25-09-12, 03:53 PM
Your laptop will likely have some sort of monitor out, be it VGA or DVI-D.
If its VGA, see if you're telly also has VGA in. VGA - VGA cables are dead cheap, but don't go too cheap if you want more than around 3m ish, especially at 1080p (1920x1080).
If you're laptop has DVI-D, then try a DVI-D to HDMI cable. Plus side here, is it's digital all the way, so probably better quality. Note, DVI can carry analogue (DVI-I) or digital (DVI-D), hence why you get VGA-DVI and DVI-HDMI cables, but telly's can only accept a digital signal over hdmi.
Note: both these options are Video only, sound will need to go across separately. TV's with VGA usually have a 3.5mm jack socket next to it. However for HDMI in, they expect sound mixed with HDMI.
As you have a separate sound system, this is not a problem, just send sound straight to it, skipping telly. The speakers in LCD screens these days are tiny crappy tinny things anyway.
If you laptop is pretty new, you may even have HDMI out on it (possibly a mini-HDMI socket), which should also output sound.
Note: some telly's, particularly older 720p ones will only accept a 720p picture on HDMI and then scale it up to the screens native res (usually 1366x768), which often makes small text and web browsing a horrible experience. My old Sony Bravia was like this, but on its VGA input, it would let me feed it a 1360x768 res image and display it without scaling, which made it crystal clear and as good as monitor. You might need todo some messing around with your video card settings to get 1360x768 out as its not always standard, sometimes just gives you 1024x768, so you get black borders down sides.
If its VGA, see if you're telly also has VGA in. VGA - VGA cables are dead cheap, but don't go too cheap if you want more than around 3m ish, especially at 1080p (1920x1080).
If you're laptop has DVI-D, then try a DVI-D to HDMI cable. Plus side here, is it's digital all the way, so probably better quality. Note, DVI can carry analogue (DVI-I) or digital (DVI-D), hence why you get VGA-DVI and DVI-HDMI cables, but telly's can only accept a digital signal over hdmi.
Note: both these options are Video only, sound will need to go across separately. TV's with VGA usually have a 3.5mm jack socket next to it. However for HDMI in, they expect sound mixed with HDMI.
As you have a separate sound system, this is not a problem, just send sound straight to it, skipping telly. The speakers in LCD screens these days are tiny crappy tinny things anyway.If you laptop is pretty new, you may even have HDMI out on it (possibly a mini-HDMI socket), which should also output sound.
Note: some telly's, particularly older 720p ones will only accept a 720p picture on HDMI and then scale it up to the screens native res (usually 1366x768), which often makes small text and web browsing a horrible experience. My old Sony Bravia was like this, but on its VGA input, it would let me feed it a 1360x768 res image and display it without scaling, which made it crystal clear and as good as monitor. You might need todo some messing around with your video card settings to get 1360x768 out as its not always standard, sometimes just gives you 1024x768, so you get black borders down sides.