Long, long ago when computers where just starting out you would connect the computing device to a television set to use as a monitor.

Then computers started coming out with monitors (specially designed for computers). Then there was the invention of the "screen saver" which was much more than just a moving picture, it preserved your monitor from having an image forever burnt into the screen.

Now, in the 21st century, we return once again to the TV screen.

With My Gateway, Win XP computer there came a 7 1/2 inch long cord (huge ain't it?) It is for TV out setup.

One end has a plug which has multiple prongs in it, the other has a "jack" or what we called jacked back in the days of Hi-Fis.

According to the Instruction (one page, front in English rear in Spanish) The multi-prong end is not only supposed to go into my computer video card S-port, but also into my TV's S-Video in port.

Taking a look at the backs of both my Gateway COmputer and my Hitachi 45" projection TV, I find that both are set-up with this "S-video" female plug.

So my first problem is this, my plug (the 7 1/2 inch long cord (huge ain't it?) has two kinds of plugs. Obviously the Piece of Paper it is attached to is a liar - because it says "supplied" when it comes to S-video to S-video.

My Second Problem is that my Computer and my TV set are a little more than 7 1/2 inches apart. Quick tape measure work reveals that the distance is 437 1/2 inches apart (or slightly over 36 feet)

Obviously I do not have the right equipment for the job of uniting my computer and TV in 21st technological matrimony.

Before I rush out to my local Radio Shack and purchase just any old cord, I would like to know if this is worth the effort. I figure that there must be a cord out there with s-video male plugs on both ends. I also figure that the computer/electronic folk would pretty much know and understand that people tend to have a bit of space between TV and computer thus I should be able to get at least a 50's long cord to meet my needs).

1. I think that using the tv means that I could sit on my couch with my wireless mouse and key board and surf the net - Am I right about that?

2. All of those wonderful movie clips and pictures which I have downloaded during the past two years which have been moved to cd-r but do not play on my dvd-player can be shown on the Big-Screen?

3. I have several games which are pretty graphic - no not violent, but with fine details, such as Sim-City 4 - will I be able to play these on the TV with my cordless mouse and keyboard?

4. Any warnings about doing this? As I recall way back in the Dawn of the Computer Age you used an old TV set because the computer had a tendency to really mess up a TV set - Is this still possible, or is it safe now to use your TV in this manner?

David

David
I'm in a similar postition to yourself my computer is located on the top floor of the house an the TV is 2 floors below I'd estimate a run of 50 yards of Cable needed to connect the equipment.
I very much doubt you'll get a good signal unless amplified over that distance
and your Keyboard is useless 5 yards from the Pickup unless you extend that cable as well
I think the Makers limit on cabling extends to the adjoining or same room unless you can do something with a wireless transmitter
But you are going to have 2, 1 for the computer commands and the other for the Computer to TV signal
Sounds expensive?

To DavdcStwrt & Bedstore:

All you say is very relevant, however why bother with trying to connect the TV to the Computer.

You have the TV with its Monitor. You have the Computer with its Monitor. Leave it be.

It's not worth the bother or expense.

Besides if you were to be successful in finding a longer cord to connect the two you would probably loose detail in going from, say, a 17-inch Computer Monitor to a 45-inch Projection TV Monitor.

Don

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Besides if you were to be successful in finding a longer cord to connect the two you would probably loose detail in going from, say, a 17-inch Computer Monitor to a 25- to 35-inch TV Monitor.

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Good spot Don
It does look like a TV card is needed as well! So the bill climbs...

So though it can be done don't do it?

Hm. Technology has yet to become unified. I guess I will have to wait a few more decades.

David

I have tried hooking up my computer to my TV before using the s-video hook up and the picture quality was terrible.... not enough scan lines I guess. I will be getting a new Widescreen HDTV in a couple weeks which has the input plug to accept video out from my computer... just like a computer LCD monitor... will keep you posted on how it turns out.

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Originally posted by bedstor:
David
I'm in a similar postition to yourself my computer is located on the top floor of the house an the TV is 2 floors below I'd estimate a run of 50 yards of Cable needed to connect the equipment.
I very much doubt you'll get a good signal unless amplified over that distance
and your Keyboard is useless 5 yards from the Pickup unless you extend that cable as well
I think the Makers limit on cabling extends to the adjoining or same room unless you can do something with a wireless transmitter
But you are going to have 2, 1 for the computer commands and the other for the Computer to TV signal
Sounds expensive?

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Well the Computer is in the same "room" as the TV. The room is 25 feel long, and the length of the cord need (36 FEET) would allow me to run the cord along the base board to the TV along the doorless wall. I said 50 Feet because I do not recall the standard lengths for cable, wire, etc.

As for that 5 yard limit to the keyboard and mouse:

I can take the keyboard outside, to the driveway and clean it (Blowing out debris and dust), to come back in and find that all of my key cleaning has done some pretty interesting stuff on the computer . That's about 15 yards from the transceiver.

My couch is up against the Computer desk. The coffee table is only 6 feet from the present location of the key board.

I do have a TV card on the computer, it is part of the S-Video plug-in thingy in the rear. I do have HDTV which may not have the same issues as the regular TV pixilations.

I was really hoping to get to be able to copy my movies, videos and what not from my computer to a playable dvd. So I went through the computer and put all of that on cd-r. After I finshed I popped them into my dvd player to find they won't play. So I am seeking a working solution to do this. Nero^ didn't do it for me, besides it wasn't free. Others I attmepted to use want me to download even more software to convert files. The hold idea of putting these things on CD-r was to reduce the amount of stuff on the computer!

Please see: http://answerpool.com/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=669605981&f=294601891&m=756105584 for details on this.

David