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Trying to hook up Laptop with HDTV

I have a Gateway laptop running Vista which I bought about 18 months ago but the screen does not work. Its out of warranty, so its very expensive to repair and not worth it.

I thought that if I could hook it up to my HDTV, I can use it. So I bought this VGA to RCA component cable (Link: http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=205880227&dcaid=17768)
I have a 50 inch Plasma and I hooked it up with the laptop using the cable but it doesnt seem to work. I am 100% sure I connected the wires correctly. I even tried hooking up the TV with another XP laptop and another Ubuntu laptop but none of them work.

I hooked the laptop with a Sony CRT and I could get a very distorted picture. There were three images on the TV next to each other. You could make out the wallpaper and icons but the picture was unusably blurred and color-distorted.

Can anyone please help me out? Is it the settings on my laptop? or my TV? DO I need some software?

PS: This is my TV:

http://reviews.cnet.com/flat-panel-tvs/philips-50pf7321d/4505-6482_7-32037000.html?tag=qlph