Is there a way to do a powerpoint presentation from your laptop to a TV usuing a connection other than an s-video cable?

To display anything from a computer to a TV you need to convert the signal from VGA to NTSC. If you have a TV out (S-Video) that's the best way. If you don't you need to get a VGA to NTSC converter.

Too bad you didn't have a desktop available to you, many add-in video cards have a TV-Out coax option.