Toshiba F20 Methods of Connecting the Qosmio Notebook to Accept a Television Signal

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Methods of Connecting the Qosmio Notebook to Accept a Television Signal

Once you have the correct items of hardware and have upgraded the Windows XP Media Center operating system as

appropriate, you should next decide how you are going to connect the Qosmio to accept a television signal from the Sky Digital

set top box. The notebook itself is capable of accepting one of three different input types, each of which offers differing levels of

sound and image quality, and each of which is described below for reference:-

Coaxial Cable Connection

Image Quality Poor

Connection Antenna-in port (see Appendix A - Connecting a Qosmio through the Antenna-in Port)

Considerations Not all Sky Digital set top boxes output a digital signal through the RF-out socket but instead initially

convert it to an analogue format. In the event that the set top box to which you are connecting the Qosmio

provides a digital output through the RF-out socket, you will need to know which channel is being used for

this signal in readiness for the software configuration process described later - this information is normally

detailed within the User Manual provided with the set top box.

Composite Cable Connection

Image Quality Medium

Connection Monitor-in port (see Appendix B - Connecting a Qosmio through the Monitor-in Port)

Considerations When using a composite connection it will be necessary to purchase an additional cable - a SCART

Connector to 3-Plug RCA cable - which can then be used in conjunction with the monitor-in cable

provided with the Qosmio.

In addition to the cabling considerations, by default Windows XP Media Center has all audio input

channels enabled which means that, when a connection is made to the monitor-in port, the audio signal

will be duplicated on both the Wave and Line In channels. As the audio signal that goes through the Line-

in channel is in an uncompressed format it will be presented to the user approximately half a second

ahead of the video resulting in playback that is almost unwatchable. This issue can be resolved by muting

the Line-in channel by following the procedure detailed below:-

- Click start >>> Control Panel.

- If the Control Panel application is in Category View...

- Click Sounds, Speech and Audio Devices.

- Click Advanced Volume Controls from the left hand pane.

- If the Control Panel application is in Classic View...

- Double-click Sounds and Audio Devices and then click the Advanced... button.

- Within the Volume Control window, check the Mute box within the Line In section.

- Close the Volume Control window by clicking the cross in the top right-hand corner.

S-Video Cable Connection

Image Quality High

Connection S-Video input port for video (see Appendix C - Connecting a Qosmio through the S-Video Input Port)

Monitor-in port for audio (see Appendix B - Connecting a Qosmio through the Monitor-in Port)

Considerations When using an S-Video connection it will be necessary to purchase an additional cable - a SCART

Connector to S-Video cable - which will attach directly to the appropriate port on the Qosmio. However,

you should also note that, although S-Video provides the best picture quality, it does not carry any audio

signal which means that a further cable will be needed to connect the RCA audio output sockets on the

set top box, if they are present, to the composite input port on the Qosmio.

Please note that not all Sky Digital set top boxes support S-Video output through the SCART socket and,

for those that do, this feature must usually be activated via the set top box setup menu.