How to play laptop DVD on TV?
 

Does anyone know how I can hookup my laptop DVD player to my TV?

Sure I could buy a DVD player...for like 19 bucks, but...I'm cheap.

unless your Laptop has either SVIDEO or RCA outs, you are SOL.

Yep. Many do, though, so thats probably not a problem. Thats actually how I play DVDs in my dorm room--I left my DVD player at home over break and so I just have an S-Video cable running into the back of the TV that I use to plug into my laptop and just run an audio feed from the laptop to my stereo for sound.

Yup, you'll need an S-Video output on your lappy or RCA out. If you're hooking it up to the TV, you'll also need some audio outs on your laptop as well. If you just have a headphone jack on your laptop, drop by RadioShack and get a small connector that has a mini-stereo to rca (aka headphones to Red & White/Black) so that you'll get sound on your TV.

Just in case you have an HDTV, there's a possibility you could use the monitor output on your laptop on the HDTV, but that depends on the TV.

ive used the video out on my laptop before, but the quality was poor. i dont think there is a cure to fix it tho :(

Sure there is. Get a better screen. Your laptop is running at a minimum of 640x480. If it's a newer one it's probably running at 1024x768 or higher. Your TV has a max of around 480x440 (yes you techies, I know the horiz. is variable). You either need to upgrade the output screen (large flat panel monitor works) or you need to get what's called a downconverter. This is a device used by TV stations to take screen shots and shoot it down to TV resolution. Only trouble is, it's expensive as holy hell.

athletics, are we talking about a laptop computer that plays dvds or a portable dvd player?

If it's a portable dvd player, look by the headphone jack for what looks like a yellow headphone jack. It takes a mini-plug to rca adaptor. Mine came with the necessary cables, but if you go to radioshack or somewhere along those lines they've probably got something that will work for you, most likely for under $6-7.

If it's an actual laptop computer that happens to play dvds, there should be a few different options for getting the signal to a tv. If it only has S-vid out and you only have rca inputs on your tv (or vice-versa), you can get an adaptor for about $20 that will take care of your needs.

It would also probably help if you told us what kind of laptop you had and what kind of video card you had.