connecting laptop to tv and surround sound

[lewisredfern001]

hi guys i am wanting to connect my laptop to my tv so i can use my tv as my monitor, then i can play my itunes through my tv/surround sound and get supersize internet FTW. its a 50inch samsung and i am going to order a wireless keyboard and mouse to use.

what cable do i need or will it depend on which out/inputs both my tv and laptop have?

 

[rory182]

I saw a cool product for the first time today which you can connect a usb hard drive to or a flash drive and it connects to your tv via hdmi and will play back just about any file type.

It's a western digital media player and costs under £100: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?DriveID=572

Neat way to play tunes and movies over the tv

 

[Gavin.]

depending on the laptop outputs you can use different cables (i.e. if you have a hdmi out on it)

i use a d-sub cable to connect it to the screen
and
a 3.5mm jack to phono to connect the audio to the surround sound

 

[Gumby]

You can use a DVI / AV lead depending on which "out" your laptop has and which "in" the TV has (as you said!)

 

[lewisredfern001]

on viewing the below which do you think is my best option, obviously want good sound quality and picture

External Ports on laptop
3 USB 2.0
1 VGA port
1 IEEE-1394
1 RJ11 modem connector
1 RJ45 ethernet connector
S-video TV out
1 headphones-out
1 mic-in


TV Connections

Input & Output (side) Composite (AV)
HDMI (ver. .2)
S-Video
Headphone(Earphone)
Input & Output (back) RF input
Component (Y/Pb/Pr)
PC input (D-sub)
HDMI x 2 (ver. .2)
Audio Monitor Out
Digital Audio (Optical)
Euro Scart x 2

 

[18tooo]

On the video side, the VGA output will be vastly better than the S-video, so use that - will go into the PC input (D-sub) on your tv.

and on the audio side, 3.5mm stereo jack to 2-phono into your suround sound amp.

both of these cables should be pretty readily available

(side note on the VGA thing) once its connected to your tv the resolution will probably be wrong (was on a mates xp laptop when i tried this not so long ago) and it'll look awful at first, you will need to set the output resolution on yer laptop to the same as that or the tv ie. 720p: 1280x720 or 1080i/p: 1920x1080