When I connect my laptop to the TV, why is it so blurry?

Question

When I connect my laptop to my TV through an S-Video cable, why is the display on the TV so blurry? I can't even read the words. Can someone help me fix this problem please? I am using a 13-year-old Hitachi analog TV. Is that why it's so blurry? Also, is it possible to show what's on your TV on your laptop, or is it just supposed to show what's on your laptop on the TV, using an S-Video cable?

Answer 1

The laptop screen is much sharper resolution than the television screen.
Your laptop typically has 1024 x 480 megapixels, whereas the tv screen only scans lines in the range of 600 -1000 pixels per inch.
So, when you plug your laptop into the tv, the resolution is so poor on the tv that the laptop ouput isn't seen very well; thats why it looks blurry and jumpy too I bet.
The laptop doesn't know the tv exists as hardare and cannot send any drivers to it, either.

Answer 2

TV screens make HORRIBLE computer monitors. Moving video (tv shows) is okay, because it changes every 30th of a second, but the image from your PC is static, and really requires a much sharper display than a TV can provide.

You can get away with playing a game on the TV, or a movie, but not a desktop app.

And you may or may not be able to switch your video out to video in. Depends on the laptop capabilties. And it depends on whether the TV has a video out port (you can't use the same one)

Answer 3

you're pretty much stuck.. If you want clear pictures you need to get an HD ready TV. Older TVs use interlaced pixels. This is for the advantage of displaying moving pictures with relative clarity without too much work. It wasn't designed to shot crisp images since TV signals aren't that crisp to begin with. Computer monitors are non-interlaced. They are designed to display single pixels with extreme clarity. (Sometimes watching analog TV broadcasts look better on the TV than a computer monitor because of this)

There's no way to really get it any clearer. As for displaying what on your TV you can't use the same jack on the TV to do that. You will need to use an output jack (if your TV has one) and pipe it into the input of your computer (you will probably need to get a special video card or USB device to do this since i'm guessing you don't already have a vid card that can accept video signals)

Answer 4

S-video

Most video cards have a S-video output that can be connected to the tv S-Video input.

The image on the screen has a relationship with your resolution settings. Although all S-Video outputs use a fixed low resolution to maintain compatibility with your TV, it scales according to what the resolution of your computer is set to. Adjust your resolution in the settings tab of your display properties. Use a selection no higher than 800 x 600 with 16-bit color. A setting of 640 x 480 will be much easier to see, but icons and windows will appear very large.

http://www.svideo.com/compaq1700.html
http://www1.electronichouse.com/columns/gear/7069.html
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/2a2cde13-b60c-4f2f-b9da-4a433cc51ca91033.mspx

Answer 5

You need to check your video card settings.

There WILL be options in there that will make a huge difference in clarity. I know that for Nvidia cards, you click on "nView Display Settings", then click "Device Settings" while the television icon is selected, then in "Device Adjustments..." you can change the "Flicker Filter", then in "Color Correction..." there's a "Image Sharpening" bar.

This will help a whole lot... but keep in mind it will never be perfect. For technical reasons the PC will be able to display things like small text very clearly.

Answer 6

the clarity of the tv screen is not as good as the resolution of the computer

Answer 7

because is streched u need to make the window of the tv a little smaller.