I had the opportunity today to try out a laptop hooked up to a LCD TV with an HDMI cable.  I used the same laptop as the last time (an HP notebook).  This time I connected it to a Sharp Aquos 40″ LCD TV valued at $1899 CDN.

Let me just say Wow.  Even without installing the drivers for the display, it looked wonderful and it is amazing to see all the space available on the desktop.

I only ran into two problems.  First, be sure to set the aspect ratio so that it is not stretching the display in any way.  In the case of the Sharp, I set the aspect ratio to “Pixel for Pixel”.  Secondly, none of the desktop backgrounds from Windows Vista looked exceptionally great on the screen.  This could be due to the fact that the wallpapers were not the correct resolution for the screen.  Also, standing right in front of a screen this big, I would not expect it to look so good anyway’s.

In conclusion: HDMI on a laptop works great provided the TV or monitor supports the resolution and you have the aspect ratio set properly.