connecting to tv

this is copied from an old faq by one of the dell moderators.




Ok, due to the multiple, repetitive questions regarding the procedure for dvd playback on a tv, I have decided to make a general post detailing the entire procedure. All cables I describe can be purchased at Radio Shack. This procedure is valid for those systems with a s-video output (which does not include the Inspiron 2x00 series) running Windows 98 or Windows 98SE and not for those using the Margi DVD-To-Go pcmcia card. However, the actual connecting of the audio and video cables is relevant for any Dell laptop/OS you may have. There are also some Windows 2000 specific instructions, tips in the “Troubleshooting” section of this post that will help for any OS, as well as some Windows ME and Windows 2000 specific tips. In this procedure, I will refer to RCA jacks and cables. Usually, a RCA video jack/cable is yellow and RCA right and left audio jacks/cables are red and white, respectively.


I. Connecting your tv to the computer.
A. Video
1. First, determine if your tv has an s-video input. If it does, simply use a standard s-video cable to do a direct s-video to s-video connection with your tv (do not worry about the extra 3 holes on the computer’s s-video output, a standard 4 pin s-video cable will work just fine). Go to step 3.
2. If your tv does not have a s-video input, hook up the little cable Dell included with your system to the s-video output on your computer. Now, take a standard RCA video cable with male ends on both sides and plug one end into the little cable you now have connected to your computer and the other end to the RCA video input on your tv.
3. Tune your tv to receive the input signal you plugged the s-video cable or RCA video cable on your tv. This can usually be done by setting your tv to “aux”, “aux1”, or “aux2”. You may or may not see your desktop now on your tv..
4. Reboot (this step is optional and may or may not be necessary. Do it if you do not see your desktop on your tv).
5. Your video connection is now complete.

Note:
1. You must connect your tv directly to the computer (not through the vcr). If you do not do this, the macrovision protection will kick in during dvd playback giving you an undesirable picture.
2. If your tv does not have a s-video input or RCA video input, you need to purchase a RF modulator from Radio Shack (~$30). It will take your coaxial cable input and convert it into 3 RCA input jacks (1 Video, 2 Audio – L & R).

B. Audio
You can use your internal speakers on the computer to listen to the dvd audio or if you have a pair of external speakers you may use those as well. However, most people prefer to use their stereo systems or tv speakers to listen to the dvd audio so I will describe that procedure here.

Note: If you are using external USB speakers and you have an Inspiron 7000 with an internal Luxsonor dvd decoder card, you will not be able to use them to listen to dvd audio.

1. Purchase a Y-cable from Radio Shack. It will have a standard 1/8” male headphone jack on one end (this plugs into your computer headphone output) and two RCA audio male jacks (left and right) on the other end (these plug into your stereo or tv’s RCA audio input jacks).
2. Plug the single 1/8" male headphone plug into the computer's headphone output jack and the two RCA audio jacks into the corresponding RCA audio input jacks on your tv or stereo system taking care to match the left RCA plug with left RCA audio input jack and right RCA plug with right RCA audio input jack. If you are plugging them into your tv, be sure you are plugging them into the RCA audio jacks that correspond to the video input you have the computer plugged into.
3. If you plugged the y-cable into your stereo system, be sure to set the stereo to receive the input you have the RCA audio jacks plugged into. This setup is only capable of giving you Dolby Pro-Logic Surround Sound ONLY (assuming you have a Dolby Pro-Logic decoder and apprpriate speakers). It is not capable of Dolby Digital AC-3/5.1 surround sound even if you do have a Dolby Digital decoder.
4. Your audio connection is now complete.

Note: If you wish to obtain Dolby Digital AC-3/ 5.1 sound, you will have to either purchase a port replicator that has an S/PDIF output on it, purchase the Margi DVD-TO-GO card (www.margi.com) WITH the special dongle Margi sells as an option for it, or have an Inspiron 8x00 laptop that has a built-in S/PDIF output on it. If you have a S/PDIF output of some kind, all you need to do is run a digital coaxial cable from your S/PDIF output on your port replicator, Margi dongle, or Inspiron 8x00 output to the S/PDIF input on your Dolby Digital decoder (many times the Dolby Digital decoder is built into your receiver or even subwoofer if you are using computer speakers). Also, in order to access the S/PDIF port on an I8x00, you must plug the little adapter cable Dell included with your sytem into the s-video port. This will convert the s-video port into 3 ports, an s-video output, a composite (RCA) video ouptput, and a S/PDIF output.


