Off late, I have been watching a lot of English movies. Unfortunately the movies are in Div-X format, and my DVD player doesn’t recognize that. And I don’t prefer watching movies on my Lenovo notebook. Not that it’s bad, but watching it on television is good. And I don’t have a PC table(?) like what Amit mentions here 
I could have actually used some converter software to burn a CD/DVD in the format, my DVD player recognizes. But that is a long and cumbersome process. I faced a similar problem in Sweden, when I had subscribed to Indian channels via Streambox. One of my colleagues, told me about this S-Video cable.
Using this cable one can connect their notebook/PC to television. And then do the following
1. In desktop properties–>Settings, choose monitor 2 and click on the checkbox ‘Extend my windows desktop onto this monitor
2. Switch to AV mode in the television
3. Your desktop background, should appear on the television
4. Open any application and then keep dragging to the right using your mouse. Drag it beyond the notebook screen. It will start appearing on the screen. Drag it completely to the television screen.
Thats it. But at same time, change your desktop resolution to fit your television screen.
Using S-Video cable you can just redirect the video output to Television. In case you want to redirect the audio output as well, then you need a separate cable for audio output. When you are buying ensure that, one end of the S-Video cable can fit in actually to the Video-In port of your television. Actually, there is a separate attachment that can be attached to the S-Video cable to suit your Television ‘Video-In’ port.
The quality of the video is pretty good. In case you find the video clarity like that one of DD sports, ensure that you switch off your DVD player. And your mobile phone is bit away from the television.
This came very handy for this weekend’s get together, since Gopal had brought some clippings which can be played only in the PC
Am not very sure how much S-Video cable costs in India. It cost me around 100 SEK, and in eBay the cost seems to be 8$. Check it out. Its worth it.
on 24 Jan 2007 at 10:22 am # M O H A N
Dear prabhu,
Am using windows 2000…dont see the desktop,properties you mentioned. ALso this Svideo is connected to some PC tuner card..
Can u throw some light on it pls
thanks,
mohan!
on 24 Jan 2007 at 10:24 am # Prabhu
Mohan,
I don’t use any PC tuner card. Its a single cable. Before that, does your PC have a S-Video port?
on 24 Jan 2007 at 11:25 am # M O H A N
Prabhu,
No i dont have a S-Video Port on PC…what addon card needs to be purchased for that pls
tankx
mohan!
on 24 Jan 2007 at 11:31 am # Prabhu
Mohan,
Please check the site http://www.svideo.com I think you can get your query answered there. Am not sure, if that port can be attached separately!
on 24 Jan 2007 at 12:02 pm # M O H A N
Thanks prabhu for the link.
on 24 Jan 2007 at 1:48 pm # Utham
There is a difference between the S-Video ports offered by different companies. For e.g., the S-Video port on a ThinkPad T43 has 4 pins (2 in each row) and a ground. But that on a Dell, has 6 pins (4 in the lower row and 2 above)and a ground. Too cut short the technicality here, have a look at the pin arrangement on your system and look for the same at the shop.
Even more, the S-Video ports are different between Lenovo ThinkPad and Lenovo 3000 series of laptops.
on 24 Jan 2007 at 2:22 pm # geetha
ivvalo kashtappattu padam paakanuma
on 24 Jan 2007 at 2:25 pm # Prabhu
Utham,
Are you sure? One of my friend has a Thinkpad. Am not sure of the model No. I guess its a T43. Mine is Lenovo N100. And another friend has Dell latitude notebook. I checked in all three models. The S-Video cable port was similar. Am not sure about this :-S
on 24 Jan 2007 at 2:27 pm # Prabhu
geetha,
If the movies are like ‘Dial M for Murder’, ‘Rear Window’, ‘Perfume: The Story of a Murderer’, ‘Fight Club’, ‘Se7en’, ‘Usual Suspects’ etc, its worth the trouble
on 24 Jan 2007 at 2:43 pm # geetha
Once, I went crazy trying to connect the DVD player to the telivision when no one was at home …tried eve thing possible for abt 30 mins and still cud manage to watch the movie only in black and white
hehehe…. I wudn dare to try something on the laptop…
on 24 Jan 2007 at 5:29 pm # Utham
Prabhu..
Is that so? And I presume all models are from the Indian market.
However, am not sure where am wrong. Sorry for that.
I guess it’s got to do with different market specs. So far am sure about a Dell Inspiron 6400, ThinkPad T43, Lenovo N100 from Singapore and Japan.
