Need Help: Hooking my laptop to my TV

[boston george]

First of all thanks in advance to anyone who may be able to offer me some advice. I'm only decent in my knowledge of computers and I may need some in-depth(step-by-step) help with what I think should be a pretty easy solution to my problem.

OK. I have a brand-new Dell Inspiron 1150 laptop with a Pentium 4 2.8, 512Ram and running windows XP, hooked into my wireless network at home but I usually use it in my livingroom/HT.

Heres what I need.

1) I need to be able to connect my laptop to my tv screen as a monitor (my laptop has a regular monitor out connection and my tv is a newer Mits HDTV with Component, S-Video and composite inputs)

2) Record from my cable signal to the HD in my laptop (I have regular coax cable from comcast)

3) I need software that will let me set timers and other such VCR functions on my laptop recording a tv signal

Is all this possible or all just a pipe dream? I'm sure it will at least involve some hardware and/or software purchases on my part but can I do it? Is anyone willing to help Please

The people on this forum helped me to first set-up my wireless network (PC, Laptop, PS2, XBOX) and then to stop an asshole neighbor from stealing my wireless signal, so figured if anyone could help me it would be you guys.

[nomaan]

Originally Posted by boston george

First of all thanks in advance to anyone who may be able to offer me some advice. I'm only decent in my knowledge of computers and I may need some in-depth(step-by-step) help with what I think should be a pretty easy solution to my problem.

OK. I have a brand-new Dell Inspiron 1150 laptop with a Pentium 4 2.8, 512Ram and running windows XP, hooked into my wireless network at home but I usually use it in my livingroom/HT.

Heres what I need.

1) I need to be able to connect my laptop to my tv screen as a monitor (my laptop has a regular monitor out connection and my tv is a newer Mits HDTV with Component, S-Video and composite inputs)

2) Record from my cable signal to the HD in my laptop (I have regular coax cable from comcast)

3) I need software that will let me set timers and other such VCR functions on my laptop recording a tv signal

Is all this possible or all just a pipe dream? I'm sure it will at least involve some hardware and/or software purchases on my part but can I do it? Is anyone willing to help Please

The people on this forum helped me to first set-up my wireless network (PC, Laptop, PS2, XBOX) and then to stop an asshole neighbor from stealing my wireless signal, so figured if anyone could help me it would be you guys.

i don't think this is a good laptop to do this. the laptop has an intel integrated graphics card. it has no s-video output. my cousin has the 700m model with S-video and even that isn't very impressive. to outpt to the tv, we have to shutdown the laptop display, otherwise it doesnt't work.

to record tv, you will need an external tv tuner/capture card that'll let you capture video through USB. to playback recorded material , you'll need an external usb sound card (if you want 5.1), otherwise, stereo is all what you're going to get.

my bro has this box that has vga inputs and composite out. i think its called a breakout box or a upscaler. we made it work with a laptop with a radeon card. worked really well. it refused to work with the inter integrated graphics card, cuz the card couldn't do the required resolutions..

I'd say its too much of an hassle ...

if you want a htpc setup, go with a stand alone machine. even a low end computer will beat what this laptop will be able to do.

i'd like to mentoin that I'm not a pro when it comes to HTPCs, but i've read about it a bit ... maybe some one else will be able to explain it better.

[ianholm]

I have a laptop with a s-video out, but the computer stuff displayed on the TV (desktop, icons, internet) look like crap. Pictures look OK though.

[nomaan]

Originally Posted by ianholm

I have a laptop with a s-video out, but the computer stuff displayed on the TV (desktop, icons, internet) look like crap. Pictures look OK though.

you can't really browse the net on that thing. its meant for movies/tv/music/pics etc mainly.