Can anyone give advice on using the pc-in jack on an hdtv to play video files off of a laptop? I've managed to use the nvidia controls to enable dual monitors, but I guess the hardware only supports 4:3 resolutions; the only one the tv supports is 1024x768, which it will only zoom to full. I can play video files on it, but widescreen videos still play letterboxed. I tried "zoom to widescreen" and it cuts off some of the picture. I'm typing on the tv now, and it's teh biggest internets I've ever seen. Played a 720p video letterboxed and it looked great, but a bit stretched; seems if it would fill the screen vertically it would look perfect. Seems like there would be a supported 16:9 resolution on the display properties, but there isn't. Maybe there's something I can do to put one there? =P Maybe someone knows a media player program good for scaling and strecthing to video to fit the display at its current resolution. The laptop is a dell with an nvidia quadro fx 2500m w/512mb memory. it's got a centrino duo processor and 2gigs regular ram, too, if that makes any difference. The tv is a 42" jvc, and 720p is the highest resolution it supports. I've been using media player classic to play the files, but maybe I don't know all the tricks to scaling/stretching video with it. Thanks lots.
I tried dual display on my Nvidia and when i try to play Movies, it looks all messed up. Either change your primary monitor to the TV or try changing to a single display, having your TV as the primary Display. Use Nero, Power DVD or any other DVD program (not windows media player) and make sure you go into the settings for the DVD program and tell it that you are using a widescreen tv. Check for driver/software updates from NVIDIA. When i have my tv hooked up to my computer, NVidia displays the name of the TV in NVIDIA control panel ex: Hitachi. IF you don't see the name of your tv perhaps the settings are not correct.
The tv shows up as a Generic Monitor, or something of the like. I've tried updating the nvidia drivers, but to no effect. Using windows xp, obviously. Thanks for the input, I'm going to try a couple of things base on your advice. I made the tv the primary display, but I haven't tried single display mode. Power DVD is the only program I have that I can find an option that tells the player I'm using a 16:9 display. It still plays the DVD's letterboxed, even on the laptop's (widescreen) monitor. Also, I'm trying to play video files, not DVD's. Don't know if that program will even play .avi, etc. I have very little experience with HDTV's, and this one isn't mine. The owner, my cousin, has a busted DVD player, so I can't test to see if the DVD's will play correctly on it. The Wii plays fine in 16:9 mode on it with no stretching, though. Even the PS2 looks good, but playing stuff off of the laptop is screwy, I guess because it won't recognize the tv properly.
Update: Didn't know, but even retail widescreen dvd's are still letterboxed on these widescreen tv's. Makes no sense whatsoever to me, because I thought that was the entire point of making them widescreen; the tv's are supposed to be in theatrical aspect ratios. They obviously aren't, even though the black letterbox bars are smaller than on a 4:3 tv. Still, the video looked horizontally stretched, obviously due to the fact that the computer wouldn't recognize the native resolution of the tv. In media player classic, it turns out, you can custom stretch with numpad keys. I just used that feature to make the video image stretch back into the correct proportions. Now it looks great. Laptop + PC-In HDTV + $8 Audio Cable = Downloaded Video @ 720p w/surround sound
