I have tried both a s-video cord and a USG cord(?) to connect to my TV. I
get only a blank screen. Is there some sort of driver or setting I need to
change to see something on the TV? I went to the control panel under display
but I could not figure anything out. I tried both cables on a Sony and a
Phillips TV and I tried it on both my lap top and my wifes. I am sure it is
operator error, so......

Please help.

Thank you.

BEAK wrote:
> I have tried both a s-video cord and a USG cord(?) to connect to my
> TV. I get only a blank screen. Is there some sort of driver or
> setting I need to change to see something on the TV? I went to the
> control panel under display but I could not figure anything out. I
> tried both cables on a Sony and a Phillips TV and I tried it on both
> my lap top and my wifes. I am sure it is operator error, so......
>
> Please help.
>
> Thank you.

What is the output you are sending to the TV set labelled? What sort of
connector is it? What is the connector at the TV?
S-video is usually the easiest to get working. However, depending on
your video card you may also have to set the mode to "clone" meaning,
put the same thing on the TV as I see on my screen. Otherwise the TV
will either get no signal or the wrong signals, either of which could
create a black screen.

Regards,

Twayne

BEAK wrote:
> I have tried both a s-video cord and a USG cord(?) to connect to my TV. I
> get only a blank screen. Is there some sort of driver or setting I need to
> change to see something on the TV? I went to the control panel under display
> but I could not figure anything out. I tried both cables on a Sony and a
> Phillips TV and I tried it on both my lap top and my wifes. I am sure it is
> operator error, so......
>
> Please help.
>
> Thank you.

Are you sure it isn't a TV problem ?

To start, do you have a VCR ? If the VCR connects via composite or S-video,
that gives you an opportunity to verify that the TV works on that input.

On my current TV, the remote channel changer must be navigated
below "Channel 3" to the "video" setting, and then the TV will
look at its video input. Check your TV documentation, to be sure that
the video input is the currently selected source for the TV.

Once you've verified the TV set, by using a VCR as a stimulus,
you can go back to trying the computer.

As far as the computer is concerned, at that point in time, it
might be in dual display mode. If you look at the Display
control panel, do Advanced and look at the video card specific
options, you might see a dual display like this shown. In
my control panel, you actually have to select the new icon
that appears, and "slide" it into the main status display,
to "make" a dual display. At that point, a popup menu asks
me what I'm trying to do. The options offered aren't very
descriptive. I used "Extended" to get something that looked
like this.

+-------+ +-----+
| | | 2 |
| 1 | | |
| | +-----+
+-------+ ^
|
+-----+ | (Slide gray icon up into active area, beside "1")
| | -----+ (It should become "2")
+-----+

You want to select the one that corresponds to the TV
set, and set it to 640 x 480 resolution. The control panel
may have already selected a refresh rate consistent
with TV (TV is 30 frames per second, is interleaved,
and gets 60 fields per second to draw the screen).
I expect it'll be set to 60Hz for refresh, but you
never know. (In a PAL country, maybe it'll be 50Hz.)
The max resolution to the TV will likely be 1024 x 768,
but that setting tends to really wash out text. Your
choices might be 640x480, 800x600, or 1024x768.

I just tried to set this up, by booting into my other
OS and testing, and the setup was no fun at all. I tried
to extend the desktop to both displays, which worked
fine, but then I got greedy and tried to change the
resolution. The primary display ended up with some
weird resolution, and I could barely access the resolution
menu item to fix it. So there is plenty of fun ahead for
you. (Since the Display panel waits 15 seconds for confirmation
you like the changes, don't click "OK" on there unless you're
absolutely sure you want to keep the results. For example,
if both screens go black, wait patiently for the 15 seconds
to pass, and the settings to revert on their own to the
old values.)

One other tiny detail - some video cards have a bit of
a problem doing impedance sensing on the video output.
In some cases, the control panel will offer a "Force
detection" button for handling TVs. That is supposed to
enable the output, even if the impedance sensing doesn't
think a cable and 75 ohm load are present. I didn't
particularly have a problem here - I exited from the
Display control panel, plugged in the TV (using an
S-video to composite adapter plug in my case), and
the next time I went into the Advanced section of
the Display control panel, I could see the icon showing
a new display was present. If you're not seeing any
option offered there, then look for the "Force" option.

In terms of manuals, for Nvidia, there are a number of
PDF documents on the web site. Some releases of display
drivers, include another URL to get a PDF manual. The
introduction of the "new" versus "classis" Display
control panel though, means less documentation from
them (which sucks). The "new" control panel is not
as user friendly.

