I am trying to connect my Acer Aspire 9003 laptop, running on Windows XP, to my Samsung LE40R74 LCD TV. Both are about 18 months old. I want to be able to watch films which are stored on my laptop, mainly .avi files.

The TV is already linked to my surround sound system.

I have connected the two with what I think is called a VGA cable (Its the one which used to connect my monitor to my desktop PC). Looking at both connection ends of this cable, pin 5 on the top row working from left to right and pin 9 on the middle row, are missing ?

Each time I press the Source button on my TV remote, I get HDMI which is my VM set top box, Ext.1, Ext.2 and PC, so the TV is recognising that the cable has been connected but when I play a film, there is no picture on the TV.

I have changed the resolution on the laptop to several different ones but still no picture on the TV.

Hope someone can offer any suggestions or any alternative means of connecting the two together.

its not exactly what you were asking about.........

........but wouldn't it be easier to burn the film onto a dvd, then you can watch it on any TV (which has a dvd player connected)

Thanks but I really want to be able to view them via my laptop.

Have you checked you don't have to enable your monitor output on your laptop. On my Packard Bell laptop its fn key+ F3.

ok

it sounds like you are using the correct cable between your laptop and the TV.

when you have the TV set to "pc" mode, and your laptop is on, what do you see on the telly? just a blank screen?

Just a thought, but do you have to do anything on your laptop... in order to tell it you want to use an external monitor.

my laptop has a button for this.... its the "Fn" button, then F5.

jinx! lol

Also, bear in mind that the sound will still come out of your laptop speakers.

you will probably want to get a cable going between the headphone socket on your laptop and one of the inputs of your surround sound.

Yes, its just blank




Nothing that I can see but I'll have a look around in Control Panel



Any idea what the correct name for this separate cable is or a link to a piccy?


As the TV is already connected to the Surround Sound, Is there an alternative single cable available that will connect the laptop and TV and which will allow both the picture and the audio to be sent but still play the audio through the Surround sound?

Can't find your exact model laptop manual but in a similar Aspire laptop manual, it says that Fn+F5 will cycle thru your video output modes (laptop only, external, or both). Try that. It won't be in your control panel anywhere.

The Fn key should be on the bottom row of your keyboard, probably between the ctrl key and the windows key.

What surround system are you using? You'll probably have to get a cable to connect your headphone socket on your laptop to your amp. Thats what I do.

a basic lead such as this http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Produc...xt%3E3.5MM.htm

would probably connect your laptop audio output to you surround system. youve probably got one of these lying around the house somewhere.

I don't this theres a single wire that will carry the audio and picture straight to your TV.

TBH, I have never even noticed the Fn key before and didn't have a clue what it did until you mentioned it. Pressing Fn + F1 brings up a list of all hot keys and it does say that Fn + F5 is the Display Toggle which switches display between the Notebook LCD, an external monitor and both. When I press it, it brings up one icon of a laptop on the screen but it won't let me select it and it disappears after about 3 seconds



Home Cinema system is Samsung HT-UP30

Have you checked the video res that the TV can accept through the PC connection. Maybe the laptop is outputting a signal to high for the TV to accept. The details should be in the TV instruction book. Might be worth a look. Hope this helps

Make sure your tv is set to PC input then Press Fn+F5 three times in succession on the second press your tv should display and on the third press both your laptop and tv should be showing the same. The icons displayed on screen are not selectable by the mouse, they are merely overlaid on top of the video output.

For the audio get a cable similar to what r_mitchell85 suggests and connect it between your headphone socket and the aux analog input on your amp as described in the manual on P21.

http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/co...62_UP30-GB.pdf

Sorted on both picture and audio

The reason I was only getting one icon was because I didn't appreciate that the laptop actually had to be connected to the TV when I pressed Fn + F5. Once connected with the VGA cable, the three icons came up and I could then toggle and select between the three.

Thanks for the link to the manual BTW, very useful. I've actually already got one of the cables r_mitchell85 suggests, for playing my ipod through my Surround Sound. I just didn't put two and two together

Many thanks for all the responses.

To get digital audio into your hi-fi, if it has an optical input, get a USB soundcard - something like the CM108 which also has a handset for VOIP use type use. Mine cost about £4.00 !!

It delivers perfect 5.1 Dolby/DTS digital audio.

Ahhh - I see it has been discontinued at eBuyer, but they still have a similar product for about £10.