i disagree with ya rudster,
i have my laptop on various tv's all the time .... to watch films,
sometimes i use extended sometimes clone sometimes single on tele
i mean i have found some tv's like my girlfriends 3 year old 28" JVC display the dekstop really good where as my mums 12 month old tv sony 32" tv displays the desktop blurry and with funny colours in the text,
so its just luck the best way is to buy a graphics card with s- video out and even if your tele dnt have s video in then you can use an adaptor.