Older home theatre system (1 Viewer)

Hello, I am new to this forum, thanks for reading the following!
I have an older panasonic surround sound/dvd system. It doesn't have hdmi or optical audio outputs.
It only has the Red/white audio outputs.
My question is, when I plug the red/white cables into my cable box, the speakers work with the tv.
But when I plug the cables into my TV, it doesn't work.
The reason why I want them to work directly to my TV, is because my cable box isn't the only HDMI device I want to use my speakers for.
Mainly, I want to get my Laptop sound working to the surround sound, but it only works through the TV.
Is there any way that I can do this? I know there is, because my friend had a similar setup, and got it to work, just don't know how he did it.
Thanks!

Model numbers...
And I seriously doubt your DVD/HTiB has audio outputs

Panasonic SA-HT700.
It has 3 different sets of red/white outputs.
Labeled TV Out, VCR, Aux.

You might want to look again, those aren't all outputs....
The TV is an output.
The VCR and AUX are both inputs.
So, what is the TV?

By what is the TV, do you mean the plug that says "tv out"?
Or do you mean what kind of TV do I have?
I have a Samsung Plasma 41", has 2 hdmi and one set of those color plugs x 5.

Your SC HT700 has...(I've already downloaded the manual)
TV composite out(yellow), S-Video and component(red/green/blue)
It also has "line out"(to be paired up with one of the video outs)
AUX, VCR and TV are all input. Period, plain and simple.
Now your RGB/R/W on your TV is an input.
Input->input does not work.
I'm going to guess, since again, no model number, you bought the 720P plasma that may, or may not(WHAT IS THE MODEL NUMBER???????????????????????????????????????????????????????) have a digital audio output.
Besides, why can't you hook up the lapop audio straight to the HTiB? It doesn't have digital inputs, so you are stuck with 2.0 no matter what you do.

Yes, you are right, it is the Samsung 450plasma 720p.
I had no idea what inputs, outputs were.
How would I go about hooking up my laptop audio to the HTIB? Is it just a plain audio m/m cable?
Thanks alot for your research into this matter, you are truly a scholar!

Same thing you use for an Ipod/Ipad/cell phone...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-Adapter-Cables-1-8th-Inch-Speaker-to-Stereo-RCA-A1-/160893800264?pt=US_Audio_Cables_Adapters&hash=item2576048f48