Monday, July 30, 2007

Laptop to TV using S-Video Out Port

This post is applicable only to those laptops that are equipped with a S Video Out port (like Compaq Presario V3000 Series). The S-Video Port looks like


S Video port can be used to connect to your TV using a S-Video to RCA Cable. The S Video end of the cable looks like this


You can buy the S-Video to RCA cable, but building it is pretty much simple and costs negligible.

All you have to do is,
connect the Pin 1 and Pin 2 of the connector in S-Video to Ground of RCA
and short the Pin 3 and Pin 4 of S-Video to the Main Pin of RCA.
Some sites recommend using a 470pF Capacitor in shorting the Pin4 to RCA, but i really don't find much of a different when skipping the capacitor. Thus its just a DIY (Do-It-Yourself) project to make your laptop a DVD/CD player or make your TV a secondary monitor screen.

Compaq Presario V3000 Settings
In order to use the S-Video port the NVidia GeForce Go Graphics Drivers must be installed and working.

Don't have an S-Video Port ?
See other options of connecting a laptop to your television

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have Presario V3320 (V3000 series) using Intel chipset. It has a 7-pin S-Video but it doesnt support 4-pin (based on info from its documentation and HP TechnicalSupport). In the Presario V3000 Maintenance & Service Guide (c01035667.pdf) table E-3, it shows pin assigment:
1 2 3
4 5 6 7

1. TV-Ground
2. TV-CVBS (Composite)
3. TV-Ground
4. TV-Ground
5. TV-CD (Chrominance/Color)
6. TV-Ground
7. TV-YD (Luminance/Brightness)

I wanna make DIY project for 7-pin S-Video to RCA cable. Can you give diagram?

Arun Prabhakar said...

The extra 3 pins are useless, its ok to leave them. Just use the specified 4 pins above and you can get a decent picture.
I too have a 7 PIN connector.

Unknown said...

hello, I am trying to captute video from VHS to laptop using s-video to RCA (composite)cable to connect them. It seems that they do not communicate at all. (VHS model: Panasonic J700 pal/secam/ntsc and Compaq presario 2100)
Any help will be appreciated

adoukellis@hotmail.com

Arun Prabhakar said...

You mean your trying to input video through the S-Video Port from VHS.

I think S-Video OUT port cannot act as an input port.

It may damage your video card.

You may have to use a TV tuner card or similar capture devices to input video into the laptop.

Unknown said...

Thats right!!!Really appreciate to point it out. Saved me from trying to solve a problem that did not exist.

Anonymous said...

i have hp laptop and i want to connect it to the tv using 7-pin svideo cable. could anyone tell me how i should do that?

Unknown said...

You mean that you use svideo port as input? From my experience laptop svideo ports acts as ouput. At least in my case, was right.

Arun Prabhakar said...

the 7 pin connector is non-standard, you can use the 4 pin connector to connect it to the TV. It would work fine.

Anonymous said...

not to be use with geforce 8-series and above as the newer forceware seem to ultilize all the other 3-pin. the use of 4-pin will result in mono-60's display, well, if u're retro, u'll love it.

Anonymous said...

Hi all, I hope someone is still reading this. I understand some people say a laptop will not act as an input for svideo. I have a IBM T43 thinkpad laptop. Im using an Svideo wire which seems to be svideo on both sides (Earlier posts state 1 end is SVideo the other is RCA). When I connect to my tv FROM my laptop, the tv has a display setting of svideo which I need to choose if I want to view my laptop on the television screen. So Im assuming I have a double ended svideo wire.
Ok, heres my dilema... Id like to have my series 2 tivo box(meaning the tivo actually sold by tivo and not the cable or sattelite companies) connected so my laptop screen can view my now playing list. Forget my tv if I dont need it for this.

