Decide what to buy | the Reevoo.com blog, featuring news on TVs, cameras, laptops, mp3 players & other gadgets, shopping tips and deals, reviews and more

We’ve looked at getting the internet on your TV in a previous blog post, but what if you want to watch films downloaded to your laptop on your TV, play games on a really big screen or show off your holiday snaps in style?  Today we’ll look at connecting your computer to your TV.

Step 1: Check your connections

There are several different ways to connect your computer to your TV, depending on what kind of sockets there are on your laptop/desktop and TV.  There will be quite a lot of variation depending on the age and model of your computer and your TV.  I’ve listed the possible ways of connecting in order of increasing image quality.

Composite/RCA
This is the most old-fashioned kind of connection, found as standard on older TVs and computers.  There are three plugs and sockets: white for the left stereo audio, red for the right stereo audio and yellow for composite video.  This kind of cable can be found very cheaply.
SEPARATE AUDIO CONNECTION NECESSARY

Composite socket                                      composite cable

S-Video (Super Video)
This is a more advanced analog video connector than the Composite, and S Video cables are also very cheap.  There are two different types of S-Video sockets: 4 pin and 7 pin.  You can only connect a 7-pin port to another 7-pin port. Most computers have 7-pin ports so if your TV only has a 4-pin socket, you can’t connect them using this method.
SEPARATE AUDIO CONNECTION NECESSARY

S-Video socket                     S-Video cable

VGA (Video Graphics Array)
VGA is another analog video connection, commonly found on laptops and HD TVs – but not non-HD TVs.  It gives much higher quality than S-Video and cables are also quite cheap.  The socket for this connection on your TV can also be called PC input or D-Sub.  If you have a PC with a separate monitor, the monitor will be plugged into the VGA socket on your PC.
SEPARATE AUDIO CONNECTION NECESSARY

VGA socket                                 VGA cable

DVI (Digital Video Interface)
DVI ports are found on Mac laptops, often as ‘mini-DVI’ ports.  These mini ports are smaller than normal DVI and require an adaptor to convert them to DVI.
SEPARATE AUDIO CONNECTION NECESSARY

DVI socket                                          DVI cable

Mini DVI socket and cable on a Mac Laptop

HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface)
This kind of connection provides both digital audio and digital video.  New HD TVs will usually have at least one of these ports.  Some TVs will have a socket labelled HDMI/DVI.  You can connect a computer with a DVI port to these sockets, but you will need to use a DVI-to-HDMI cable and make a separate audio connection.
Convertors

HDMI socket                              HDMI cable

If you’re in the unfortunate position of not having a matching set of sockets on your PC and TV, you’ll have to use a convertor of some sort.  The good news is that these are widely available for most of the conversions you’ll want to do.

Audio Connections

People often find that, after connecting their PC to their TV, they can get picture but not sound out of the TV.  All of the connections listed above except HDMI need additional audio connections if you want a better quality of sound than that given out by your computer.

To connect a PC up to a TV for sound, you will need an analogue audio cable, which can be plugged in either to the analogue audio sockets on the TV or your speaker system.  There are two of these sockets: a red one for right stereo audio (connect the red plug) and a white one for the left stereo audio (connect the white plug).

Be aware that the quality of sound coming from your PC will depend on its sound card, and will not be output in a surround sound format, even if you connect it to a surround sound speaker system.

Step 2: Linking computer and TV together

When you’ve worked out what connection you’ll be using and you have the appropriate cables, it’s time to connect up the PC and TV.  Turn both off and unplug the PC from its monitor.  If your laptop is connected to a separate montior, unplug it.

Plug the cable (or convertor) into the TV and computer, then turn them both on.  Some TVs may automatically detect the computer connected to them, but for others you’ll have to manually change the input.  The way to do this will vary from model to model, so check your TV manual.

Computer also need some adjustments, although many will make these adjustments automatically.  First the output may need to be changed.  Sometimes there is a keyboard shortcut to do this, but it can always been done by going to the Control Panel, clicking on Display and then going to the Settings tab.

If your PC desktop is not displaying properly on your TV screen you might also want to try changing the resolution.  This can also be done by going to the Control Panel, clicking on Display and then going to the Settings tab.  For many PC/TV combinations, a resolution of 800×600 works best.

Sometimes you may need to change the settings for your PC graphics card as well.  There should be an icon for it in the Control panel.

Although it amy take some time and some tinkering to come up with the best settings for your set-up, once you’ve sorted this, you’re done.

For those who want to take it to the next level, I’ll be posting a follow up about wirelessly connecting your computer and laptop.

Tags: connect computer to TV, HDMI, laptop, pc, S-Video, tv, VGA, watch downloads on your TV

Blog posted on Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 at 3:26 pm under Televisions. Leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.