s-video help

[pavilion cooler]

i got my laptop hooked up to a tv and i cant really see the words
games look great on it !!
its a older tv probably the first to have s-video i tried running it with a nvidia 6150 mobile and 6200 but both do the same

is s-video just poor quality ? or im i doing something wrong here?

[werty316]

As far as I know connecting a computer to a TV using a S-Video cable can't produce a crisp enough picture.

I used to connect my computer to a TV using a s-video cable and all the text was readable and the screen looked like crap but watching videos was fine.

[pavilion cooler]

thats what i thought
so whats the best way to get it to work on a tv ?

[Zelig]

Older TVs are generally in the area of 640x480 resolution, so the image quality is a limitation of the TV, not of the connection type; not much that can be done about it.

[skier]

basically it all boils down to: a cheap TV is wayy worse than Cheap monitor, or in other words, don't run your PC with a TV unless its a new HDTV or if you don't have any text to read

[vicaphit]

Yeahm s-video will give you a really messed up image. Almost like half of the pixels for the words are missing. You would be better off buying an old CRT monitor for now and getting an HDTV whenever you get around to it.

...or just buy the HDTV now

[martini161]

this is because svideo can only carrie a 480i image. this mans its 640x480, interlaced. interlaced measn every 4th line is black

[pavilion cooler]

i was going to get a 32" hdtv in the end but got the cord to see how it worked
so when i go hd would i need a different cord ?

[Zelig]

i was going to get a 32" hdtv in the end but got the cord to see how it worked
so when i go hd would i need a different cord ?

Depends on your laptop. Some PCs have a tv-out port which accepts s-video, but can also use an included adapter to go to component.

Component and VGA can both do HD signal in analog, digital needs DVI/HDMI/displayport.

[vicaphit]

I have my computer hooked up via a VGA input on the back, but you can get an HDMI adapter to connect to the TV. Both of these look pretty good.

Keep in mind resolutions when looking for an HDTV. A 720p TV will have a lower resolution than a 1080p or 1080i.

[Sporg]

In the interim you might lower the resolution (to the lowest!) on your computer when running on the TV. That should help a little bit.

On my MAME box I have S-Video running from the box to a TV and for those old games it doesn't look too bad. But if I use the desktop of the PC it looks bleh (yes, bleh is the technical term).

I think the others answered the resolution/interlace stuff well.