Will check it out and get back with the exact spec.
on 24 Jan 2007 at 9:05 pm # Sowmya
I have been using using S-video cable for connecting my laptop (IBM thinkpad T30) to my TV for more than 2 years now. I use the same cable to connect my friends Dell laptop and HP laptops. Seems to work fine.
on 24 Jan 2007 at 9:27 pm # K.Shyam
macchi;
the cable costs 100rs in ritchie street. And you have usb to svideo converters available there too. the last i checked that was slightly expensive at around 1k or so.
K.Shyam
on 24 Jan 2007 at 9:29 pm # K.Shyam
Or if you really have money to spare, get one of those philips or samsung divx enabled dvd player. It will set you back by 3k.
K.Shyam
on 25 Jan 2007 at 11:23 am # Anonymous
Is the picture quality same in DivX or is there a compromise?
on 26 Jan 2007 at 2:16 am # Anonymous
buying a divx enabled realy cheap dvd player would be a good option. the cheaper u go…the more format it plays!!
on 26 Jan 2007 at 1:15 pm # Nirenjan
The only problem is that some older TVs don’t support S-Video input, but have only composite video. I’d prefer a VGA to composite converter anyday…
on 01 Feb 2007 at 1:40 pm # Murugan
Oh DivX !
Nothing can beat the video Quality, files Size and Audio quality on DivX or Xvid format.
Another solution… to watch on TV
If the laptop does not have an S-Video slot, it surely will have a composite video slot (exception old laptops i mean older by 3 yrs or so :-)) in a different pin format.
Anyways, an xbox can play anything (when hacked) from pictures, to any audio file, or video file from your home network or from the web or the Hard drive or the CD/DVD media. That way i can play games, play videos from Youtube, Goodgle videos, or any other site.
It has made my life very interesting !!!
on 20 Feb 2007 at 4:45 pm # Stan
O.K.
Didn’t seem to work on my laptop.
Upon right clicking on the desktop and selected properties and right clicking on monitor number 2 and checked the ‘extend windows desktop onto this monitor’ and clicked on ‘apply’ button, nothing happened; the ‘extend windows desktop onto this monitor’ was unchecked by itself.
Ya, I’m using the S-Video cable you’re using (exactly same cable). So what I did was I plugged the 4-pin end of the cable onto my laptop’s S Port Video and the other end of the cable was plugged onto my televison’s Video In Jack (it’s the jack which is usually colored yellow).
Nothing happened.
Yes, I also bought the cable used for audio (one end of the cable was plugged onto my laptop’s headphone jack and the other 2 ends were plugged onto the audio jacks on the television: colored white and red).
Any suggestion at all?
I’m going to check this site regularly to see your reply.
Thanks.
Stan.
on 20 Feb 2007 at 4:51 pm # Prabhu
Hi Stan,
Once you checked that ‘Extend my desktop’ check box did you switch your television channel to ‘AV’?
Your desktop background must appear in the television. Once that happens, what you need to do is simple. Just drag the window you want to watch on television from your desktop towards the right. It will appear on the television!
on 20 Feb 2007 at 7:15 pm # Stan
Ya, I switched the tv channel onto AV2 (which is usually the one used for DVD movies), also tried the other AV channels but didn’t appear there.
I read some articles on the net and it said I must plugged in all the cables prior to starting the computer?
BTW, the audio cable doesn’t work either; I tried to play a song from iTune and checked if I could hear the song on any of those AV channels but didn’t hear it.
on 20 Feb 2007 at 11:26 pm # Stan
It worked.
I set up the cables first then I reboot.
Then do the right click thing on desktop and checked ‘extend windows desktop onto this monitor’ on monitor 2. Clicked ‘apply’. Press F4 button four times simultaneously while pressing down the Fn button.
And the audio worked, too. It seems that, it is very much like DVDs, audio works only if the video can be displayed.
Quality is good only for Movies, Pictures, Games.
on 06 Nov 2007 at 2:03 am # Rissy
curious. can someone please post exactly how to connect t43 to television with an s-video to video input hole on television. I also would love to know the settings that need to be changed on the laptop.
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on 23 Jul 2008 at 1:46 pm # Aloy
I have tried this in my laptop HP DV6781us & Compaq NC400, It worked well; Infact I am viewing online video such us youtube, VOEH etc on my TV.
If anyone want to try the same, get the S Video sold on ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.in/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=380046458200
Guys who has LCD/Plasma can go for HD Video over VGA connection.
on 06 Aug 2008 at 10:49 pm # Priyanka
I found this site from google… it worked for me for setting up the thinkpad to TV output using S-Video cable.
http://software-wikipedia.blogspot.com/search/label/Laptop%20to%20TV
Hope this helps..
Regards,
Priya
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