what if laptop doesn't have TV-out port?

If I want to connect my laptop to TV, but the laptop doesn't have
TV-out port, what should I do?

please advise. thanks!!

Get a new notebook. There's probably nothing more that you can do with your
present hardware at this point!
--
Cari (MS-MVP)
Printing & Imaging

On Wed, 30 Nov 2005 11:45:41 -0800, "Cari"


Buy a USB one.

USB to VGA adapter. Possibly a stinker, but you never know.
1024x768 is what many video cards offer as the max res on
the TV-out spigot.

http://www20.graphics.tomshardware.com/display/20050608/sitecom-01.html

There are VGA to TV adapters. These may be called
scan converters. Some are very good and very expensive.

This company makes some. Judging by the description, this may
be one of their cheaper products. Proper scan conversion
requires holding frames of data in a memory, and preparing
the odd and even frames for TV based on that. (Inside a
video card, is a perfect place to do such a conversion.)
Having to repeat a step that could have been done elsewhere,
means there will be a price to pay. And, since the marketing
people consider everyone interested in this product to be
a "business person" "making money from the product", then
expect a big price. (The Adobe approach to product pricing.)

http://www.aver.com/products/comptv_QuickPlay.shtml

I cannot seem to find a "USB to composite" or a "USB to SVHS",
but I haven't looked that hard.

I wanted to use the search function at this forum, as I suspect
the missing bits and pieces may have been discussed here. Their
search engine is disabled when the web site gets too busy.
Right now it is turned off. Have a look here later in the day.

http://www.avsforum.com

If you already have a VGA output on the laptop, then you just
need the scan converter.

HTH,
Paul

Also, if you have PCCard slots, there might be video cards
that can sit in one of those slots:

http://www.pcmcia.org/pccard.htm

The Trident chip inside this device, does have a TV output, but
the design doesn't make it available on the output connector.
I suppose there just isn't room. You'd still need a scan
converter plugged to the end of this. Dongle hell. All
that junk external to the laptop would probably pull the
card right out.

http://www.villagetronic.com/vtbook/techspecs.html

There is another product I found, but because the manufacturers
insisted on not making manuals available, or even a picture
so you could see the connectors on the product, I won't bother
to promote their product. Their product is similar to the
next one, in terms of packaging.

This conversion box, allows you to add a PCI video card via
an adapter that goes in a PCMCIA slot. Apparently not all
slots are created equal, and add-in cards won't all necessarily
work well in the PCMCIA slot (it depends on the chip inside the
laptop that drives the slot). In any case, you could buy a
FX5200 with SVHS/Composite output, put it in the box, and
connect that to your laptop. There could be some ATI PCI
cards as well, but I didn't bother searching for them.

http://www.mobl.com/expansion/products/cardbus_expansion/1slot/index.html

PCI video cards which might make candidates for the Mobl box
are here. Select one that looks like it will fit in the
box, and pick a card with the connectors you want. Check the
product "view pic" link, to make sure the adapter(s) that plug
into the PCI faceplate, come with the product.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?submit=PROPERTY&SubCategory=48&propertycodevalue=696:9642&bop=and&InnerCata=48

Paul