Computer To Tv (it Used To Work!)

mackle · Joined: Apr 15, 2006 Posts: 2

I used to be able to connect up my computer to my analog TV.
The quality was not great, but suprisingly DVD's played pretty well through my pc to the TV.
This was useful because DVD players (for tv's) tend to be unreliable, while my DVD rom never seems to fail.

I made no hardware changes, but I have lost my picture.
The TV gives a very fuzzy very red and blue image. My guess is that 16 colors is the most it is showing.

My settings are, Windows XP home.
Radeon 9600 series graphics card.

I have plugged my tv using the plug to my graphics card, the same type as left and right audio.
The left and right audio work fine.

The lowest resolution I can set my computer to is 800x600, do i need to have this at 640? Is that the problem? If so how do i get to this resolution.

I have correctly set the format of the tv (PAL for me) and made sure its turned on the in the DISPLAY tab. The only other settings in the tv tab are trivial.

I know that this can be fixed since it used to work! It would be great if someone could help me out. My wife was already not happy about me drilling holes in the wall to connect the cable to the lounge tv Sad

Morbius · Joined: Sep 05, 2005 Posts: 1712

I can't even tell you what video card I'm using. It really don't matter.
But I can tell you that it has a sVideo output jack on it.
(that's the little round jack that looks a lot like a keyboard or mouse jack)

I had to turn my PC on with the TV already connected to the video card via an sVideo cord, for the vid card to see the TV and shift down into its lowest resolution to match the input to the TV. It was at least as low as 640x480, but it matched the input of the TV. There was NO picture on my computer monitor while I had the TV connected to the vid card.

I had it connected for as long as it took to watch "Titanic" on DVD. I absolutely hated the picture I got.

I disconnected the TV from the vid card, rebooted and have never tried it again.

Out of the whole experience, the thing that surprised me most was that I had to make the connection with the computer turned OFF. Your own experience may varry.

Good Luck,
Doc :cheers:

mackle · Joined: Apr 15, 2006 Posts: 2

So if i need to get the resolution of the computer down to 640 resolution,

How do I do this when it only goes down to 800x600?

Morbius · Joined: Sep 05, 2005 Posts: 1712

You don't......it does!

Try it the way I told you.

Shut off the computer.
Hook the cable to the TV. (you never did tell us what cabling you're using, or how you're connecting to the TV.)

Turn the computer ON.

What do you get on the TV?
Do you have to select an Input on the TV when you use that input? (I do)

You're telling us so little here about your whole setup, that it's really hard to advise you.
More information would surely be helpful.

Doc