-video cable directly. The 7-pin plug has a longer locating lug making it difficult (but not impossible) to insert it in a 4-pin socket. Damage to the plug and socket is inevitable if the plug is forced into the socket.

 

A 7-pin connector MAY also output YPbPr or RGB component video, though the outputs are usually 3 RCA jacks for YPbPr and 5 BNC connectors or SCART for RGB. Such cables are often provided with video cards. S-Video is often used by Laptop KJ's to send a lyrics screen to a second monitor

 

 

 

Component video

 

Component video is a video signal that has been split into two or more components. In popular use, it refers to a type of analogue video information that is transmitted or stored as three separate signals. Component video cables do not carry audio.

 

The various RGB (red, green, blue) analogue component video standards (e.g., RGBS, RGBHV, RG&SB) use no compression and impose no real limit on colour depth or resolution, but require large bandwidth to carry the signal and contain much redundant data since each channel typically includes the same black and white image. Most modern computers offer this signal via the VGA port. Many televisions, especially in Europe, utilize RGB via the SCART connector. For the KJ this is the least likely to be used.

 

 

VGA connector

 

A VGA connector as it is commonly known (other names include RGB connector, D-sub 15, mini sub D15 and mini D15) is a three-row 15 pin DE-15. There are four versions: original and DDC2 pin outs, the far older and less flexible DE-9 connector, and a Mini-VGA used for laptops.

 

The common 15-pin VGA connector found on most video cards, computer monitors, and other devices, is almost universally called "HD-15". HD stands for "high-density", which distinguishes it from connectors having the same form factor but only 2 rows of pins

 

"VGA connectors" and their associated cabling are always used solely to carry analogue component RGBHV (red - green - blue - horizontal sync - vertical sync) video signals along with DDC2 digital clock and data.

 

 

Where size is a constraint (such as laptops) a mini-VGA port can sometimes be found in place of the full-sized VGA connector.

Edited August 12, 2008 by enquirer

[FrankieJ 0]

Get yourself one of these. HERE they are great for converting laptop to tv.

[Robster 0]

You may not need one of them if your laptop has the S-video out ...but i know a few people who do use them and they work well but it does use another usb port up to power it.

Edited August 12, 2008 by enquirer

[NRG Roadshow 0]

And the added bonus of using one of the maplin gadgets is you can display the lyrics for the singer on a computer monitor and also put the words up on a large audience screen if their is one available.

I have had one for ages now and its come in very handy.

[motherwell 0]

And the added bonus of using one of the maplin gadgets is you can display the lyrics for the singer on a computer monitor and also put the words up on a large audience screen if their is one available.

I have had one for ages now and its come in very handy.

 

i tried to connect my fujitsu siemens laptop to my tv via a vga cable ( does not have s-video) nothing happened and the venue i do karaoke in has just installed a big screen and the landlord is bound to want me to connect up to the big sreen. My oth

er laptop hooks up fine using the same cable only this is run by vista and i cannot get a karaoke programme to run on it. So my other is ran by XP but shows nothing on the TV. what are my options? will the gadget from Maplins answer my problem? thanks

[otronics 0]

i tried to connect my fujitsu siemens laptop to my tv via a vga cable ( does not have s-video) nothing happened and the venue i do karaoke in has just installed a big screen and the landlord is bound to want me to connect up to the big sreen. My oth

er laptop hooks up fine using the same cable only this is run by vista and i cannot get a karaoke programme to run on it. So my other is ran by XP but shows nothing on the TV. what are my options? will the gadget from Maplins answer my problem? thanks

 

You may need to 'activate' the VGA output on your laptop.

 

Press the 'Function' [FN] button and hold it down and press F10....or F7...or whatever keyboard button has a screen picture on it.

 

You may need to do that more than once as there can be a few screen configurations.