Korean Job Discussion Forums

cellphone · Joined: 18 Feb 2004

Have all of my computer parts but no monitor at the time. Thinking of putting the computer together and then trying to use the "tv-out" port from the AGP video card to the TV set (into it's cable port, yes?) Question is if I try it, should the comp detect it all automatically and then send the video data through the tv-out port and cable, or does this feature have to be selected beforehand (i.e. have to use a real comp monitor, select it, then reboot it into the tv?)

Swiss James · Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Location: Shanghai

you have to fiddle about with the settings on your video card i.e. Start->Settings->Display->Advanced, then something else.

And it looks crap, really blurry.

Sorry.

the_beaver · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

I usually have to fiddle with the video settings but when I set it for full screen video it looks great. Anything I download and whenever I watch a DVD I watch it on the TV.

Swiss James · Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Location: Shanghai

yeah it's fine for .avi's and stuff, but reading text is horrible

the_beaver · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

thebum · Joined: 09 Jan 2005 Location: North Korea

I would not count on it working. As Swiss James said, you will probably have to change your display settings before it will show up on your TV at all. I'd recommend buying a cheap CRT monitor or borrowing a monitor from someone..you'll probably save yourself a lot of grief.

Demophobe · Joined: 17 May 2004

It works fine. I'm doing it for movies on my 6 year-old TV via S-Video and its groovy. Just remember to lower the resolution....probably 640x480 or perhaps 800x600.

Moldy Rutabaga · Joined: 01 Jul 2003 Location: Ansan, Korea

hehe-- I did this in Mexico when I couldn't afford a monitor. But I did have to temporarily hook my computer up to a monitor in a PC room and set the computer for TV out.

As the others have already said, don't think this will be a long-term substitute for a good monitor. It's adequate for watching movies, having an mp3 jukebox, or some quick filework, but you can give yourself a nasty headache if you try to read or type text for any length of time.

You can buy an used non-flatscreen monitor at the computer markets for peanuts. That's probably a better idea.

Ken:>

cellphone · Joined: 18 Feb 2004

Howdy. I did like Moldy said and put my comp together, then I went to an internet cafe.

Thanks all for the advice. However, even though I'm using Windows XP Pro, I could not find the exact select functions that would switch the computer over from Monitor to TV. The closest thing I saw was an option to "disable this device" refering to the main monitor. But that doesn't directly imply that it would switch over to TV out.

So if anyone could post the exact explicit options to get to TV out that would be helpful. Anyways nice to know my comp got put together well and it worked wonderfully at the pc cafe. Let me know!

Demophobe · Joined: 17 May 2004

You must right-click on the dektop, select properties, then advanced, then you will see options. What options exactly depend upon your graphics card maker and which driver set you have. I (for my TV-out stuff) have an Nvidia card, and the "switch" is in the "disply settings" tab.

For an ATI card, it will be in the same place with a different name.

What kind of graphics card do you have? Get the latest drivers for it....TV-out is very popular these days, and the makers' drivers reflect that in their ease of switching between monitor and TV.

In fact, with Nvidia, I can right-click on a movie file and I get a "Watch this on my TV" in the context menu that pops up. Very cool.