II. DVD Playback
A. Settings for ATI cards
1. Go Start>> Settings>> Control Panel>> Display>> Settings
2. Set your resolution to 800x600and 16 bit color (this is the resolution that most closely matches that of a tv). Click OK and then “Yes” when Windows asks if you wish to keep the new settings
3. Repeat step 1 and then click on the “advanced” tab and then the “displays” tab
4. Set your tv as the “primary” display and your LCD as the “secondary” display. (DVD playback will only be visible on your “primary” display.)
5. Click OK.
6. Your desktop should now be visible.
7. Insert your dvd and start up dvd playback like you normally would.

B. Settings for Nvidia cards:
1. Right-click your desktop and go into properties
2. Select the Twin-View tab at the top of the properties dialog window
3. Select Advanced (toward the bottom). There will be three options and the TV option should be available now - click the TV option and select whatever video type you want (composite video for example).
4. You will have about 10 seconds to confirm the connection which you will only be able to see from the TV.

C. Settings for Nvidia cards running Windows 2000 (courtesy of Nicolas K.)
1. Start->Control Panel-> Click on "Display"
2. Choose the "Settings" tab
3. Choose the "Advanced" button
4. Choose the "Twinview" tab
5. Select: Output Device-> Select Output Devices
6. Make sure the tv is connected to the special Dell
3-choices adaptor to the computer with the composite
video (middle yellow) connector via the S-video output
port on the Inspiron 8000.
7. Make sure the tv in powered on.
8. You'll see the laptop's flatpanel currently selected.
9. Select "Scan Display Connections
10. A radio button called "TV" will appear
as an output device choice.
11. Select this new radio button.
12. Click on "Apply" and then OK. You'll see the
entire screen of the laptop appear now only on the TV.

D. OPTIONAL Audio Settings
You can enable the direct digital audio on the Toshiba DVD ROM so that you eliminate unnecesary digital-to-analog conversion which picks up hardware noise (courtesy of Nicolas K.).
1. "Start" -> "Control Panel" -> click "System"
2. Select the Hardware tab
3. Click on Device Manager
4. Select the Toshiba DVD (right click it)
5. Select Properties
6. Select the Properties tab
7. Click the check box for "Enable digital CD audio on this CDROM device"


III. Troubleshooting:

A. Skipping, Jurking, Audio/Video Synchronization, and Flickering Problems:
1. Make sure DMA is enabled. To do this, right click My Computer>> properties>> device manager>> click on the + sign next to cd-rom>> double click your dvd-rom drive>> settings>> place a check in the DMA box>> click OK and reboot.

Note: If you are running the Softex Bay Manager software for W98, W98SE, DMA is located under the bay manager software’s icons properites in the lower right-hand corner of your screen. For W2k, DMA is located under the IDE controllers under device manage. DMA is already enabled in WinME.

2. Reinstall your dvd-rom drive, audio/video drivers,decoding hardware/ software (usually Luxsonor or Cinemaster), and your DirectX software (make sure Direct Draw is enabled for DirectX). If you are using an I7k with an internal Luxsonor dvd deocoder card, you may also want to try uninstalling the Dell/Luxsonor player and using the included MS one instead (if it is not there, it can be installed from the Windows cd; uninstall the player first then perform the reinstall of the above listed hardware/software)
3. Be sure you are using the latest drivers and patches from Dell. These can be found in your systems download page on the Dell website.
4. If you have a combo ethernet/modem pcmcia card, make sure that is not present during dvd playback as well. The card is searching every couple of seconds for a network when there is none present, causing the system to briefly freeze. If the card is by Xircom, there is a driver fix available for the card from Xircom that you can install so the card will not have to be removed.
5. Disable all anti-virus software during dvd playback as well as any other software you may have running in the background. Use ctrl+alt+del to accomplish this.
6. Your system resources may be low. To fix this, go start>>run>> type "msconfig">> startup>> and uncheck everything except for task monitor, system tray, and load power profile. Click OK and reboot.
7. Try keeping your hard drive from spinning down during dvd playbvack using your bios and Windows power management settings.
8. Defragment your hard drive and reboot.
9. Enable the "sync data transfer" setting under the same tab as DMA in #1.
10. Disable the “auto insert notification” option under the same tab as DMA in #1
11. Try Windvd (www.intervideo.com), Powerdvd (www.cyberlink-usa.com), or the ATI player (www.ati.com).
12. The menu or subtitles may flicker on an Inspiron 8000 with a GeForce2Go video card during a DVD movie. This will happen if the Hardware Motion compensation (HWMC) key in the registry is set to 1 (on). Check the registry key \H_KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\INTERVIDEO\WinDVD\HWMC and make sure that it is set to 0 (Off). A file is also avalible from the Dell FTP site that will disable HWMC if you feel uncomfortable with editing the registry.

