Technical Jellies: Can you help me get my laptop to output to digital tv? Frustrated!

I’m not really an expert on HDMI, but it looks to me as if you need to make sure that your laptop is in the right screen resolution. If you look in the manual for your tv, it should list what resolutions it supports. I think if you change the screen resolution on your laptop to one of those, it should work.
Again, I’m not really an expert on HDMI, so I can’t guarantee that this is your problem.
Let me know if the problem persists.

Thank you for answering. Part of the problem is that the tv didn’t come with a manual but a dvd which I can’t find. I’ll try some different options if you think that explains the “invalid input” error on the tv.

Well, I looked up your tv, and it looks like it’s native resolution is 1366×768, but it also supports 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i. Probably the main problem though is that your tv needs a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, while your computer is probably outputting something else.
Another alternative would be to use a vga cable instead of HDMI, if you have one.

Alright. Thank you again for your help.
I used to be able to find “display” option in control panel but Vista seems to have hidden it.

If you right click on the home screen you should get a menu which has properties on it, (or maybe screen resolution, I can’t tell since I have windows 7), but anyways it should be one of the options under properties.
Or you can try searching for screen resolution while you have the control panel open.

I asked more or less the same question a couple of weeks ago
http://www.fluther.com/107218/my-laptop-has-an-hdmi-output-can-i-hook-it-directly/

Thanks all. I got it fixed up and have been watching movies!
Solution for Vista to HDTV via HDMI cable:

attach cable and set tv to HDMI
on pc, right click desktop—graphics options—output to clone desktop/digital television

go into control panel – on the left menu “control panel home”
—appearance and personalization
—personalization
—adjust screen resolution
—choose “multiple monitors”
—experiment with resolution slider until desktop appears on tv screen. My magic number was 1280×720

—play file normally on laptop

Thank you again. Without the points in the right direction, I wouldn’t have found it.