With ATI, the situation is worse (if at all possible).
I tried a while back, to get a manual documenting Catalyst
Control Center. The document on the ATI site, was a four page
brochure, instead of the manual. I did find a manual on
the VisionTek site, ccc.pdf . So while there is some
documentation, if is almost impossible to find. And the
copy on the VisionTek site is now out of date. So these
companies really mean you to figure out everything by
looking at their stupid icons and stuff. On my ATI,
it took me a while to see that icon below the main
status area of the display, and "slide" the icon up
next to "1".

Paul

BEAK wrote:
> I have tried both a s-video cord and a USG cord(?) to connect to my
> TV. I get only a blank screen. Is there some sort of driver or
> setting I need to change to see something on the TV? I went to the
> control panel under display but I could not figure anything out. I
> tried both cables on a Sony and a Phillips TV and I tried it on both
> my lap top and my wifes. I am sure it is operator error, so......
>
> Please help.
>
> Thank you.
==================================
The following link is to an older discussion
on the subject but it may offer the info you need:

computer to tv s-video
http://forums.devarticles.com/the-li...ideo-4827.html

--


John Inzer MS-MVP
Digital Media Experience

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

I was able to get a display on the monitor but it was all wavy. Any
suggestions?

"Paul" wrote:

> BEAK wrote:
> > I have tried both a s-video cord and a USG cord(?) to connect to my TV. I
> > get only a blank screen. Is there some sort of driver or setting I need to
> > change to see something on the TV? I went to the control panel under display
> > but I could not figure anything out. I tried both cables on a Sony and a
> > Phillips TV and I tried it on both my lap top and my wifes. I am sure it is
> > operator error, so......
> >
> > Please help.
> >
> > Thank you.
>
> Are you sure it isn't a TV problem ?
>
> To start, do you have a VCR ? If the VCR connects via composite or S-video,
> that gives you an opportunity to verify that the TV works on that input.
>
> On my current TV, the remote channel changer must be navigated
> below "Channel 3" to the "video" setting, and then the TV will
> look at its video input. Check your TV documentation, to be sure that
> the video input is the currently selected source for the TV.
>
> Once you've verified the TV set, by using a VCR as a stimulus,
> you can go back to trying the computer.
>
> As far as the computer is concerned, at that point in time, it
> might be in dual display mode. If you look at the Display
> control panel, do Advanced and look at the video card specific
> options, you might see a dual display like this shown. In
> my control panel, you actually have to select the new icon
> that appears, and "slide" it into the main status display,
> to "make" a dual display. At that point, a popup menu asks
> me what I'm trying to do. The options offered aren't very
> descriptive. I used "Extended" to get something that looked
> like this.
>
> +-------+ +-----+
> | | | 2 |
> | 1 | | |
> | | +-----+
> +-------+ ^
> |
> +-----+ | (Slide gray icon up into active area, beside "1")
> | | -----+ (It should become "2")
> +-----+
>
> You want to select the one that corresponds to the TV
> set, and set it to 640 x 480 resolution. The control panel
> may have already selected a refresh rate consistent
> with TV (TV is 30 frames per second, is interleaved,
> and gets 60 fields per second to draw the screen).
> I expect it'll be set to 60Hz for refresh, but you
> never know. (In a PAL country, maybe it'll be 50Hz.)
> The max resolution to the TV will likely be 1024 x 768,
> but that setting tends to really wash out text. Your
> choices might be 640x480, 800x600, or 1024x768.
>
> I just tried to set this up, by booting into my other
> OS and testing, and the setup was no fun at all. I tried
> to extend the desktop to both displays, which worked
> fine, but then I got greedy and tried to change the
> resolution. The primary display ended up with some
> weird resolution, and I could barely access the resolution
> menu item to fix it. So there is plenty of fun ahead for
> you. (Since the Display panel waits 15 seconds for confirmation
> you like the changes, don't click "OK" on there unless you're
> absolutely sure you want to keep the results. For example,
> if both screens go black, wait patiently for the 15 seconds
> to pass, and the settings to revert on their own to the
> old values.)
>
> One other tiny detail - some video cards have a bit of
> a problem doing impedance sensing on the video output.
> In some cases, the control panel will offer a "Force
> detection" button for handling TVs. That is supposed to
> enable the output, even if the impedance sensing doesn't
> think a cable and 75 ohm load are present. I didn't
> particularly have a problem here - I exited from the
> Display control panel, plugged in the TV (using an
> S-video to composite adapter plug in my case), and
> the next time I went into the Advanced section of
> the Display control panel, I could see the icon showing
> a new display was present. If you're not seeing any
> option offered there, then look for the "Force" option.
>
> In terms of manuals, for Nvidia, there are a number of
> PDF documents on the web site. Some releases of display
> drivers, include another URL to get a PDF manual. The
> introduction of the "new" versus "classis" Display
> control panel though, means less documentation from
> them (which sucks). The "new" control panel is not
> as user friendly.
>
> With ATI, the situation is worse (if at all possible).
> I tried a while back, to get a manual documenting Catalyst
> Control Center. The document on the ATI site, was a four page
> brochure, instead of the manual. I did find a manual on
> the VisionTek site, ccc.pdf . So while there is some
> documentation, if is almost impossible to find. And the
> copy on the VisionTek site is now out of date. So these
> companies really mean you to figure out everything by
> looking at their stupid icons and stuff. On my ATI,
> it took me a while to see that icon below the main
> status area of the display, and "slide" the icon up
> next to "1".
>
> Paul
>

I was able to get a display on the monitor but it was all wavy. Any
suggestions?

