Enabling Tv Out on a desktop

aodmol · 12-11-2008, 04:10 PM

I have an old pc i'm trying to connect up to my tv as i don't have access to a monitor. I've bought an s-video cable and have it connected to my tv via a dvd player.

My question is how do i enable the tv out function on my desktop? Consequently I don't know what type of video card the desktop has but it is around 5 years old. Is there maybe any standard function fimilar to the FN + F4 sortcut kep on laptops?

Its probably a lost cause but any help would be appreciated.

**wrench97** · 12-11-2008, 04:51 PM

Unfortunately most of the time you have to it through the properties dialog from the desktop, there is the possibility without a monitor hooked up if you could connect it directly to the TV depending on the card it may detect the TV on boot but having the dvd player in the loop may stop the detection, Also make sure it is a 7 wire Svid cable and not a 4 wire as some cards don't work with 4 wire cables.

**magnethead** · 12-11-2008, 07:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wrench97

Unfortunately most of the time you have to it through the properties dialog from the desktop, there is the possibility without a monitor hooked up if you could connect it directly to the TV depending on the card it may detect the TV on boot but having the dvd player in the loop may stop the detection, Also make sure it is a 7 wire Svid cable and not a 4 wire as some cards don't work with 4 wire cables.

consider most cards noly have 4 pin out on those older ones.

Like wrench said, it should auto detect what output is active.

**emosun** · 12-12-2008, 03:17 PM

On my cards (even my old geforce 2) it needs to be activated after you get to the desktop which means you would need a regular monitor connected first , enable the tv , then disconnect the monitor.

However, when the drivers are not loaded before windows boots it will display the bios and boot screen through the tv out w/o activating it. This helps in showing the tv is properly connected.

12-11-2008, 04:10 PM	#1 (permalink)
aodmol Registered User Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 1 OS: XP	Enabling Tv Out on a desktop I have an old pc i'm trying to connect up to my tv as i don't have access to a monitor. I've bought an s-video cable and have it connected to my tv via a dvd player. My question is how do i enable the tv out function on my desktop? Consequently I don't know what type of video card the desktop has but it is around 5 years old. Is there maybe any standard function fimilar to the FN + F4 sortcut kep on laptops? Its probably a lost cause but any help would be appreciated.

12-11-2008, 04:51 PM	#2 (permalink)
wrench97 Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2008 Location: S.E. Pennsylvania Posts: 18,661 OS: Win7	Re: Enabling Tv Out on a desktop Unfortunately most of the time you have to it through the properties dialog from the desktop, there is the possibility without a monitor hooked up if you could connect it directly to the TV depending on the card it may detect the TV on boot but having the dvd player in the loop may stop the detection, Also make sure it is a 7 wire Svid cable and not a 4 wire as some cards don't work with 4 wire cables. __________________ Power Supply and Selection

12-12-2008, 03:17 PM	#4 (permalink)
emosun Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: usa Posts: 7,019 OS: xp pro sp2 My System	Re: Enabling Tv Out on a desktop On my cards (even my old geforce 2) it needs to be activated after you get to the desktop which means you would need a regular monitor connected first , enable the tv , then disconnect the monitor. However, when the drivers are not loaded before windows boots it will display the bios and boot screen through the tv out w/o activating it. This helps in showing the tv is properly connected. __________________ Gpu Benchmarks Cpu-Z Power supply information and selection Gpu-Z Video card quick list