Laptop to HDTV? (VGA - Component?)

you need to get the Svideo break-out cable that provides you with component connections for HDTV's

you are confusing component with composite. Component is HD quality. You can get a breakout cable that connects in the S-video port and provides you with component connections to your HDTV

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...4&sku=310-8272

That's still going to look like crap. Your best bet if you want to use your current setup is to get a VGA to component adaptor. They are a lot more pricey though

http://www.digitalconnection.com/Pro...Video/9a60.asp

The S-VIDEO port on the Inspiron 9400/E1705 is actually *NOT* an S-VIDEO port, but a *GENERAL PURPOSE* port in the shape of an S-VIDEO port.

By default, yes, if you plug an S-VIDEO cable in there, it's going to do that. But Dell makes several connectors for various other protocols. I believe that it's also capable of outputting digital audio (S/PDIF) via the same port, for example.

You'll notice that while an S-VIDEO port/cable has four pins (of which two and two carry the same signal so really it's four pins but two signals), the port on the notebook has seven.

This is fairly standard on computer S-VIDEO ports (where they're 7-pin S-VIDEO variants), as they'll use four pins for S-VIDEO and the other three for Component. I'm not sure where S/PDIF fits in, but I do recall reading that it was supported. Assuming it is, that'd mean that the port on the notebook isn't just an S-VIDEO variant.

Anyhow, that doesn't matter, the point is that yes, the notebook CAN output an actual HD component signal from that port. You're not going to do much better (if at all) with a VGA to Component adapter, and you WILL pay a small fortune for those types of devices.

There we go, as Guspaz said, the "S-Video" port is actually a lot different. If you get the adapter (that most laptops come with these days, at least 2 of mine did) that plugs into that so called "S-Video" port you will have component out. I have used it before on our 65" Sony SXRD. Worked fine,

1GNDGround (Y)
2GNDGround (C)
3YIntensity (Luminance)75 Ohms1V incl. Sync.
4CColor (Chrominance)75 Ohms0.3V Burst

That's the pinout for s-Video, Composite video uses three diferent components to build the video signals whereas s-video uses 2 and composite uses 1 signal therefore quality is better since it's easier to rebuild the original signal from multiple components wich adds precision than for only one. Without entering the arguing of Y'PbPr versus RGB the more components to rebuild the signal the more quality.

VGA cables uses RGB 3 components while providing synced signal adding the posibility of preventing tearing by using Horizontal and Vertical Sync also you can get 1080p on VGA but i'm not sure if you can do it over component.

That s-video looking port on lappies has s-video output and the rest of the pins are used for composite (1 for full video signal) and S-PDIF passtrough audiosignal for digital audio. (Dolby and DTS surround)

So if you don't have HDMI wich only come on the latest Vaio's and some clevo's VGA is the best bet for HDTV, m 42"works pretty sweet on VGA so it should work for u. BTW i checked and viewsonic offers such vga to component cable but it's over U$150 so it's not cheap since it has to include some sort of signal processing, not just separating signal.

Just my 2 c$

for your reading pleasure... http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/howto-av.html The S-video type connector on the Dell laptops (ex:1705/1710/M90) provides S-Video, however with the adapter that plugs into that port you also gain component out & S-PDIF, not composite.

Dude that's pretty weird since the dell adapter i have has composite, not component, maybe it has the signal converter from s-video to composite or component depending on the adapter model, but i haven't seen the one with component, mine is s-video, composite, s-pdif original from dell. Weird stuff. I should get one of tose since not every HDTV has VGA.

You're mixing up composite and component.

Component has three signals, composite has one. The S-VIDEO port on our laptops have pins for all three Component signals, and/or S/PDIF.

I'd guess that the adapter for composite just combines the luma and chroma signals because if you just mash them together you get a composite signal. You don't need extra pins on S-VIDEO to get composite out of it, it's simpler (and cheaper) to just merge the two S-VIDEO pins.

Do these cables work with pretty much all laptops with the 7 pin S-video port? And one more question. I saw that component is able to handle 1080p as long as the cable length is 1m or under. So I was wondering if using this dongle, would the computer be able to output 1080p through the component output from the S-video jack? Thanks.

I do not think S-video can support 1080P, even if you have an adapter to convert the S-Video adapter to component, it's still S-Video.

I thought it was confirmed that it was not converting S-video to component, but rather it was actually a real component output. That is what the extra pins on the S-video connector on the laptop is used for. I just wanted to know if it was able to put out 1080p.

Oh then I misunderstood you. I do not know. If it's indeed a component connection/signal then yes. If the component cable is good enough, it can handle 1080P. I've also read about the 1meter thing. Though I think that was mostly just for BR and HD-DVD players.

while component is capable of 1080p, NVIDIA graphics cards are restricted to 1080i by the drivers. you have to use VGA or DVI to get 1080p out unfortunately.

I dont know if it makes much difference but I used the svideo to componet cable that came with my 8800gts vid card and I plugged that into my M1730 and it outputs 1920x1200 and I can set it to 1920x1080 and it works fine.