TV out knowledge base

Hi, I was intending to have a 'live' discussion page here but due to amount of time I actually spend online it would be difficult for me to view this page regularly so I've decided to cut & paste user questions and my answers to those questions here in the hope it will help some of you figure out how to solve your individual TV out problems without having to await a response from me direct. It will also allow you to see some of the incomplete questions I get asked! Considering the questions are so varied its going to be difficult to categorise them so I've left them 'as is' for the time being. I've resisted posting all enquiries as most are the same old questions worded differently .Oh and many thanks to Paul C who answered a question I could'nt, its nice to see that there are others out there that are prepared to take the time and effort to help out someone with what can be a frustrating problem.

No TV Out Settings

Q:I've been on your website,I am having a problem connecting to the TV from my lap top. I go on the display , settings, advanced I am not getting the window with the display tab on it. it is not there with the pictures of thelaptop screen and the TV screen ect. can you help please.
Many thanks Peter.
A: Which usually means you dont have the correct driver installed for your graphics card. ID the card and download the latest driver from the manufacturers website.That should present you with the tv out settings.

Why should you connect?

Note from me. Ive had a few people question the fact of blurred images for normal windows use. Tv out from a PC was never designed for normal windows use and the picture will be blurred/fuzzy when looking at normal sized text such as that within Word etc. However , images ie photos/video and DVD playback will be fine.


How do i connect?

Q:Please could you advise me on what type of leads i am going to neeed to connect my pc to my tv.
I have a Ge Force fx5200 graphics card with tv out,dvi.
I have a Creative Soundblaster 5.1 sound card.
The length from pc to tv is 10 metres.
I have s-video,video in and left and right audio jacks.
My tv also has a couple of scart connections in the back.
I hope this is all the information you need.
Please advice cost etc.
Many thanx

A: use the svideo to scart kit 10m it contains all the necessary video and sound connections and allows connection to either scart or those 3 xphonos on the front of the tv.

Black and White Picture

Q:I am having the black and white picture problem you describe so well on
your website.

I currently have a SCART adaptor which has three phono style connections
and a s-video connection and a cable which is s-video to s-video.
Do I need to return this lot for a refund and buy a kit or is there
something I can buy from your site and use still use my exising cables.

I do not require sound from the TV.

Any ideas?

A:you will need new cables.
Our kits convert the svideo to rca and then connect to rca or scart on the
tv. Its the first conversion that solves the black and white problem.
There's technically nothing wrong with the cables etc that you have its just
that the pc outputs in svhs and the tv is vhs. 

Q:My graphics card on the PC also has a composite out socket, I have tried
using this and it does work, but I was hoping to get the best possible
display on my TV. Are your cables likely to produce a clearer picture by
taking the s-video feed and converting twice than using the comp out
solution ?

A:no it will be the same. There is hardly any visible difference between rca
and svideo.

Black and White Picture

Q: spotted your site when trying to find out the cause of my Black & White picture.

 
I am trying to connect my PC to the TV/VCR. I have an S-VHS cable coming from the graphics card to a SCART adapter. The scart adapter has 3 x RCA (Red, White, Yellow) plus a S-VHS input. It also has a Input/output switch. For the Audio I use a 3.5mm to 2 x RCA cable.
From reading your page the problem seems to be with the S-VHS to S-VHS cable between my graphics card and the Scart adaptor. Should I get a S-VHS to RCA cable for the Video or is there something else that's required.
 
I checked the signal through the S-VHS directly into the front of the TV and it works OK, I only get a problem if I go through the Scart into the back of the TV or through the back of the VCR.
 
Any help you can provide is appreciated.
A:in your thinking svideo is the 'svhs' you refer to. The pc outputs in svhs, your tv will accept svhs but only through the svideo front socket. The scart on the tv and the video are VHS and so thats why you get the black n white problem.
We get around all of this by converting the pc svhs signal into vhs (splitting the luminace and chrominace signal with the use of an adapter or cable, BUT ,our cables convert from Svideo to RCA (composite) so the main cableing is RCA not svideo.

Speaker Questions

Q:I have connected my pc to my tv with a straight s-video cable and it plugs straight in at each end and I watch things fine on the channel svid3 but as I only have 2 wee speakers on my monitor I would like to get better sound.  on the side of my tv where the s-vid cable is connected there is 3 outputs one yellow says video in a white and a red which says audio l and r.  On the back of my pc there is a yellow connection next to the s-vid connection to my tv which says comp out.  I have a creative ive 5.1 sound card with the usual connections on it.  I was wondering if you could tell me what cable I will need to get sound from my tv

A:You need
3.5m to 2 x Phono cable and a speaker double adapter.
Take out the speakers(or cable) from the soundcard on the rear of the pc (only the 'FRONT SPEAKER' green connector. Plug in the double adapter, plug the speaker connector back in and the new cable and then the other two ends of the cable will plug into the red and white connections on the tv.
Thats all you need to do, the sound is automatically sent to the tv.

