Hyatt Place Plug Panel
 

Any ideas as to why I can't get Windows Media (or RealPlayer) to play a movie from my laptop through VGA cable to a plug panel on a TV? Everything works except the movie inside of Media player. I've tried all the control panel settings I could think of, but either I'm missing something, or it can't be done.

Here is the link to the panel instruction.
http://www.hyatt.com/hyatt/images/ho...gpaneluser.pdf

I assume it would be the same as connecting to a projector through a VGA cable.

I suspect that you might have problems with the video overlay. This can happen when you use the laptops internal screen and an external at the same time. Usually when you use clone mode both will function at the same time (at the same resolution), try turning the laptops screen off and report back.

It is the same thing, but windows will only display movies, etc on the primary display in clone mode.

Try extending windows onto the second display (not clone mode), or turning off the notebooks LCD.

-David

Laptop to external VGA Plug
 

Wow. That sounds like the solution. I'm staying at a couple Hyatt Places week after next and will give it a try. I really appreciate the suggestion.
I will report back, because I believe you will see more and more hotels offer connectivity to their HDTVs.

If you are using a VGA cable connecting to a TV, you will have to manually set the resolution. WindowsXP (other than Media Center version) doesn't have HDTV resolutions such as 1366x720 or 1920x1050 in native state.

One solution is to install a monitor driver already has these resolution and use them. My Phillips TV doesn't recommend connecting to a PC much less offering a driver. I've found that Viewsonic does offer monitor drivers for their TVs and it generally worked well. Look for a mid-range model such as N3250xx and replace a Plug & Play monitor with this driver, then set the external monitor resolution to 1366x720.

If you are using DVI or HDMI, then this problem doesn't show up. For my computer to switch internal and external monitor, I have to set both resolutions to 1366x720.