I unplugged the wires going into the tivo input bc they werent needed since tivo can show a display without needing a picture coming in from anywhere. I then left one end of the SVideo wire connected to my IBM and the other end connected to the OUTPUT of tivo. Keep in mind, for trial and error reasons I left my regular red/yellow/white cable coming from the output area it normally would going into the same colored wire connections of the input of my television. Meaning Tivo has 2 cables connected to its outputs. (SVideo output connected to the laptop and the 3 colored output wire going into the spot where the input of the 3 colored wire goes on the television.
What happened next completely threw me for a loop! My television screen began displaying half tivo and half laptop wallpaper. I had the tivo "Now Playing" screen continuously flickering off and on brightly then not so bright. During all this behind the "Now Playing" tivo screen was was my wallpaper from my laptop scrolling to the right over and over again like a stock ticker. Oh.. it also was faded behind the main tivo screen like a ghost looks from the movies. Obviously the icing on the cake is both devices were fighting to show up on the tv. Yet the only connections with the tv were outputs.
So if I may ask please...
Is there a setting within IBM such as thinkpad config that allows this to go through?
Is there a setting within the laptops graphic card software that I could tell my laptop there are dual displays setup and which device should be set as what?
Is there something within tivo to configure?
Should I include the tv in my daisy chain and configure it someway through the tv since i know the tv and lap communicate with svideo perfectly(but the tv was always the output)?
Or lastly, if none of these can be tweaked... Specifically what do I need to go buy to have my lap serve as the output to my tivo? Let me rephrase, whats the cheapest route to take for buying parts for this?
It just seems like with all our technology, it should work.
Thanks in advance guys. Apologies for the long post but I wanted to ecplain my setup an Im dying to get this running.
Thank you
Liam

Anonymous said...

Hey liam!

The S-Video port on T43 (and most of the laptops for that matter) is a video out only port. In order to get the video into your laptop you need a TV tuner or a video capture device. There are some laptops that have a tuner built-in, but assuming you don't want to go and buy new laptop - just get a USB tuner or a video capture box. They are pretty cheap and should do the trick.

Unknown said...

Cool! I was looking for such a DIY. Now I have another angle to this puzzle. I have a S-Video Out on my HP NC-6400 Laptop and want to modify an unused Mobile Authority 5.6" monitor (plucked out of my Car DVD setup) as a secondary monitor for the laptop. It has a cable sticking out of it having a strange S-Video sized female connector which takes a 6-pin male. Now I also have a cable with the 6-pin male S-video like cable which has the following wires sticking out of the other end - 1. Red - 12V+ 2. Black - Ground 3. Purple - Reverse Gear Signal for Rear View Camera (remember I plucked it out of a car dvd system) 4. Yellow RCA Video Input 5. White RCA Video Input (secondary).

Is there any way I can splice the wires from out of a regular S-Video cable onto the above? I can manage to get a 12V DC supply into the Monitor.

Alternately, are there any standard wire color codes for Standard S-Video cables so I can find the wires coming out of Pin 1 and Pin 2 as Ground and wires coming out of Pin 3 and Pin 4 as Main Pin of RCA?

Any help is highly appreciated.

ComputerFreak said...

i have presario v3018,
it does not have nVidia card, so, can i still use its TV out to connect to tv. If i am not wrong , tv out is to use tv as monitor ? and what i need is just s-video to rca cable only ( if i have latop and tv).

Anwar Sadath said...

My Laptop is HP Compaq nx6320. I tried to connect this machine to my CRT TV using a locally purchased S-Video(7 Pin) to RCA Cable. It did not work.

Please advice. A detailed instruction would be very much helpful.

Anwar Sadath, Kerala

Ramesh said...

After connecting the wire between laptop to TV, just minimize all open window in laptop. And in the desktop just right click it, it will automatically refresh your screen and you will get display both in TV & Laptop.

gosalaprasad said...

i ma having compaq v3000 series laptop.using an intel chip i want connect it to my crt lg tv by 7pin s-video to rca.but tv not displaying laptop out put.i have selected multiple display in graphic card settings.and all advises already given in this blog.can any one help please...........

Unknown said...

hi i have a peculiar situation. i have a seven pin s-video to rca cable and i have a laptop and digital tv. how do i get to connecting my laptop to teh tv. is it possible