connecting laptop to LCD TV. HELP!

Psychobob · 09-19-2005, 09:02 PM

Hello, I’m looking to connect my laptop to my LCD TV

My TV has a VGA port as does my laptop. From what I have read it should be a simple case of connecting the two with a VGA lead, and in part it was.

My LCD TV will display the Windows XP start up logo, after which the signal is lost.

On my laptop I right clicked on the desk top, and then tinkered with the screen resolution, scan rate and colour display. Although I’m not sure the options I set the display too, my LCD TV responded to this by displaying the desktop background, but nothing else.

Can someone please tell me how I can get my laptop to fully display on my LCD TV, nowhere else has been off help.

RockLobster · 09-19-2005, 09:30 PM

Hmm...only displays the background?

Do you see the entire background, like you would on your laptop screen, or only a portion of it?

If only a portion, then your TV is overscanning and that's going to be a pain to fix. TV's overscan (cut off the sides of the broadcast picture) because older TV broadcasts used to have curved edges and viewers didn't like it. To compensate, TV manufacturers began to have the TV's overscan so viewers simply couldn't see the curve because it was now cut off. I spent a month timing my video card to make the image appear properly on my rear projection HDTV...in the end, it was NOT worth the trouble =)

Another idea is, since you can see the desktop background, is that your laptop is extending your desktop, instead of mirroring it. If you move your laptop pointer to the extreme left, right, top or bottom of your laptop screen, it will eventually appear on your TV if that's the case.

If so, your gfx card should have some sort of utility to change it to mirror your laptop screen instead.

09-19-2005, 09:02 PM	#1 (permalink)
Psychobob New Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 1	connecting laptop to LCD TV. HELP! Hello, I’m looking to connect my laptop to my LCD TV My TV has a VGA port as does my laptop. From what I have read it should be a simple case of connecting the two with a VGA lead, and in part it was. My LCD TV will display the Windows XP start up logo, after which the signal is lost. On my laptop I right clicked on the desk top, and then tinkered with the screen resolution, scan rate and colour display. Although I’m not sure the options I set the display too, my LCD TV responded to this by displaying the desktop background, but nothing else. Can someone please tell me how I can get my laptop to fully display on my LCD TV, nowhere else has been off help.

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09-19-2005, 09:30 PM	#2 (permalink)
RockLobster Bronze Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 32	Hmm...only displays the background? Do you see the entire background, like you would on your laptop screen, or only a portion of it? If only a portion, then your TV is overscanning and that's going to be a pain to fix. TV's overscan (cut off the sides of the broadcast picture) because older TV broadcasts used to have curved edges and viewers didn't like it. To compensate, TV manufacturers began to have the TV's overscan so viewers simply couldn't see the curve because it was now cut off. I spent a month timing my video card to make the image appear properly on my rear projection HDTV...in the end, it was NOT worth the trouble =) Another idea is, since you can see the desktop background, is that your laptop is extending your desktop, instead of mirroring it. If you move your laptop pointer to the extreme left, right, top or bottom of your laptop screen, it will eventually appear on your TV if that's the case. If so, your gfx card should have some sort of utility to change it to mirror your laptop screen instead.