Viewing images on TV

Q:I am connecting a laptop to my tv using S-Video cable.  I am not able to watch DVD's or MPEG's from the TV when I connect the laptop, but I can see the Computer desktop on the TV.  Do I need some decoding software, or hardware to view DVDs on the TV?

A:Very strange! No you dont need any special hardware or software other than that already used to playback on the pc itself.
If you have display on both tv and pc at the same time (extend my desktop in video settings) then the machine is only capable of playing video on EITHER the tv or PC. In which case drag the movie entirely onto the tv screen and click full screen etc.
 
Other than that im stumped.

Response from Paul C Having had quite a bit of experience in these areas I can offer a solution.The most common cause of this is that on many adapters, when you choose to ‘clone’ the video signal onto the TV the video adapter options will then allow you to choose a Primary display.  Only the Primary display can show video, so you have to select the TV as the primary display.  You may be then forced to keep your resolution at 1024x768 or below, but the video will now play on the TV, but not on your monitor.  Switch it back (obviously) to view video on the monitor.

Black and White Picture

Q:I have a Dell PC Dimension 8300 PC. 

 The connection is a 4 pin male S-Video on the PC. 
 I want to go 9 metres
 The connection on the TV is Scart.
 Happy to play sound via the PC so do not need it on the PC but my want to later.
 When I click display I get NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 displayed with various options.  I note from your website that black and white is a common error and you recommend downloading a fix.  This is a brand new PC so presumerably the software is up to date.  Any other suggestions?
 

A:ummm.... so you have existing cabeling and it gives black n white? Or are you worried our cables will give black n white picture?

 
Assuming you wish to buy cables (or your existing cables give black n white yet you have selected PAL I on the tv out settings)
 
Then you need
 
Svideo to RCa Adapter @£5
10m RCA -RCA @£10
Scart Adapter @£6.99
carriage approx £4
 
The svideo to rca adapter splits luminance and chrominance signal and so solves the black n white problem. Im a bit concerned sound will be 9m away from the actual picture but thats upto you. Switch to a 10m svideo to scart kit if you want sound as well @£24.99 for the whole lot.
No picture

Q:i've just bought a belkein pc dvd to tv connection, my pc is in my livingroom next to my pc so i wanted to get a connection so i could watch dvds on my main televsion.

the pc dvd connection has three parts 1) scart adaptor, 2) s-video to s-video cable for picture 3) rca cable for sound.
I have connected one end of the s-video cable to the pc  and the other end to my televison - which has a cable box and a video connected and am unable to pick up either pictures and/or sound,  i have also tried connecting the cable to the video and cable box with the same result, i.e no picture or sound.
I would be v.grateful if you could give me any help with this query, do i  have  any special software for the pc side - as i have tried to check the manufacturers website for any help, but unable as they only have the minimal amount of info re their product  

 

A:What follows is an extract from our website which i think youve missed. Basically you need to set the pc to send the signal and set the tv to recieve the signal. After youve done that you may get a black n white picture which is an entirely different problem which in turn may involve a change of cableing. Cross that bridge if/when you get a picture!

I have a 7 pin connector

Q:At last someone who will know what I am trying to purchase. You were write about some companies, Dell thought I was trying to re design their equipment. Anyway , what I am after is one cable, 7 pin s-video to connect to my Dell laptop and a 4 pin s-video connector to connect straight into my TV, at a reasonable length say 2 meters. I received a cable called an TV -out adaptor . It is made up with the 7 pin s-video connector and what looks like a single phono on the other end. Can you help please.

A:ok , the 'one cable 7pin to 4 pin' wont happen.
There are a few if's and but's here but ill try and explain.
The 7 pin connector is a 'proprietory' connector and can be adapted to 4 pin svideo or RCA (you have the rca adapter). Both are difficult to come by and at least youve managed to get one!. You may not have needed the adpater because usually the 7 pin connector is wired the same as a 4 pin connector anyway so you could probably have got away with connecting a 4 pin svideo to that 7 pin connector (although sometimes 4 pin svideo connectors have a kink at the top of the round part of the connector but the 7 pin doesnt, so it wont fit in)
Regardless of all that, connecting via svideo usually gives a black n white picture problem beacuse one device is SVHS and the other is VHS. This can be solved by converting the 7 pin(or 4 pin) svideo to rca with a special adapter or cable that splits the luminance and chrominace signal.
All that leaves you with:
An adapter that you dont know actually works (splits luminance and chrominace)
A 7 pin connector that doesnt supply sound (so you will need a 2nd cable for sound to connect to your speaker out on the pc)
You havent told me what connectors you have on the tv. i will assume you have 3 rca on the tv (1 yellow 1 black 1 white or red)
 
So , if you want to use your existing adapter, you need
RCA-RCA 5m @£6 approx
3.5mm to 2x phono 2m @£3
 
If you dont want to use your adapter and have a kink in the top of the 7 pin connector you can use
Svideo male to RCA male 1.5m @£7
3.5mm to 2 x phono 2m @£3
 
add a scart adapter @£6 approx if you only have scart on the tv 
if you have existing speakers connected to the pc and want to continue to use them then buy a speaker double adapter @£1.99
 
and thats it! Easy isnt it?
 
oh, and if your totally confused then buy the svideo to scart kit 5m @£21 which does everything
I have a 7 pin connector

Q:I have just purchased a Packard Bell igo 6204 from tier1.com (ex PC World demo machine) and I know it has

TV-Out capability. 
 
