Play DVDs and display them on TV?

[seeker4]

Hi,

If this is posted in the wrong forum, just let me know. I didn't see a "video" or "multimedia" forum.

Unless it takes about the same amount of effort as it takes to launch the space shuttle, I think I'd like to figure out how to play DVDs on my R40 with output going to either the normal LCD screen, or better yet, to my television.

The TV has the standard 3 separate audio/video connections (red, white, yellow - actually two sets of them). The R40 doesn't have that type of connection, so some conversion cable seems to be needed.

So, I'm interested to know what I need to accomplish this, minimum software and hardware and technique.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

[G-Man]

Your R40 has an S-Video output. You just need an S-Video to RCA (yellow, white, red: two for audio, one for video) cable. That's it. But I'm still not able to force my T40 to display DVD (or anything) on TV. Maybe you'll have more luck.

Regards,
G-Man

[seeker4]

OK, two things about that:

1) As far as you know, does the R40 come with any software pre-installed to play DVDs? I keep hearing that Windows Media Player will do it, but on another laptop, I had no luck with that.

2) Any idea why my TV would have two SEPARATE sets of the RCA connections (2 red, 2 white, etc)? Stereo?

Thanks.

[cynic]

OK, two things about that:

1) As far as you know, does the R40 come with any software pre-installed to play DVDs? I keep hearing that Windows Media Player will do it, but on another laptop, I had no luck with that.

2) Any idea why my TV would have two SEPARATE sets of the RCA connections (2 red, 2 white, etc)? Stereo?

Thanks.

This is really easy...
WMP doesn't come with the ability to play DVDs. In order to play DVDs, you have to buy the plugin to enable that feature in WMP.

IBM does ship Intervideo WinDVD4 Lite with the R40 and you can use that to play DVDs.

All you need to do to play videos to TV, you need to plug your S-Video cable in first (in your case, S-Video to RCA cable) to your laptop and then connect it to your TV (order doesn't matter, it just needs to be done before you try to start playing a DVD.) Then press Fn+F7 and that'll bring up the Presentation Director. Then just choose the Dual Display with Analog output... start playing your DVD and it'll come up on your TV (if your TV is set to use the input that you plugged the cable into)

As for RCA connections, the multiple connections are so you can plug in multiple devices into your TV (say a VCR, Computer, DVD player) Yellow RCA is video, Red RCA is the right audio channel, White RCA is the left audio channel. To get audio to your TV from your laptop (when you don't want to use your laptop speakers for sound) you need a stereo TRS 1/8" plug to RCA splitter. The TRS plug goes into your headphone jack on your laptop and the RCA goes to the audio channels on your TV.

[seeker4]

Hi Cynic,

Great reply, thanks.

Two follow-ups to be sure I'm clear:

1) Intervideo DVD4 Lite: That doesn't seem to be pre-installed. And, with typical installations on mass market laptops, there were no XP disks provided. Do you know where on the computer the Intervideo set up files might be? Maybe in the I386 folder?

2) Connections to TV: I'm trying to understand the relationship between the "S-video to RCA" cable and the TRS plug to RCA splitter arrangement.

a) So, would the normal "S-video to RCA" cable not have three output plugs, to include two for audio (right and left)? I'm not clear on why that would not already work to transfer audio to the TV's speakers, without the need for the TRS plug/splitter?

b) Can you please explain how many devices are involved in the TRS plug/splitter arrangement? In other words, are the plug and the splitter separate devices, purchased separately, etc?

Thanks.

[cynic]

I don't know if you're in the US, but you can get the cable and the TRS splitter both at Radio Shack or Best Buy for cheap.

1) The Intervideo WinDVD4 is not part of the Windows XP install, it's something that IBM gives as a bonus as part of their software package. In C:\DRIVERS\WXP\DVD directory, you'll find a setup.exe. Run it. Another easy way to find it is to use the ThinkPad Software Installer. It'll find the setup files on it's own (run Start Menu>Programs>Access IBM>ThinkPad Software Installer)

2) S-Video only carries a video signal. No audio at all. What you're doing is converting the s-video signal to an rca video connection so you can hook it to the TV. The 1/8"TRS splitter just takes a standard headphone plug (which is stereo) and convert it to an RCA connection by splitting the left and right audio channels so you can hook it to a TV.