To download the file, go to:
ftp://ftp1.us.dell.com/video/Z9378T01.EXE

B. TV Image (or lack thereof) and Black & White Image Problems:
1. If you are having trouble getting the laptop to recognize a tv is connected, try the following steps: First, make sure you are running the latest BIOS available from your system's download page. Now, go to a different (preferably newer) tv and connect the laptop to the tv using the highest quality s-video/RCA video cable you can obtain then reboot. The s-vdeo port should now be enabled (if it is not, try a different tv). Once the port is enabled, create a profile using the current settings. Now, whenever you need the port enabled, simply envoke that profile.
2. If you are having trouble enabling the s-video output under W2k, try this (courtesy of Claudius Mokler):

--- snip and save as ati_whatever.reg ----
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ATI Technologies\Desktop\0000\Schemes\Environment\LCD+TV]
"LCD+TV"=hex:00,00,00,00,4c,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,04,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,00,\
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,02,00,00,\
00,3c,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,4c,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,00,\
04,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
00,00,00,00,00,00,04,00,00,00,3c,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,\
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
"Hotkey"=dword:00000000
--- snip until here ----

If you save this to a file named whatever.reg and double-click it, you can import it into the registry. Now you have a saved scheme which is abled to use the TV; now you also can use the button-and-a-half!
3. Make sure the s-video output is enabled in your BIOS (not applicable for all systems).

4. If you are experiencing a black and white image on your tv:
A. For systems using an ATI video card, above the tv icon referenced in part II.A.4, there is a tab labeled “TV” Click it and and there will be various tabs in there with setting you can control. Under one of the tabs there is a setting where you can control the NTSC and PAL settings. Use this if you are experiencing a black and white picture.
B. Make sure you have a setting in your bios (not present in the I3x00 and I4x00 series) set to NTSC if you are in the US, PAL for Europe.
C. If you are using a s-video -> SCART adapter, convert the s-video port on your laptop to a composite (RCA) video output using the supplied adapter/cable included with your system from Dell and connect the laptop to the tv using this new setup.
D. If you are using a s-video -> SCART adapter and your tv has two s-video SCART ports, be sure to try both of them.
E. If you are using a s-video -> SCART adapter and your tv has only one scart port, change the settings on your TV to accept RGB on the scart port. Your TV may or may not support this. If it does not, that is why you are experiencing the B&W image and should therefore use the connection in part "C" instead.
F. If you have one of the bidirectional SCART adapters, be sure that the direction switch is set the correct way (this could cause the TV to appear greyed out).

For more information on the s-video -> SCART problem, please see this excellent post by Doug:

http://delltalk.us.dell.com/messages/frame_message_view.asp?name=latit_video&id=zzsnc&bandwidth=fra

C. Audio (S/PDIF) Problems
1. To enable the S/PDIF output under W2k for the I7.5k, go start>> run>> type “regedit” >> ok>> navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96C-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\000

Create or set the following at that registry key:

Enable SPDIF REG_DWORD1
SPDIF Enable REG_DWORD 1
SPDIFEnable REG_BINARY 01

Then reboot, and you should have the advanced button under the first volume control in the volume control applet (be sure to tick Advanced Controls under the Options menu to see it).
2. To enable the S/PDIF output under WinME, go start>> settings>>control panel>> system>> device manager>> sound, video and game controllers>> maestro wave/wavetable synthesis devices>> audio settings>> check the S/PDIF enable box.

D. Miscellaneous Problems:
1. If you have upgraded to W2k from W98 or W98SE and cannot get the dvd software decoder shipped with your system to install or cannot watch dvd movies at all, the software decoder Dell shipped with your system is likely not W2k compatible (especially if it is the Cinemaster decoder). You will therefore have to go and purchase a W2k compatible dvd deocder (such as the one of the ones listed in part III.A.11) on your own. No free upgrade is available from Dell or MS.