S-video help (2 Viewers)

[Zé Tahir]

When I was in Sweden two summers ago, my friend had this connection he had made with his computer and his TV. He would play a video on his computer and I'd be watching it on the TV while he was doing something else on the computer. In other words he'd have a video playing in the background and he'd be doing his own thing without it being projected on the TV.

I've asked him what connection he has made but someone else set it up for him so he has no idea. I'm assuming it was S-video but I'm not sure. Anyone have an idea?

 

Buy on AliExpress.com

[JCK]

S-Video is the most common TV out on computers. Nowadays you can connect computers to the LCD TVs using a VGA cable and some computers even have HDMI output.

Whatever option you use you can use the computer screen and the TV as two separate outputs which means you can use them to display two different things or clone the output and have the same output on the computer screen and the TV.

 

[Zé Tahir]

S-Video is the most common TV out on computers. Nowadays you can connect computers to the LCD TVs using a VGA cable and some computers even have HDMI output.

Whatever option you use you can use the computer screen and the TV as two separate outputs which means you can use them to display two different things or clone the output and have the same output on the computer screen and the TV.

Well he definately didn't have VGA or HDMI. He had an older TV.

What setting do I need to set in order to have two different displays?

 

[JCK]

You find all the settings you want in your graphic card properties, they are pretty straight forward to configure.

I am sure he had S-Video, i just gave you the current alternatives that are now available in the market.

 

[Zé Tahir]

There is one setting that seems like it might be the right one but I can't seem to get it right. In my NVIDIA Control Panel there are display options; there is a dualview option, but what it's doing is showing my desktop background on my laptop and everything else (all the windows, the tray, the video, etc.) on the TV. I want the video to be playing in the background on the computer and be showing on the TV and at the same time I want to be able to do anything else on the computer.

 

[Martin]

Here's what an s-video socket looks like (almost at the very bottom, it's on the video card on the right. the bigger one next to is is HDMI): http://www.trustedreviews.com/images/article/inline/5072-IMG7019s.jpg

 

[V]

It doesn't matter what cable he used, S-video or composite. It matters of the card itself and most importantly on the drivers. Try out different versions of the drivers as they sometimes offer different options in the control panel. Don't count on success though, TV-out was always unpredictable, especially with older TVs. For example, with my old card(6600GT) I could only get TV-out with one specific set of drivers, with all others I'd get a black-white output. Currently my new card, HD-3870, won't give me any TV output at all. I'm waiting for new drivers each month hoping it will work. I'm not getting my hopes up though. Damn ATI and their drivers.

 

[Kosta]

Try using this piece of software , it does the trick for you:

http://tvtool.info/index_e.htm

 

[Zé Tahir]

Here's what an s-video socket looks like (almost at the very bottom, it's on the video card on the right. the bigger one next to is is HDMI): http://www.trustedreviews.com/images/article/inline/5072-IMG7019s.jpg

I know what an S-Video socket looks like. you jerk

It doesn't matter what cable he used, S-video or composite. It matters of the card itself and most importantly on the drivers. Try out different versions of the drivers as they sometimes offer different options in the control panel. Don't count on success though, TV-out was always unpredictable, especially with older TVs. For example, with my old card(6600GT) I could only get TV-out with one specific set of drivers, with all others I'd get a black-white output. Currently my new card, HD-3870, won't give me any TV output at all. I'm waiting for new drivers each month hoping it will work. I'm not getting my hopes up though. Damn ATI and their drivers.

I've tried the different settings on the control panel and I can't get it to work. As I said, there is one that could be it, but all I'm getting is my desktop background on my laptop and everything else on the TV.

I'll have to google for drivers then.

Try using this piece of software , it does the trick for you:

http://tvtool.info/index_e.htm

Which one do I download? Have you tried this yourself?

 

[Martin]

I know what an S-Video socket looks like. you jerk

Well excuse me, it sounded like you weren't quite clear on it

 

[Cronios]

Its just a setttings issue, i ve done that before but i cant remember what i did, i set the second monitor (TV) as an extension to my primary and then dragged with my mouse the player's window on TV, it was quite simple.
The problems where with PAL compatibility...
you may get uncolored displays.

 

[JCK]

Tahir, download an application called TV Tool, this was developed for nVidia Graphic Cards for the sole purpose of using your TV out option.

 

[Zé Tahir]

Tahir, download an application called TV Tool, this was developed for nVidia Graphic Cards for the sole purpose of using your TV out option.

This is a bit late, but just wanted to let you know it worked. The only problems are that the trial version only gives you 15 minutes (I found a way around that though) and the other thing is that if you have a window in full screen mode on the TV and you click on a window on your computer the window on the computer minimizes.

 

[swag]

TBH, I've been quite disappointed with the fidelity that S-video promised and has, in fact, actually delivered.

 

[V]

HDMI rocks though.