External Monitor

[Jim Smith]

 Has anyone used an external HDTV as a monitor on a laptop? I tried to
use the VGA output connector to provide a signal to a 720p 32" Sony
HDTV. No luck, the TV didn't show a signal. If Windoze were installed on
this laptop, supposedly pressing Fn-F7 will change the output to the
external VGA connector. I have never tried this before so have no idea
what should be done or even where to look. Equip is Sony VAIO Laptop,
Intel chipset and Ubuntu 7.04.

Probably a dumb question and I may never need to do this again, but I
would like to know.

Thank you

Jim