Laptop to television

I want to hook up my home entertainment(sp) center so that my tv can play whatever is on my laptop like movies games ect. like using my tv as a monitor. Both my new tv and laptop have s-video connections, can i just hook up a cable and see if it works or do i need something else, i just want to get some info before i go out and buy a cable. Any comments are apreciated, thanks.

^ that will work, but you have to get the sound from your laptop to the home theater too. and the only way to do that (from a laptop) is using a line-out (ew!! :lol:) it would be better to use the dvd player and use your digital or optical sound wire, and your component video. thats where you'll get your best picture/sound

Just get a cable and connect the s-vid out from your laptop to the s-vid in to your tv. There's a key to press on the laptop that'll relay the video signal through the cable. The key will have something like |O| on it (I think).

i heard that running a tv with the output from a computer could damage it somehow?? is there any fact to this? i just bought a 36 rca and i am not about to hurt it in anyway.

myth; it wont hurt it

i got the cable and everything works fine, except the text on the tv screen is always blurred. All the other pictures and movies come in crystal clear. its just hard to find files and programs.

thats because your laptop resoulatino is going to be 800 x 600 or greater. your normal TV screen is approximatly 280 lines (i think) so there a lot few, and much larger pixels on your tv screen. thats normal; you wont get a clear desktop on your tv screen