Connecting laptop to TV please help
 

Hi, I really hope someone can help me it's midnight here and i'm starting to feel desperate!

I've been searching the forums for weeks now and while i've found loads of information without posting myself, i'm going crazy with this one issue.
I've downloaded films and tv shows, which is great and i'm very happy. But i would really like to watch them on my tv. So i went out and bought the scart to go from laptop to tv and all that works fine... EXCEPT.... Everything is in black and white, not just the film also the desktop.
I've searched and searched the web looking for answers and this is my last hope. I downloaded nvidia, saw that on some sites but i don't even know what it does. Arrghh
Please help!
Tried forgeting that idea and decided to try burning- another 48 hours of problems.
Please help.

I'm not sure about connecting directly from a card (I use a 3rd party device.) But if it's in black & white it sounds to me like the format is wrong; ie: ntsc instead of pal or vice versa. But I could be wrong.

What do you mean you downlded nvidia. Do you mean an update to your drivers? You would only upgrade your drivers if you have an nvidia graphics card. So what type of graphics card do you have & how are ou trying to connect to the tv?

Right
 

Thank you for replying so fast.
I have tried changing to Pal and vice versa- still black & white screen.
I don't really know what i was trying to do with Nvidia i didn't have it to start with i'd just seen it on some site and thought it might work- yes i am stupid. so lets forget about that

I don't know if it has some thing to do with the connection, but i don't think it is. I have the s video to scart and scart in the TV. I've also tried changing tv.

Thanks
oh i don't know what graphics card i have, i'm on windows xp, do you know how i could find out?

To find out what video adapter card you have 1)start 2)control panel 3) system 4) hardware 5)device manager 6)display adapters - click on the + and this will expand and show what video cards you have installed

Hi
 

Ok the video adapter is
ATI Mobility Radeon 7000 IGP
That makes no sense to me, It's now 1:30 AM. I'm not going to bed till i've fixed it

:confused:

:rolleyes:

You may find updated drivers for this video card here: http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html

Thanks
 

I've just been to that site, and it answers a lot of questions.
I get the impression it's nothing to do with my graphics card and i need to buy a new three way scart etc.
Which is crazy, because i bought one the other day, got home realised i had an old one for my portable dvd player, so i took it back to the shop. Really don't want to spend £30 on a new one. Oh well, i'l get it and if that works i'll get back to you. Going to bed now.

My old Sony TV & VCR used scart but I replaced them a few months ago. Sony no longer uses scart on their tv's or vcr's (though my dvd player has that option.) Since scart is very much a European concept. Scart adaptors are available (certainly here) or you can have an electronic shop wire one up for you. I'm just wondering whether you're going about it the right way to connect b/w your comp & tv.

I found something re: scart & b/w signal: http://search.ati.com/nasearch.asp?Q...otal=&Stat=New

or the answer directly is here: http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4614.html

It is your s-video to scart using 3rd party scart cable!

That's it!
 

I'd just found that too, just goes to show the mind is slower at night. I completely missed that. Yeh I was plugging the s video straight into the scart. so i'm gonna buy an s video do 3 rca today. I'll tell you if it works.
Thank you, you really are good at this!

Thank you
 

And then there was colour!
I'm so happy, ended up taking my laptop into a pc shop and got the right cable! Why are there so many!!

Thanks for your help, very much appreciated.