Hello all,

Potentially stupid question here...

I have always ignored the s-video output on my laptop (compaq presario r3000), but I have purchased a new TV recently, and it has an s-video in port. So: is there some way to get the screen of the laptop cloned on the TV? Is this even what s-video is for? Will it require proprietary drivers/software that won't work with Linux?

Sorry for the cluelessness but I have no idea about s-video, and google isn't talking much...

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/linux_8.8.25.html

Hope that helps and btw, your laptop has the ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 IGP chipset

Thanks man, except my Laptop has nVidia chipset

In any event, I'm look for information that is even more basic. Can someone tell me what s-video ports are even used for? Like I said, I know nothing about them...

interesting, I googled your r3000 and came up with that ATI chipset. Nvidia has better support, so I would think it will work nicely.

The svideo connection allows you to view the display of your laptop onto TV or projectors. It should resize the resolution to something like 720x480 but I don't remember exactly. I used the Svideo for doing powerpoint presentations with my laptop because our projector didn't have the 15pin vga connection. I did use it on my TV just to see what its like, but I wasn't impressed. Your mileage may vary.

Yeah, I just use R3000 to describe the family of laptops made by Compaq and HP. They are all very similar.
Good. Guess I'll go buy the cable and mess around with it then.