older tv with only cable hookup

so i have my dvd player hooked up to my old vcr and cable to tv that all works fine so i tried to conect laptop to dvd player via svidieo cable.my player has both an in and out for svidieo.nothing on tv screen but dvd player screen fliped thru l1,l2 and dv,which said no device,so looking in the display i only seen one monitor.i then clicked detect.my computer went nuts changed my whole display very large and standerd instead of wide error message and so on .looking at display setting it still only showed one monitier but it had a 1 and a2 in it.i did a system restore to the day befor and got it back to normal....is there any way i can make this work.did i miss a step somewhere.....thanks for any help

I would not connect to the DVD player, but directly to the TV for setup (and then procure a switch and use it when you want to switch between your s-video sources - any experienced salesman at Radio Shack or Best Buy or TV store can assist in choosing one). First, make sure your display properties are set to dual screen and that the TV is properly detected. Then open WMC and scroll to Tasks>Settings>TV>Configure your TV or Monitor. Make sure you choose the TV and the appropriate settings here. You should be viewing WMC at that point full screen on the TV.