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>> The worldwide web is filled with video. And it's not just cats talking either, it's big stuff like Lost, Battlestar Galactica, even CNET TV. But you don't want to squint at your laptop screen to watch video. I'm Tom Merritt, editor from CNET.com. On this edition of Insider Secrets I'll show you how to put your laptop screen on the big screen.
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If your TV was made in the last few years you have a couple of ways you can hook your laptop up. One is called S-Video. The cable you use to hook up the laptop to the TV looks like this. There's a port on the TV that looks like this. You might also be able to use what's called a composite port. A composite cable looks like this, the little yellow end, but neither of these cables carry the audio. If you want to hear what's going on on your video, you'll need some component audio cables like these, and depending on your setup, maybe an adapter like this. But we'll get to that later. Let's hook it up. If you're lucky enough to have a composite port on your laptop, then you can use the cable with the yellow head like this. I have an S-Video port on my laptop, so I'm gonna use the S-Video cable. Connect the S-Video cable to the S-Video port on the TV end, and then run it over to the laptop and connect it to the S-Video port on the laptop. Then we connect the audio cable on the TV end. Red for the right channel, and white for the left. I don't have the same ports on my laptop, so I'm using the adapter to connect the component cables to the speaker port. Now set your TV to the right channel. Consult your TV manual to be sure, but it's usually called something like input or auxiliary. Now turn on your computer, and maybe launch a web browser, or something easy to recognize. You may be lucky enough to see the image on the TV right away. If not, try using the laptop's monitor button, it looks like this. If it doesn't show up still, or if you want to fine tune the settings, you'll be able to use both screens at once, that's what I'm doing right now, which is why you don't see anything there. Here's how you do it. Right click on the desktop and choose properties. Select the settings tab. You'll see a big box labeled one, and a smaller box labeled two. Click the box labeled two. You can drag it around to be in approximately the same position as your TV relative to your computer. A dialog box will ask you if you want to extend your desktop onto the new monitor. Say yes. You may need to set the resolution. TVs support lower resolution than computer monitors. Try 640 x 480 or 800 x 600. Then click the advanced button, and select generic TV from the pull down menu. Voila! You can now slide your browser over to the TV and surf the web. Find your favorite videos, make it full screen, sit back and enjoy. This could also help you watch DVDs, show slide shows, pretty much do anything you use your computer for. That's it for this edition of Insider Secrets. I'm Tom Merritt for CNET.com, enjoy the newest component of your home theater.
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