Playing movies on TV from laptop

[Calaber]

More hassles in the household. Recently, we downloaded some old movies via Minerva and Bittorrent, then attempted to play them back through our HD Plasma TV, via DVI-D and RGB cables. The sound went through the TV fine, but no picture with either set-up. The DVI-D connection brought up the desktop display, but no picture again, just sound. The movies play fine on the laptop.

I'm doing something wrong - but what? An internet site I read through indicated that it was just a matter of hooking the cable up, selecting the correct input on the TV (which I did each time) and enjoying the movie. Crap! Not this little black duck!

Suggestions would be welcome.

[Tom_1569]

Having a stab in the dark with this, Ive never done it. But im assuming it would be similar to a projector.
Try Function + F5, though key sequences change depeniding on brands models etc. But it normally has a picture of two monitors on it (lapped over each other), keep pressing to it displays on the TV, or on Both.

[Calaber]

Having a stab in the dark with this, Ive never done it. But im assuming it would be similar to a projector.
Try Function + F5, though key sequences change depeniding on brands models etc. But it normally has a picture of two monitors on it (lapped over each other), keep pressing to it displays on the TV, or on Both.

Thanks Tom. It's an ASUS brand. F5 has a star shaped image on it, but F7 has a small rectangular image with LCD inside, and F8 has a similar image, followed by / then a small monitor picture. Could be that one perhaps?

[Tom_1569]

Thanks Tom. It's an ASUS brand. F5 has a star shaped image on it, but F7 has a small rectangular image with LCD inside, and F8 has a similar image, followed by / then a small monitor picture. Could be that one perhaps?

Like that one ^^^^

Im not real sure, without a close look, but try both

[NORTI]

cant burn to a disk?

[stocky]

brought up the desktop display? what do you mean. it showed the windows desktop, but went blank when you laoded a movie? or is just always blank?

if its always blank, have you gone to your desktop settings/properties and told it to enable output to a 2nd monitor?

[Calaber]

cant burn to a disk?

Sorry Norti, forgot to check progress on this thread. Yeah, I can burn to a disk but the format won't play on the DVD player.

My lack of smarts with this sort of thing leaves me in the dark a bit. I'd like to download a few older movies which are not available commercially and have two or three on the HD. They play back fine on the PC and will burn without probs, but can't play on other appliances.

[Calaber]

brought up the desktop display? what do you mean. it showed the windows desktop, but went blank when you laoded a movie? or is just always blank?

if its always blank, have you gone to your desktop settings/properties and told it to enable output to a 2nd monitor?

Hi Stocky

It brought up what was on the pc screen at the time, which was an ASUS desktop, and I thought I had it sussed, but when the movie started, I had the sound but the ASUS screen remained on the TV.

[Trayner]

Sorry Norti, forgot to check progress on this thread. Yeah, I can burn to a disk but the format won't play on the DVD player.

My lack of smarts with this sort of thing leaves me in the dark a bit. I'd like to download a few older movies which are not available commercially and have two or three on the HD. They play back fine on the PC and will burn without probs, but can't play on other appliances.

I know in Nero you can convert/make a dvd out of an .Avi or .mp4 or what ever format your movie is in. and this will play fine on your dvd player

[50LTRv8]

Go into your video control panel and you will see your monitor and your tv as the detected displays. Make the TV the primary one. This should allow the video to display on the TV.

I used to use a sony laptop with my tv and had to do this to make it work.

Good luck

[BowTie]

The problem you have described is the exact symptom caused when trying to play ac3 encoded movies without having the ac3 codec installed.

You can get it here,
AC3Filter | AC3Filter

[Calaber]

Well, we sussed out the non-playing problem, to a point. We had to alter the video display as pointed out by 50ltrv8 and managed to get the movie playing on our flat screen LCD set, but the display ratio won't allow a full screen, only the middle third.

The funny thing is, we couldn't get it to work on the larger 42" Plasma. Both sets are LG brand. I'm wondering if it's because it's a plasma set rather than an LCD that prevents it from working as the other set does.

Any ideas?

Also, I'll have a go with Nero to see if I can burn to an appropriate format. Thanks for the suggestions.

[stocky]

have you changed the resolution of the tv output in the display settings? its probably set to the same resolution as your laptop monitor