Cheapest way to display HD video (on a TV)

[mkrishnan]

Also, unless I have the displays mirrored, nothing but the desktop background shows up on my TV.

[...]

Even if I go under the menu settings on my TV, it tells me the resolution of the damn laptop under display info.

If I don't have the displays mirrored, I see only the desktop background (no icons, no apps) on the TV.

Okay, back up a step. When you turn off mirroring, you see the background only on the external screen. That's the way it's supposed to work, fair. When you mirror, you have the same resolution on both screens, which is why the TV reports the internal display's resolution -- because it's mirroring it.

The primary display is the one that has the menu bar on it, and the other is just a display. Open Sys Prefs -> Arrangement. You see the two screens there -- if you move your mouse off the side of the main display that the other display is on, it'll re-appear on the other screen. If you drag a window off that edge, it'll go over to your TV.

For some programs, if you put the window on the secondary display, and then go fullscreen, it'll go fullscreen over there. For others, you may need to change the primary display to be the TV. To do this, in sys prefs -> arrangement, you click on the little picture of the menu bar and you drag it over to the other display. Then the TV will have a menu bar and dock and the internal screen will just show a background.

So do that first... now, when you get this far, look in your TV's settings and say back what the reported resolution is.

 

[fairnymph]

*headdesk*

You reply after I gave up for the day and returned the DVI cable to its proper home. I really need to get another DVI cable. I do have a 12" one, lol, but um...I'm not sure if I fit behind the TV. And of course then I can't see the TV. I do have little mirror on an extendable bent metal rod though. This is getting sort of ridiculous!

I didn't have mirroring on when I exported the DDC info.

So are you saying, you want me to make the TV my primary display (and laptop secondary, so IT would just be the desktop background then?) and THEN check resolution?

 

[mkrishnan]

So are you saying, you want me to make the TV my primary display (and laptop secondary, so IT would just be the desktop background then?) and THEN check resolution?

Mmm, yeah, it's a starting point. Make sure it matches what your computer thinks it is. And what *is* it anyways? That is, when you just plug in and let it auto configure without mirroring, what resolution gets picked, and what ones are available?