Did you connect the laptop to the HDTV before turning either device on?
Did you change your input on your HDTV to the correct HDMI input?
On your laptop, did you go into your graphics control panel to enable the HDTV as a secondary display?
Does your HDTV have the same native resolution as your laptop?
If not, did you try to change the display of the secondary monitor to match it's native resolution?
-Wolf sends