Here's some links to help you out (I just chose to use Radio Shack)
You'll need one of theseto split the audio. $6
Here is the S-video to RCA converter $22
You'll need an S-Video cable to hook to the converter on one end to the laptop $15.49

and then finally you'll need these RCA cables to hook to the other end of the S-Video converter (yellow plug) and to the Audio splitter (red&white) on one end and the other end your TV straight in.

[cynic]

This would also work (it's what I use just for the sake of easy travelling with all the cables as one) However, I have a S-Video connection on my video systems, so you'll still need to convert the S-Video to RCA in order to hook it to your TV on the one side hooking to your TV.

Monster Cable

but you won't need any of the audio cables above since this has the splitter already integrated and the cable length.

[seeker4]

Cynic,

Thanks a bunch for the detailed replies. I will dig into this more over the next few weeks. Unfortunately, in Taiwan where I am at present, there are no Radio Shacks. So, I'll have to wander into the local version of that store here and see what they have. It should be a piece of cake -- about like an episode of "The Fear Factor".

Take care,

Seeker4

[snife]

I would try this out before buying the cables - the R40 only has a 4-pin s-video connector (as apposed to 7 pin on earlier models) and therefore does not output a composite signal so i would doubt this will work without an svideo socket on your tv or at least a scart socket that has svideo input

[DrGrafix]

I recall once trying to get my T21 to play a DVD on my TV using the S-Video connection. It played but the picture format never quite fit the TV properly. If I recall correctly, the picture was perhaps way too big for the screen so top and bottom were cut off or somethinglike that. I have a discreet DVD player, so it was not a big deal to me.

Should the movie show up exactly the same as if it was coming from the DVD player? Was the fact that I had a SXGA+ screen a factor?

Mike

[cynic]

Should the movie show up exactly the same as if it was coming from the DVD player? Was the fact that I had a SXGA+ screen a factor?

Yes, it should look almost exactly like off of a standalone DVD player.

No, SXGA+ doesn't matter because it is broadcasting an overlay through DirectX. It isn't using your TV as a computer monitor at that point. If you were getting the edges cut off, it could be one of two things... 1) You were actually just broadcasting a mirror of your laptop's screen. Almost all computer resolutions are greater than TV resolution (in Standard Definition) which is why you get cutoff areas and it should have been a fuzzy image of sorts. Once it is broadcasting as an overlay, it isn't treating the TV as a computer monitor. 2) The software you were using to play the DVD had overscan set to "on" which allows the image to expand based on the resizing of the window on your LCD. Overscan allows an image to be expanded beyond a video's normal ratio (for instance, getting a widescreen DVD to fill out the whole screen will end up chopping off the sides because you are going from 16:9 to 4:3.) Usually that is software configurable either as a preset in a preference pane or it is based on what you do to the window in Windows (as in, if you stretch the window vertically on your laptop, the ratio will change to reflect that on your TV)

edited for resolution name typo

[hausman]

Unless it takes about the same amount of effort as it takes to launch the space shuttle, I think I'd like to figure out how to play DVDs on my R40 with output going to either the normal LCD screen, or better yet, to my television....

Unfortunately, in Taiwan where I am at present, there are no Radio Shacks. So, I'll have to wander into the local version of that store here and see what they have. It should be a piece of cake -- about like an episode of "The Fear Factor".

To play DVDs on your ThinkPad, use either WMP or the free VLC Player http://www.videolan.org/. You'll also need some codecs, available for free here http://www.k-litecodecpack.com/.

To play DVDs on your TV I'd skip the ThinkPad altogether. Yes, I've done it with S-video and audio cables, etc. but it's a real pain to set up each time you want to watch a DVD. These days you can get entire DVD players for little more than the cost of the cables, never mind all the hassle. (Here in Canada they're CA$50 or US$35 at Wal-Mart et al.) Not only do they provide better quality audio and video, but they're easier to install, come with a remote control and (usually) can be easily hacked region-free. You can get reviews and hacks for most models here, http://www.videohelp.com/ among other sites.

[jgracin]

I would try this out before buying the cables - the R40 only has a 4-pin s-video connector (as apposed to 7 pin on earlier models) and therefore does not output a composite signal so i would doubt this will work without an svideo socket on your tv or at least a scart socket that has svideo input

Snife, let me get this straight, because the s-video port on my R50 has been giving me headaches ever since I bought it a couple of weeks ago and I have still not made it work. Are you saying that the 4-pin s-video port on newer Thinkpads (e.g. my 1829-7RG) cannot be used to connect to TV sets through SVideo->ordinary composite cable converter? That would explain all my problems.