RCA P46771A2 (Made in '95)

when you connect a laptop to another screen you will also need to press one of the Function keys to change the output it will usually have a symbol like 2 rectangles. you may need to check your laptops manual.

I think you are confusing the channel on the tv and the channel of the cable company that is not something that you can pick up with the scan tv, scan tv is good for picking up local channel meaning air channel that we get with a antenna only not the cable chanel

your problem is likely the universal remote will not enter the menu and engage the auto program this set has--if it does and finds nothing either no signal or a bad tuner in the set.

If set has audio video jacks see if a DVD etc works on them--can always hook up signal to those inputs to bypass the problem.

Depending on how many hook ups you have on your tv it may have a factory designated channel. Example: Video 1, Game, etc. I know my TV has several different video channels. It's more a matter of trial and error until you find the vidoe channel for your oulet. Input channels are usually found before channel 1. Or look on your remote and see if it has a button to switch the channel to your input channel. Good Luck.

First I need to know what model laptop and if your Tv has rca a/v inputs.
You can buy a vga to rca converter online or if you have a video out,little yellow plug in on the laptop then you can plug it right into your yellow rca a/v input on your tv.
here is a link.
http://www.geekwithlaptop.com/how-to-connect-laptop-to-tv

You will also need a 3.5 MM jack to RCA for your sound as well as a short stereo RCA cable. SVideo only transmits video, you need to send sound to your TV as well. Radio Shack sells these. They can also be used to send audio from an MP3 player to your TV or from your computer to an external home theatre system for greater sound quality. Do not confuse this with a 3.5mm to A/V RCA cable. That was designed to allow ipods to send A/V to a TV and you will be paying for more inputs then you need. The headphone jack of your laptop will usually send Left and right audio (mine has 2, the first sends front Left and Right, and the 2nd sends rear left and right, center and subwoofer. Most people only use front left and right so all the others are bundled into the second).

PS. The 3.5mm to RCA is usually sold with Female RCA endings so you will need a male RCA cable to connect to the RCA ports on your TV. I have a 20' RCA cable running from my Mac to my Amplifier to play my itunes on my Theatre speakers, but if you don't need that much a 3-6' RCA should work fine and would be a lot cheaper. On the mac side, I have the 3.5mm to Stereo RCA adapter hooked to my Audio out jack on the back. This is the cheapest option vs getting a PCMCIA TV tuner card which can set you back at least $80-$100, if not more. Tell the people at RadioShack what you are trying to do and they should be able to find the exact products I am talking about. The adapter should be about $5-10 and the cable should run you another 5 or so bucks as well.

If the make and model number of your TV is as stated in the category posted. RCA model 27F530T 27" then you can find the owners manual at the following link.
http://tv.rca.com/RCATV/Assets/pdfs/27F530T_1620181B_IB_e-04.pdf

I had the same problem and nothing worked for me until I changed laptop settings to NTSC_M
So, briefly what I have: S-Video to S-Video cable, laptop (Thinkpad R51, Windows XP, with Intel(R) extreme graphics controler ) and TV set (Samsung, quite old one). The problem was that after connecting my laptop S-Video (4 pin) with S-Video (4 pin) of my TV, I had black and white (no colour) picture.
Solution is the folowing:
- connect your laptop and TV (both S-video 4 pins)
- mouse right click on your laptop desktop screen
- in the popup menu select: 'Graphics Properties'
- "Output to"
- select "TV"
- properties "NTSC_M"

keep in mind that if your are not connected to TV, Graphics Properties don't show TV as an option. So, that was very confusing for me, as I saw similar solution somewhere but was not able to find NTSC_M settings on my laptop
Good luck

I'd first just hook up the DVD/VCR to the TV and get that working. I'm assuming all you need is the standard cable type connection. This will at least your 4 year old happy. Then you can experiment with the S cable. The S cable will give a cleaner signal from the DVD to the TV. then hook up audio and video cables from the Direct TV to the DVD input. The audio and video will be cleaner using S cables and audio and video cables, but stadard TV cable should get you going. You didn't mention what model DVD player you have. You may have to select the correct inout on the DVD for the Direct TV connection.
Rich

If you have the original remote (RCA Universal with red and blue buttons), you can switch from the TV tuner to the audio/video input with the INPUT button. It is to the left of zero on the numeric keypad, above the red CLEAR button. Press it again to get back to the TV tuner.