Help with device

[Calumet005]

I bought a Vivid AV device, which is supposed to plug into the USB port of my Dell Latitude E6410 laptop in order to watch television through the HDMI port. Only the background shows up on the TV screen but I do get the sound. Any ideas?

 

[noidea_77]

Right click on a free space on the desktop, goto resolution and change the desktop layout from extend to clone - or simple drag the TV window over to the extended desktop on the TV.

 

[ssddx]

are you saying that "i do hear sound when i play movies" but that you dont see them and instead "i see just my background image with no icons and no startbar" ?

it sounds like you have the tv set up as an external monitor in extended mode. instead of copying what is on your laptop screen the tv is set up as a new monitor and adds real estate space to your desktop (normally to the right). you can drag the window for playing movies to this new screen and watch it on the tv.

by changing the display mode on your laptop (try fn+f8 for dell but it can vary) you can cycle between
-extended mode (external display adds on to the desktop)
-projector mode (disables onboard lcd and only uses the external screen)
-clone mode (external display shows what is on your laptop screen)

i tend to use projector mode when using my laptop connected to a tv and then swap back to the mode which displays both the same screen on my laptop and television when i'm ready to disconnect.

 

[Calumet005]

Right click on a free space on the desktop, goto resolution and change the desktop layout from extend to clone - or simple drag the TV window over to the extended desktop on the TV.

Bingo! We have a winner. Thank you. It works like a charm now.

 

[Calumet005]

Noidea_77/Night Owl had the right answer. The only change I had to make was clone was not an option---but duplicate was. Clone--duplicate---I get it now. Thanks.

 

[Calumet005]

are you saying that "i do hear sound when i play movies" but that you dont see them and instead "i see just my background image with no icons and no startbar" ?

it sounds like you have the tv set up as an external monitor in extended mode. instead of copying what is on your laptop screen the tv is set up as a new monitor and adds real estate space to your desktop (normally to the right). you can drag the window for playing movies to this new screen and watch it on the tv.

by changing the display mode on your laptop (try fn+f8 for dell but it can vary) you can cycle between
-extended mode (external display adds on to the desktop)
-projector mode (disables onboard lcd and only uses the external screen)
-clone mode (external display shows what is on your laptop screen)

i tend to use projector mode when using my laptop connected to a tv and then swap back to the mode which displays both the same screen on my laptop and television when i'm ready to disconnect.

 

[Calumet005]

Thanks ssddx---you guys/girls are the best.

 

[ssddx]

yeah its a pretty easy fix. clone/duplicate are the same thing. they just happened to type things up a bit faster and provided a different method of doing it