Paris English Forums

Dear Friends,

I'll be coming over from the United States to see Rick Owens' fashion show next month and am bringing along a laptop to watch region 1 movies with the laptop connected to a TV there. However, I understand that I may run into problems trying to connect an American laptop to a European TV.

The outputs that I have on my laptop are a 7-pin s-video (along with the audio/earphone output for sound) and a monitor port.

Is anyone on the Forum knowledgeable regarding the kind of cables/adaptors I will need to hook my laptop up to a European TV?

Regards to all from

Jack Owens

Hi JackOwens.
Do you want to receive TV signal on your laptop or do you want to play a movie from your laptop on a European TV?

I want to show region 1 DVD's on a European TV screen. The region 1 DVD's will be spinning in the American laptop connected to the European TV.

The question is, what kind of connectors/cables will I need to do that? My American laptop (HP Pavilion dv4000) has a) a 7-pin s-video outlet, b) a 15-pin monitor (VGA) outlet and c) an audio outlet that takes a 3.5 mm miniplug.

If you have an S-video jack then you will need an S-video cable which you can get at your local electronics store. You will also need a cable for audio. This cable will connect from the headphone jack in your laptop to the 2 RCA stereo jacks (red and white) on your TV or stereo system


Actually there are no problems with connecting a laptop to a tv since the corporations which create them are global and use the same standards...
You may have problems with the electricity outlet...

The standard household electrical outlet in most of Europe—including Austria, Germany, and Switzerland—packs a wallop of 220-240 volts, twice the standard household voltage in North America. A normal 110-volt electrical appliance designed for use in the US, Canada, or Mexico will provide a nice fireworks display, complete with sparks and smoke, if plugged into a European outlet.

Dear Site Administrator,

Thanks very much for the information.

I've been in Paris before and have used a transformer to reduce 220 volts to 110, so that's pretty much taken care of. I'm also prepared now with s-video cables, a monitor cable and SCART connector if needed. I've never connected an American laptop to a European TV, so I wanted to be prepared for whatever connections I might have to make, depending on the specific TV.

Regards,

John Owens

You are welcome!
In any case if you somehow stick with a TV that is not standard or it's new (new TV sets have HDMI inputs) you will be able to buy a cable locally since the s-video outlet used in your laptop is common in Paris.

very smart, visit the most beautiful city in the world for watching movies on laptop

I saw that no one mentioned that you'll need a special audio cable too, to connect it in laptop's and TV's audio jack. The s-video cable does not support audio signals..