Laptop to tv display

[tfsweet]

I have a Dell Inspiron 8500 laptop, and i want to connect it to my tv so i can use the tv as my screen. The laptop came with all of the connections to make this possible. The resolution on the laptop is 1920 x 1200. However, for some odd reason, the only way i can make it so the laptop image is sent to the tv is if i check the option "extend my windows desktop onto this monitor." This way, ONLY the desktop image is shown on the tv. The icons and the mouse movement can not be seen. If i start up wmp, then the video does appear on the tv. I want to configure my laptop somehow so that the tv will act like an actual screen and not juz my desktop image displayer. thx for the help

 

[micker377]

Consult the manual, there's usally a Fn + (another key) to switch between laptop - TV - both. My Gateway is Fn + F3 to switch.

 

[Enkrypted]

I don't know if you want to spend the money or not, but I just recently setup my PC so both sound/video is transferred to my stereo/TV. For the PC to TV, I purchased this from AVerMedia

http://www.aver.com/products/comptv_AVerKeyiMicro.shtml

It really makes a BIG difference as before I was just using my S-Video output of my video card. The quality is about 3x better than going through my S-Video, of course it would be even better if I had a HDTV

Enkrypted
A+

 

[joemck2004]

Look in the advance properties in the settings tab of Display Properties. I have an nVidia card, so I go to the nView tab of Advanced Properties. There are options allowing one huge spanned desktop (virtical or horizontal), where the driver makes Windows think it's one huge monitor. Also, if I leave it in the "normal" state and right-click on the one display picture, I can go to "Select Optput Device..." There I can choose from the LCD, VGA output or TV. It greys out choices when there's no screen plugges into the connector.

If you can find an option to display on TV only but it's greyed out, your conputer isn't detecting the TV. Just unplug the cable and short one of the pins to the shield if it's S-Video or the center pin to the shield if it's an RCA plug. Keep it shorted while opening the choice dialog and until you've OK'd it and your primary screen stops displaying. Plug it back into the TV and it should work.

 

[sixstrings4]

With the way it's set right now the TV is set as an extended desktop, as you mentioned. Which means you could probably move you mouse off your laptop screen and onto the TV screen. It's pretty cool actually. What you want to do however to go to your advanced display properties and look for a setting for clone mode. That way the TV will mimic exactly what's on your desktop. Hope you find it.

 

[tfsweet]

thx a lot guys, you all have helped tremendously ^^