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General discussion

Connecting Computer to TV

Dec 20, 2003 12:18AM PST

I don't know where this goes so I put it in the general category, sorry for any inconvenience. I have a sony handycam, a tv and a computer. I can connect the camcorder to my computer and tv seperately, is there anyway I can watch DVD's that is from my computer on the tv using the camcorder.

Thanks

Discussion is locked

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Re:Connecting Computer to TV
Dec 20, 2003 1:41AM PST

That would depend entirely on the camcorder, and my guess would be no in every case save for maybe the really high end camcorders. You'd be better off getting a video card with TV-Out capabilities.

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Re:Connecting Computer to TV-agree with yewanchors
Dec 20, 2003 12:24PM PST

I've never seen a camcorder that would support simultaneous input/output which is what you'd need to accomplish what you want. Yewanchors came up with a good solution- something I did myself until I bought a dedicated DVD player.

But you may want to consider this- you can get a very good set-top DVD player just for the TV for $50 or less at RadioShack or CircuitCity- they not only play DVDs, but MP3s, jpeg slideshows, and have progressive scan (you'd need PS only if your TV supports it). If you're feeling industrious, you can run the audio outs to your stereo system. Put it on your holiday wish list to find out who really loves you, lol.

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Re:Re:Connecting Computer to TV-agree with yewanchors
Dec 21, 2003 12:38AM PST

My computer also has a s-video input in the back, but my tv or vcr doesn't but will an s-video out to composite cable be able let me watch movies on the tv from the computer.
thanks.

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Re:Re:Re:Connecting Computer to TV-should work
Dec 21, 2003 3:11AM PST

But just so we understand each other- when you say composite cable you mean rca jacks, right? I have a 20'Monster audio/video cable that has s-jack and rca jacks on both ends, so if you have cabling on both ends, you should be able to do it. Just make sure you go into your video properties to tweak the settings for incoming video to your monitor- could be settings for your video card- just check the manual or go online for your video card to find the right settings and where.

On the back of my video card, there's connections for both s-jack and rca. I don't know if you want to run audio into your computer or even if you're able to. If you're just running the video, maybe you can find a hybrid cable of some kind- s-jack on one end, rca on the other. Reason why I mention this is cuz the cables I got from Monster (they make really good cables) cost $40- a few bucks more, you can get a dedicated dvd player. I got the cabling I got cuz I wanted to capture the audio, which I ran into my Audigy SoundBlaster bay, which had the audio in ports that accepted the rca jacks- I guess there's adapters you can get from RadioShack that can convert a mini-jack to rca; can't say I know for sure, as I never looked, but there's cabling/adapters for everything it seems. Good luck. Hope this helps.

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Oops, backspace, backspace.....
Dec 21, 2003 3:18AM PST

''s-video input in the back, but my tv or vcr doesn't but will an s-video out to composite cable be able let me watch movies on the tv from the computer.''

Sorry, I misread- you want to output from computer to tv. Wont work if your video card supports INPUT only. You need OUTPUT to feed the vid to another source. Looks like you need to upgrade something to accomplish what you want. If you really, really want to feed video OUT from pc, check out http://www.newegg.com and check out reader reviews on video cards. At least you'll get an idea of the cost and what the card can do. That's how I settled on both my ti4200 with vid in/out and the the tv tuner card- both by Leadtek. Good luck; sorry for the misread in other post.