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powerbook connected to TV?

A

absurdio

macrumors 6502
Original poster
pretend for a second that i don't know a thing about this (no, really, i don't): if i wanted to do something like play dvds through my pb to my tv...could i do that? and if so, how?
thanks
 
yes.

what kind of PB do you have?

i have rev. A 12" PB. it came with a VGA dongle that converted VGA out from PB to either composite video or S-video to be hooked up to a TV. i think audio will have to come out of headphone jack..?

i don't know about the type of dongles you need with other PBs, you may have to purchase one, but they are fairly cheap, i believe... ($20?)
 
i have a 15" pb, and the newest of the old generation.

hm. come to think of it, it appears i've got an s-video port right here... and so does my tv.

this may have come with the necessary cables, though i don't think it did...

but would plugging a double-ended s-video cable from comp to tv be all i had to do to watch videos on my tv? that'd sooooooper.
 
You'd have to hook up the S-video to your tv AND audio cables to whatever you are using for speakers- to the tv if you're using that or to a stereo or computer speakers. To hook it up to your tv or stereo you would need to have a mini-plug (1/8") to Stereo RCA cable, which comes with most portable CD players (or at least they used to, and just a guess that you've had one) or you can pick one up at Radio Shack or some other electronics store like that.
 
you just need a dongle... s-video is the best quality to output onto atv... unless you have HDTV, which have VGA inputs...

With Panther, you can watch a DVD on the TV while working on the laptop... SOOOOO handy! and something that I felt was a disgrace to be left out of Jaguar
 
hot diggity. one more reason to update to panther. one of these days, very soon, i imagine i won't be able to stand it anymore and i'll just have to upgrade....

but until then...i do, indeed, have a couple of 1/8" to rca cables that i use for my music. so that part's under control...the only other question is wher i could get an s-video cable. they're pretty common, i'm sure... but would you say radio shack? compusa?

thanks again
 
Yeah, Radio Shack has them, as does Best Buy. but I'd shop around on price a little. I couldn't find it on their website, but I got a 10' S video cable at Radio Shack because they didn't have anything at Best buy longer than 6' until you got to 25'. I was surprised just a moment ago to see the 12' cable on their site.
 
dope. that's awesome, dude. $20 is like...nothing. i was fearing for the worst for a bit there.

while i'm at it...how does that work...do you just plug it in and it displays whatever's on the pb screen?

'cause...that could have neat gaming opportunities, too. =)

thanks again.

i'll probably stop by radio shack sometime soon and pick one up.
i've found that radio shack sucks for a lot of things...but that cables is not one of them.
 
I use an a S video cable to connect to my TV and a cheap Y cable to connect to my speaker system through my headphone jack. I have no clue where I got it from, but I think it came with the old Sound Blaster AWE 128 Gold sound blaster card I bought for my PC way back when. It works wonders for when I want to use iTunes with my home theater system.
 
My TV is older, and only has a coax cable input. This made it a bit more complicated, but still not really hard. For this setup I also had to get an RF converter (actually I already had one because most new TV "peripherals" expect either S-Video or RCA to be available).

My Powerbook came with an S-Video to RCA converter, so that was all set. I also seem to have gotten several different mini-stereo to RCA stereo adapters, but I don't know off-hand where they came from! Oh, I bet "P. G5" is right, and that's where at least one of mine came from.

Now if there was just a wireless remote for the Powerbook... 😀
 
I've seen quite a few awesome BT devices with all sorts of advanced multimedia features. I am not sure if they'd be compatible with OS X, though.
 
Sure enough. I got a 12' S-video cable from Best Buy (about $25), and life is good. I just plugged it into the TV and the PB, tinkered with "displays" for a second, and - presto - it works. Thanks for the help, guys. Everything seems to work fine..and I appreciate the advice.

The one snag I've had is that when I don't disconnect the TV (display), occasionally my mouse will go wandering off into the blank TV screen, which always leaves me puzzled as to where the hell my cursor went (especially when the screen is off), but that's easily remedied by just disconnecting the display again.

Anyway, thanks again. If anyone else needs advice on this, I'm happy to share my tiny success story in greater detail.
 
Originally posted by absurdio
The one snag I've had is that when I don't disconnect the TV (display), occasionally my mouse will go wandering off into the blank TV screen, which always leaves me puzzled as to where the hell my cursor went (especially when the screen is off), but that's easily remedied by just disconnecting the display again.
Click to expand...

Sounds like an OS bug. You should report that to Apple so they can fix it.
 
Sounds like the PowerBook is in monitor spanning mode and your mouse is somewhere in the second monitor field. If you are connected to the tv, it considers it the second monitor and allows for the mouse to be off the screen.
 
well, here's a grim development.

everything worked fine for a while...but now things have gone awry.

the display on my tv...still seems to recieve what my computer's telling it...but the left and right edges are no longer straight vertical lines. Instead they sortof bulge and curve in (not by very much, mind you, but even the say, quarter of an inch on each side bothers me). The display on my pb is still perfectly normal...and i haven't changed anything...but, still, the display on the tv has edges that aren't as they should be.
does anyone know what the hell is going on?

thanks for the help, guys. *crosses fingers*
 
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