Connecting laptop to tv, what cable do i need?

[ALI_101]

Hi Folks

On my laptop i am able to watch some foreign tv channels over the internet. What i would like to be able to do is hook my laptop up to my tv so as i can watch them on my 32 inch LCD TV. However, i have no clue as to what cable i need to buy in order to do this. Here's my laptop and tv specs:

Asus M51S
CPU - Core T5850
HDD - 320GB
GC - ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470

LCD TV - Sharp Aquos 32 inch
Full HD
2 x HDMI

In order to watch the foreign channels i must use VLC media player.

Can anyone advise me which cable i need to buy in order to connect my laptop to my tv?

All advise will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[power33]

The cable you would need is a S-Video cable, but make sure the tv you have supports it.

[compass]

Hi, I don't think you laptop comes with any HDMI port.

I think the best bet is to use a 15-pin, male-to-male VGA cable to connect your laptop to your TV. male-to-male means the pins are sticking out on both ends.

This is often called the PC input from your TV, connect one end into the TV and one end into the Laptop, but the audio will only be coming out from the laptop.

Try not to use the DVI port, as your LCD TV may not come with one.. Even with DVI port, u must get the correct cable.

[ALI_101]

Thanks guys, i'll check those out.

Can i presume then that no matter what cable i decide to buy, that the sound will come from the laptop and not from the tv?

I dont know if i'd enjoy that to be honest!

[Allycuk]

hi,as the guys above said,there are a few ways it can be done.eg vga to vga,s-video to scart etc,etc.for sound from the laptop to the tv just get a 3.5mm to phono and plug the 3.5 into the headphone socket of the laptop and the phono to tv.

[ALI_101]

OK, i'm back in from work and i'm looking to get a cable ordered up to get this thing going.

First though, here's all the available ports on my laptop and tv:

Laptop
DVI
VGA 15 PIN
USB
E-SATA (???)
1394 (???)

No HDMI port and no S-VIDEO port. However, Asus did supply me the laptop with an S-VIDEO adaptor cable (14G01020007D). I'm a bit confused by this as neither end of it fits anywhere on my laptop and neither end fits the S-VIDEO port on my tv.


LCD TV:
HDMI
ANALOGUE RGB (PC) .......... is this the VGA 15 PIN?
S-VIDEO
RS-232C
RGB (SCART)
Plus a whole bunch of other coloured coded stuff.

Som i'm thinking I might go for the 15 pin male to male VGA cable as compass recommends. However, i've been browsing google and i've seen you can get a "DVI to HDMI cable". Would this be a better option than the VGA 15 pin? If i used the DVI to HDMI cable would that then give me sound from my tv without needing to do anything additional, or would i still need the 3.5mm to phono cable to get the sound going as would be neccessary with the VGA 15 PIN?

[ManofScience]

DVI doesn't carry sound.

You need to select an input on your telly that also has a seperate audio input for it. So, if the VGA input has an audio input - go that router.

when i set my media centre up, 1 of my HDMI ports has an extra audio input so i got a DVI>HDMI cable and a 3.5m > 2*phono for the audio.

[ALI_101]

Thanks ManofScience

Both the VGA port and HDMI port on my tv have seperate inputs for audio.

So its a decision between these two:

1)DVI to HDMI (+ 3.5mm to phono for sound)
2)VGA 15 PIN 2 way male (+ 3.5mm to phono for sound)

Is the DVI to HDMI the way to go?

[ManofScience]

it was for me as DVI gives a better signal but i couldn't find any evidence as to which was best!

i got my cable off ebay, was only a few quid but peace of mind i'd chosen DVI instead of vga ;)

(make sure you get the right type of DVI - i think there's DVI-D and another)

[ALI_101]

I went for the dvi to hdmi. I also purchased a 3.5mm stereo male to 3.5mm stereo male for sound.

I hooked the cables up and have the picture but i have no sound. One end of the stereo cable i have plugged into the headphone port on the laptop, the other end into ext. 6 on my lcd tv along with the hdmi end of the cable from the laptop, both in their respective places in ext. 6 on my tv. However, i get no sound from the tv, just the picture.

Does anyone have any idea what might be wrong and what i can do to get the sound working?