Im assuming that, when u say stuff comes up but the movie doesnt play; that means that what ur doing on ur laptop is being displayed on the TV, but when u open ur media player all that comes up is a black screen?
if so i suggest u try and use a s-video cord...i think its called that im not sure its a cable which has like 8 pins which connects to the back of ur laptop and into the tv. Ill have to go have a look tommorow morning so i can remember the actual name of it but yeah water that cord im using is called is the one u should b using as its designed for the transer of data through a computer to tv.