However, I am unable to source cable(s) to connect to the TV-Out port. The port has 7 pins and a slot and they are set out with the slot a the bottom, a row of 4 pin holes above the slot and a further row of 3 pin holes above the 4.
 
Any cabling I see only has 4 pins, 2 rows of 2, with a tab to locate in a slot at the bottom, so I am more than a little confused.  Is there a complete cable set that I can buy, or better still an adaptor to convert from my 7 pin (female) to 4 pin (female)?  I trust that I have explained my predicament clearly, if not, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will try to explain more clearly.
 
A:there are adpaters to convert to 4 pin or RCA but usually supplied with the pc or by the video card manufacturer.
However, it is possible that a 4 pin svideo will plug into that 7 pin connector and work. I need to know if your 7 pin connector has a kink in the circular part of the connector? This will determine which adapter we sell you .
 
I also need to know
distance to tv
whether you need sound
connections available on the tv
How do i connect?

Could you please tell me what leads I need to connect my pc to my tv. I have a video out on my graphics card. I need to go 25 feet to my tv. i need sound  and have both scart and s-video, video audio connections on my tv.

hope you can help.

use the 10m svideo scart kit @£24.99 . It contains all you need.

How do i connect?

I want to connect my PC to a TV in order to view DVDs. I have a Gainward GForce 4 and a small cable that came with it (Composite to S-Video convertor Cable). What else do I need to buy in order to make the connection to the TV? It would need to be a lengthy one and note you have a 15m S-Video to Scart, would this be the one???

Yes , the 15m kit will be fine. It contains all you need. You may not need to use your existing adpater but our kit will cater for that aswell.The kit contains cables for sound/video and necessary adapters etc.

How do i connect?

thanks for the service that you provide.

What is the simplest way to connect a pc with a s-vhs cable to a TV with just a coaxial input?

Its not possible to connect straight from a pc to a TV via the the coax (uhf,ariel) socket. The signal types are different

Which cable should I buy?

 

Q: I have a DVD unit on my PC which I'd like to connect to my TV providing sound/picture...I need something that's about 10 metres long with a scart adaptor. At the moment I have a TV output from the back of my pc but the cable provided is only about 1.5m long.
 Can you help? I see you have a PC-Tv cable for £9.99 plus I'd have to buy a scart adaptor on top to connect to the TV is that right. Can I call you to order all over the phone?
 What's the postage cost?
 

A: The rca-rca 10m and the scart adapter will work fine if you have RCA out on the pc but will only supply video .So you need a seperate sound cable if sound is required aswell( 3.5mm to 2 x phono 10m length). Considering the distance, i assume you already have pc speakers and will still want to use them when not sending signal to tv, in which case you will need to plug the sound cable into where your speakers go and will therefor need a speaker double adapter as well. Considering you now need 4 items you might aswell buy the 10m svideo to scart kit which contains everything you need (including an svideo adapter if you have svideo out on the pc instead of RCA) 

 
carriage on a 10m kit is approx £4 . You can order online or through me on 01752 672128.

I can see desktop but video playback gives a black screen

Q:When I connect my laptop to tv I get a good picture of all applications but
when I play DVDs in win dvd or svcds through power dvd all I get is the tool
bars, music and the screen box is blank.

they play fine just on the laptop.
all of the codecs are in place.

A:2 things to try

in the tv out settings the pc is set as primary (no.1) and the TV is set as
secondary (no.2) you will see an image of 2 screens marked '1' and '2' .Drag
the no.2 to left of the no.1 and they will switch around forcing the tv to
become primary and then try playing back the movie. This works because some
graphics cards can only play video to the primary device.
or
there should be a tick box for 'extend my desktop' on the tv out settings
which will force the tv to become an extension of your pc screen. Once
ticked you should be be able to drag the image of the right of the pc screen
and it will appear on the TV.

Notes:
the whole window must be dragged onto tv screen to allow playback .
Most video cards can only display video to one device ie PC or TV , not
both.The same applies for 2nd monitors if using instead of a tv.


 

All a bit complicated??? Confused????, email kevind@computerbase.co.uk
and we will attempt to answer your question.

Note from kevind :,The most common question is  'What cables do i need?' and I cannot answer it unless you tell me: 

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