Connecting Laptop to TV?

Hi all,

We've been downloading some of our favorite American TV episodes onto our computer here.  We'd like to find a cord/cable that will go from our laptop to our TV unit so we don't have to squeeze around the laptop to watch these shows together. 

Our laptop has standrad USB out and a standard monitor output (15 pin).  It would be ideal if this could connect to the TV via either standard A/V cables (I think that's what you call the red/yellow/white cable) or into a scart socket. 

Does anyone know if such a cable exists, either in the UK or the states (as we'll be there for Christmas)?  Any other ways we could make this work without having to burn stuff onto a DVD first?

Cheers,
Sonja

It is a bit more complicated then just the cable to the TV. If you have an "S" video port you can buy a cable that will connect to a TV with an "S" video plug. Of course you will also need the RCA plugs for the audio. Your laptop needs to be able to run two monitors as well. You will need to set the second monitor to 800x600 resolution and then drag the media player window over to the second monitor (the TV).

It was a pain the first time I did it but it works well. We watch all sorts of US TV this way.

Some of the fancier large-screen TVs sets now have an SVGA input (15-pin D-socket) which is intended for direct connection to a computer video card.  Otherwise, you'll need the S-video adapter or some other converter, for example:

http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/PC-TV_video_adapter.html