Watching Internet movies on a 40" HD T.V. question

[Hex]

We have a 40" Sony that has a VGA connector on the back.

SWMBO has a subscription to a Korean language internet site that offers movies, TV programs, etc.

Cool says I, we can merely get a VGA cable and hook up her laptop PC to the TV and use it as an external monitor and voila, Korean Soap Opera in all its HD, 40" glory.

Well, as you figured out, this doesn't work. What I get is a duplication of the PC screen onto the TV without any improvement in the resolution and it's only slightly bigger than the PC screen.

Is there a device/software/both that will permit this ? Not to include an internet ready TV. We don't want to go to that expense though I am not sure that would make any difference.
Ideally, there would be some box that would accept output from the PC, size it up and improve the resolution. Or a different PC like maybe an IPad or equivalent that would be able to do this ?

Do such critters exist ?

thanks

 

[Jim]

You should be able to get the picture display much larger on the TV, however it will only display quality wise as good as the source material.

 

[FunnyHoney]

Depends on which OS,Windows, Linux, etc.. I got my HDTV and PC monitor to work on both OS without a problem. If you have HDMI or DVI connector, it should configure HDTV resolution correctly. Otherwise your laptop should have configuration menu to change the resolution on HDTV, 720, 1080, etc..

 

[JellyFox]

You can get scalers that convert VGA to 1080p, but they're just interpolating what's there, so even though it would look cleaner than letting the TV itself upscale it, it's going to lose some detail. The prices are pretty steep, too. A better option might be an external HD video card that connects through USB or PCMCIA. I don't know how well they work, but presumably you'd get better results than upscaling.

 

[HCSchluge]

VGA is VGA, doesn't matter the size of the display. Are you driving the TV from a laptop or a desktop? If a desktop, then you can upgrade your graphics card to something that has complete HDMI out. Complete meaning Video + Sound. Believe it or not, they have the nerve to sell cards with video only which is near useless. If you are running from a laptop without an HDMI out, then VGA is about as good as it will get.

 

[global_dev]

your tv should have settings for zoom. it even may have a scalar that does the interpolation. i regular use vga from a old pc to output to a 65" LCD. works fine..
can you only do mirror, not a second screen? even most laptops should have a res to change that accommodates of an external monitor.

 

[rajagra]

If you are simply unplugging the PC screen and plugging the TV into the same connector, you will get the same resolution (assuming the TV can match it!)
Try reconfiguring the resolution after plugging in the TV. Check the TV specs first to see what res it can handle.
An analog VGA cable can handle very high resolutions (I run 1920x1200 through VGA on one of my PCs, so it's easily capable of full HD.)

 

[franz]

What is the resolution of the source material? Video streams intended to look decent on a laptop are not always of high enough quality to be worth watching on a bigger screen.

 

[Go West Young Man]

Try hitting F11 to go to "Full Screen" mode....

 

[global_dev]

Try hitting F11 to go to "Full Screen" mode....

full screen only works in that way if the resolution is appropriate. if it isn't than all full screen would do is maximize the app in the same small area.