Laptop to TV

[Lexa]

So I want to connect my laptop to the TV. I connected my laptop to my TV via HDMI cable. The TV is detected by my laptop, yet I get no image. Yes, I set the TV input to the correct HDMI port. I've dicked with the display settings and still nothing. The best I managed was when I set the TV resolution to 800x600, at which point my TV screen went bright purple.

Any ideas from more tech savy people than me?

EDIT: Additional bonus question. I read somewhere about most American TVs being region "locked" or only being able to display signals in NTSC or some such - does that mean that even if I get a region free DVD player, I wouldn't be able to watch region 2 DVDs on my TV?

[xopher]

http://www.laptopscreenrepair.co.uk/...on-monitor.jpg You need to press those two buttons. Function first, then the display swap button.

American TVs are not region locked. A PAL signal will not display properly on an NTSC TV. This is largely irrelevant nowadays though because modern HD displays are neither PAL nor NTSC. If you have HDMI ports you will likely be able to play region 2 dvds on it without issue.

[Isiolia]

A couple things to check. First, did you tell the laptop to actually display on HDMI? Many have a way to rotate through video modes (Function key + something for example), usually internal display only, external display only, and both. Drivers may have additional options.

Second, most TVs don't have the same range of resolutions that PC monitors do. Have you tried the TV's native resolution (probably 1920x1080) for example?

EDIT: Additional bonus question. I read somewhere about most American TVs being region "locked" or only being able to display signals in NTSC or some such - does that mean that even if I get a region free DVD player, I wouldn't be able to watch region 2 DVDs on my TV?

It's not so much region locked, as they're usually only made for NTSC. But, yeah, PAL is a different resolution and frame rate, so it's not simply a matter of defeating region protection.
That being said, there are players out there advertised as playing PAL on NTSC or vice versa. Like this.

It's less relevant now with HD, since 1080p is a worldwide standard. You do get occasional PAL 1080i sourced stuff that throws things off, but once you hop to Blu-ray things are simpler (the majority don't even have region protection).

IMO, it's mostly a matter of market size. The US market is huge, so we don't see as much need to import. If you look at military exchanges n' stuff, you might find multi-system TVs and players - my family had a multi-system TV and VCR growing up, 'cause we moved overseas and back.

[xopher]

Did you just not see my post before you posted that? lol

[Isiolia]

Did you just not see my post before you posted that? lol

Nope. Had started to reply, but double checked for PAL DVD stuff.

[Lexa]

Well, I managed to select the HDMI on the laptop, and then the TV screen went from black to bright purple/pink in 4:3 aspect ratio. @.@

[Seraph]

I would only add that the "CRT/LCD" button isn't always the Function (Fn) key + the F4 key as in the picture above. Just keep that in mind, it should be labeled on the correct button though, but I have seen this issue crop up once at work where someone was following instructions to hook up a projector to an older model of laptop. I think I have seen it as F4, F5, and F8 keys.

[TheDangerousDave]

Mine's F7 (Lenovo X201 tablet)