Display Laptop on TV

[Peter Stahl]

I wanted to display my Laptop on my LCD TV. I have a HP DV6700 with a NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS, System is Windows Vista. Laptop has a HDMI port which is what I wanted to use. I set the TV to the output for the HDMI cable I was using then hit the (fn key) + f4 key but it would not switch to the TV. Is there something I need to do to use the HDMI port? Looked for the manual on line but wasn't able to find any info for using the HDMI port. Is the HDMI port strictly for using the DVD player on the laptop. I watched a show via the S-Video port but picture quality isn't that great. Thanks for any help.

[Ed Barnes]

Peter, I have an HP laptop with HDMI as well. All I have ever needed to do was input the HDMI cable in to the laptop HDMI port and one of the HDMI ports on the TV. Then select the appropriate HDMI video source port on the TV. Your TV will then display your desktop or whatever application you are running. There is no need to cycle through the fn + f4 video options on your laptop. Display resolution on your TV will be limited by the highest resolution on your laptop video card, which will MUCH better than S-video. Hope this helps. Ed

[Scott Donley]

Peter, on mine I have to go to the the TV menu and change the input to the HDMI number I am using I have a Bravia TV. It does not automatically switch.

[Peter Stahl]

ok, I do have the right output and finally got video but no audio play back through the TV. May not be a option with my PC???

[Scott Donley]

Any chance you have the PC muted or set at a very low volume ?

[Bryan Morgan]

ok, I do have the right output and finally got video but no audio play back through the TV. May not be a option with my PC???

You need to find out if your video driver actually outputs sound through the HDMI port. Not all chipsets will do this. This guide might help:

http://www.mediacollege.com/equipment/connectivity/hdmi/pc-audio.html

[Jim O'Dell]

I bought a Yamaha A/V receiver in January just for this type of thing. I don't have a TV with HDMI yet, so all I'm doing at this point is playing music from the HP laptop through the stereo speakers, but a receiver should take care of any problems you are having. Mine has 6 HDMI inputs and 5 composite inputs. More than I'll ever use! Jim.

[Peter Stahl]

Nope, the volume wasn't muted or low, that's the only place I could get any sound. I read somewhere that some NVIDIA video cards don't let sound through the HDMI cable, I must have one of them. The only sound output on my laptop is through the headphone jack so I'll have to get a 3.5 mm male to 2 RCA male jack cables. I have one of these cables attached to my receiver so I can play my iPod. I also used the HDMI cable that's plugged into my PS3 so I'll get a short one so I can plug the laptop in when I need to. Thanks for all the help so far.

[Roger Feeley]

Also, not all HDMI inputs handle sound. Surprised me.

[Kevin W Johnson]

You may still have issues getting the sound to work using the 3.5mm to RCA cable. The TV will/may think the sound is supposed to be coming thru the HDMI, and may disregard the RCA that is connected. You won't know till you try. Thats the thing I dislike about HDMI, too many variables, too many manufacturers that didn't design equipment to transport the audio thru HDMI (this should have been a mandated standard in the ratification of HDMI). DVI was worse though, you DVI, DVI-I, DVI-D, and so on.

[Peter Stahl]

Also, not all HDMI inputs handle sound. Surprised me.

Inputs on my TV do handle sound, it's the output on my PC that doesn't seem to.

[Van Huskey]

Also, not all HDMI inputs handle sound. Surprised me.

Really? I have not run into that. Did the devise support sound in any way?