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General discussion

Gateway laptops and TV out

Jan 6, 2005 1:56PM PST

Does anyone know if any Gateway Laptops currently being sold have a TV out? I only see VGA ports, but no mention if the are capable of TV out. I tried to ask via their website, but they will only submit a question if you have already purchased a computer from them, when I called and finally got to talk with a person, he immediatly launched into a major sales pitch, completely avoiding answering my question other than to comment "That's a good question". When I told him I was not planning to purchase immediatly, just researching and couldn't find the info, we suddenly "disconnected" - no call back even tho he had asked for my phone number in case we got disconnected. If anyone could help, I would appreciate it, but will be very leary to buy from this company now. Thanks, Lyle

Discussion is locked

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TV out
Jan 7, 2005 1:40AM PST

The term is usualy video out, many laptops have this. You can purchase an addon vga to video converter for $60~90, it will plug into the vga port and give composite and S-Video outputs. John

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They sure do
Jan 7, 2005 8:41AM PST

The upper end models of the 520 (ones that have an ATI video card) have an s-video out. They do not have a composite video out. (the yellow cable) I just bought a 7210GX at Best Buy after MUCH research for approx. $1000. I have no idea why, but after a clean install on both computers, my new laptop runs faster than my desktop P4 2.8GHz. (Gateway as well) I absolutely love this computer! Unbelieveable for the price. Check the specs on this website.

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gatewaym675
Jan 7, 2005 11:03AM PST

my gateway m675 has a TV out w/ S-VGA connector-works great!

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Thanks
Jan 10, 2005 10:16PM PST

Thanks everyone.

I finally got ahold of a salesperson who actually took the time to find out the answers, or at least some of them. After checking with their tech support folks, he did say that only the 450 series and 675 series supported TV out.

I've checked out the cables to convert the vga to S video or RCA, and they all say to make certain the graphics card will support NTSC standards, the sales rep couldn't assure me that the lower end models would do this. He was supposed to call me back on Monday (yesterday) if he could find a $1000 range solution that would work for me, but I received no call, so I'm guessing their lower end machines won't work even with an add on cable.

Time to start looking elsewhere I guess.

Thanks to all who replied.

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Gateway 520 series (7210GX)
Jan 21, 2005 7:17AM PST

I actually tried mine just to check for you. I am using S-video out to my TV, works perfect. Go to a retail store and look on the back of the computer, you'll see it. BTW, paid $999 for mine. AMD XP-M 2.2GHz, 512MB ram, 80GB, DVD writer - S video out.