"John Inzer" wrote:

> BEAK wrote:
> > I have tried both a s-video cord and a USG cord(?) to connect to my
> > TV. I get only a blank screen. Is there some sort of driver or
> > setting I need to change to see something on the TV? I went to the
> > control panel under display but I could not figure anything out. I
> > tried both cables on a Sony and a Phillips TV and I tried it on both
> > my lap top and my wifes. I am sure it is operator error, so......
> >
> > Please help.
> >
> > Thank you.
> ==================================
> The following link is to an older discussion
> on the subject but it may offer the info you need:
>
> computer to tv s-video
> http://forums.devarticles.com/the-li...ideo-4827.html
>
> --
>
>
> John Inzer MS-MVP
> Digital Media Experience
>
> Notice
> This is not tech support
> I am a volunteer
>
> Solutions that work for
> me may not work for you
>
> Proceed at your own risk
>
>
>

I was able to get a display on the monitor but it was all wavy. Any
suggestions?

"Twayne" wrote:

> BEAK wrote:
> > I have tried both a s-video cord and a USG cord(?) to connect to my
> > TV. I get only a blank screen. Is there some sort of driver or
> > setting I need to change to see something on the TV? I went to the
> > control panel under display but I could not figure anything out. I
> > tried both cables on a Sony and a Phillips TV and I tried it on both
> > my lap top and my wifes. I am sure it is operator error, so......
> >
> > Please help.
> >
> > Thank you.
>
> What is the output you are sending to the TV set labelled? What sort of
> connector is it? What is the connector at the TV?
> S-video is usually the easiest to get working. However, depending on
> your video card you may also have to set the mode to "clone" meaning,
> put the same thing on the TV as I see on my screen. Otherwise the TV
> will either get no signal or the wrong signals, either of which could
> create a black screen.
>
> Regards,
>
> Twayne
>
>
>

BEAK wrote:
> I was able to get a display on the monitor but it was all wavy. Any
> suggestions?

Can you move the TV set, near to the computer ? Can you plug the
TV set, into the same power strip as the computer ? My purpose
in suggesting that, is so the equipment has common safety grounds.

I don't know what else to suggest, to eliminate waves. Waves
can be reflections on the cable (impedance mismatch). If you've
done the "VCR Test" with your TV set, you may get some idea
of the kind of quality you can get on the baseband video input.
If the TV looks as bad, while a VCR is driving it on the
composite or S-video, then that would tell you the TV
is just bad. My TV doesn't do a very good job on composite
input, and my TV is too cheap to have s-video.

In some cases, distortion can be caused by strong electrical or
magnetic interference. But I doubt that would be the reason in
this case, because you'd have seen some other aspect of it
already.

Paul

On Apr 27, 4:15*am, BEAK <B...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> I was able to get a display on the monitor but it was all wavy. *Any
> suggestions?
>
> "John Inzer" wrote:
> > BEAK wrote:
> > > I have tried both a s-video cord and a USG cord(?) to connect to my
> > > TV. *I get only a blank screen. *Is there some sort of driver or
> > > setting I need to change to see something on the TV? *I went to the
> > > control panel under display but I could not figure anything out. *I
> > > tried both cables on a Sony and a Phillips TV and I tried it on both
> > > my lap top and my wifes. *I am sure it is operator error, so......
>
> > > Please help.
>
> > > Thank you.
> > ==================================
> > The following link is to an older discussion
> > on the subject but it may offer the info you need:
>
> > computer to tv s-video
> >http://forums.devarticles.com/the-li...uter-to-tv-s-v...
>
> > --
>
> > * * John Inzer MS-MVP
> > Digital Media Experience
>
> > * * * * * * Notice
> > This is not tech support
> > * * * I am a volunteer
>
> > *Solutions that work for
> > me may not work for you
>
> > Proceed at your own risk

Check with the TV's maker. They may have a Windows "inf" file to use
so as to tell Windows the "features" to usin in the display.

Also, "wavy" display usually can indicate "poor" quality cables. You
might want to change to higher quality "shielded" cables.