Connecting Laptop to TV

liam8282

I am trying to connect my laptop to my tv without any success.

I have a toshiba L450 laptop, and a samsung plasma tv.

I bought a VGA - RCA cable from ebay, thinking it would simply be a matter of connecting the laptop to the tv.

I have tried adjusting the resolution etc, and do get varying flickering images, but still can't get it to work.

Is there any easy way to connect the laptop to the tv? If it is something simple, like I have the wrong cable, I will buy the correct one.

Any help appreciated!

hanwellmike

I managed once successfully to do this in a hotel. I had VGA to VGA cables, but the coupling was the easy bit. I had to access the video card on my laptop to tell it to find & recognise a second monitor. After a bit of trial & error I got there. The picture was excellent. As I recall I had to ''clone main with tv'' in order to get the right picture relayed (not ''extend to tv''). For a while all i got was my desktop on the tv !!

I would look to see if you have a vga connector on your tv as I think this will give a better connection the RCA.

Lately though I have found that connecting a media player is by far the easiest way to watch downloaded movies on tv.

liam8282

^ Thanks.

What I actually want to do is watch tv programmes such as i player, 4od, itv player.... I can get them on my laptop, but the problem is just connecting the laptop to the tv to watch them.

(I use my PS3 for movies (& i player).)

almillar

RCA (that's composite - yellow, red and green isn't it?) is the crappest way to carry a picture and 800x600 might be about the best you get out of it - as above does your TV not have VGA, DVI or HDMI in? If your laptop only has VGA, you can get an adaptor to make it into DVI. Sound must be carried seperately of course, check the back of your TV to look for an input, which on my Samsung LCD is a 3.5mm stereo socket (like earphones) that you want to connect the earphone socket on your laptop to.

john_quigley

I connected my toshiba laptop to sony bravia tv by way of VGA cable. Very good picture but no sound!! I then used 2 phono from tv to headphone socket on laptop but no sound. I do not have an phono socket on my laptop.

I have been looking at other forums and this seems a very common problem. Any suggestions??

I can connect my tv to my Hi-fi stereo ok by way of 2 phono to 2 phono. this produces excellent sound.

liam8282

My tv does have hdmi, component (red, blue, green), av (red, white, yellow), scart.

Does not have vga.

I do have a vga to rca (red, blue, green), but no picture comes up at all when i plug it in. I have tried to plug it into the av (red, white, yellow) and get varying flickering images when I mess around with the laptop settings.

This is much harder than I first thought.

hanwellmike

To get the sound when making vga to vga connection, I also had to connect an audio cable. This went from the headphone socket on my laptop to an identical kind of socket on the tv (which was marked as audio in). I would think that most tv's have this audio in socket. The connection cable was 2 male 3.5 mm prongs, not expensive.

googler

So it seems that your laptop is outputting VGA, but the TV isn't designed to accept VGA at the RCA input?

Look at Maplin's website - I got a converter box from there that bridges the VGA - RCA gap

almillar

Liam - I'm surprised that your TV has neither DVI nor VGA - are you sure?
Anyway, it can be done, we'll connect VGA to HDMI. Here's the cleanest way to do it, plenty of other ways if you have bits available.
VGA-DVI cable plug the VGA into laptop
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=97372&OrderCode=L47BT
then attach to this adaptor
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=97886
which goes into the HDMI on the TV.
You can do this MUCH cheaper than the Maplin prices BTW, have a look on Amazon or eBay for equivalents.

John Quigley - as above - VGA carries pictures, not sound. You need to get a 3.5mm to Stereo phono lead. This will plug into your laptop's headphone socket and into your amp - standard fare for hooking up laptops and desktops. also good for listening to anything with a headphone socket through speakers.
HDMI is the solution for carrying pictures and sound in one cable.

JoeA81

I dont think anyone has actually come up with a method that is going to work yet!

The problem here is that the VGA port on the laptop is outputing an analogue RGBHV signal. If your tv doesnt have a VGA (PC) input, then this needs to be converted to whatever signal input you do have on the TV, you can't just plug cables into it and expect it to work - as a composite signal, or a component signal or an HDMI signal are all completely different types of signal.

If your TV has an HDMI input you need something like this: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=388962

If your TV has a composite video (single yellow female RCA [also called a "phono"] connector) input you need somethign like this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Startech-Resolution-Composite-S-video-Converter/dp/B001NXDQEK

If your TV has a component video or YPbPr (Red/Green/Blue female RCA [also called "phono"] connectors) input you need something like this:http://www.kramerelectronics.co.uk/products/model.asp?pid=591&sf=103 - Only thing I could find, and a little expensive I should imagine!

And yes audio has to be carried completely separately from the 3.5mm jack on the laptop, to the two red and white RCA connectors on the TV, or on the maplin box I first mention in my list. And for this you need a 3.5mm jack to 2xRCA(male) cable.

sylvey1

hi, could anyone answer simular question please?
i got a acer aspire 5738 which looks like it has a HDMI socket, as so does my tv neon lcd something? lol.
sorry not very techno!!!! would this mean if i have a lead HDMI would i be able to connect my lap top to tv?
thank you in advace for any info :j