Dave Discovers
Just some random discoveries, how to guides and helpful explainations made by dave.How To Connect Your PC To Your TV
With the availability of free movie downloads online increasing drastically, there’s more people than ever downloading and watching movies on their PCs. It can be annoying watching movies on a small PC screen while sitting on a crappy PC chair so here’s a guide on how to connect your PC to your TV and watch movies just like you would watch a DVD.
1. First you need a graphics card that has one of the ports shown below on it, check on the back of your main pc box. (If you don’t see a similar port then forget connecting your pc to your tv.)
- S-Video
- VGA
- DVI
- HDMI
This is what a S-Video port and cable look like:
This is what a VGA port and cable looks like:
This is what a DVI port and cable looks like:
This is what a HDMI port and cable looks like:
2. Check the back of and around your TV for the same port which you found on your PC (VGA, HDMI.. whatever). Most of the newer plasma and LCD TVs come standard with VGA and HDMI usually. If you have a older TV then take a look for the S-Video port as most older TVs have these ports. If you have a S-Video port on your PC but don’t have one on your TV then you can try using a scart converter just like the one right here.
3. Now that you’ve found the ports on your PC and TV you must buy a cable to connect the two. Most local PC/electronic stores will stock these cables and you can always get them by doing a quick search on eBay.
4. Plug the cable into the port on your PC and on your TV and make sure your TV is on the correct source (VGA or HDMI etc). The easiest way to do this is to use remote control, check it for a ‘source’ button.
5. Now on your computer… Right click on your Desktop and go to ‘Properties’ and a screen should pop up just like the one shown below. Click on the ‘Settings’ tab at the top of that box.
6. Next you need to select ‘screen 2′ as shown below, this is actually your tv that your selecting. You then need to check the ‘Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor’ as highlighted in red below.
If you don’t see a ‘screen 2′ on the box like below then check the cables are plugged into both your TV and PC correct, restart your PC and then repeat step 5 above.
You should now see your PC desktop wallpaper showing on your TV.
7. Play and movie on your PC, make sure your movie player is not on full screen, drag it to the left or right of your PC while looking at your TV and you should see the media player on your TV. Once you have dragged the movie player onto your TV you just need to make it full screen and you’ll be able to watch all your movies on your big screen from the comfort of your sofa!
Thanks for a well written article and the captures are making it easy to understand even for noobs
DVI can be converted to HDMI with a cable. Most PCs have DVI but not HDMI.
http://www.amazon.com/DVI-HDMI-Cable-6ft-Male-Male/dp/B0002CZHN6
Actually a lot of pc’s are switching to hdrmi. Mostly because sound can be sent over hdmi. However, if you bought a nice video card it probably has Dual DVI.
Keep in mind that converting DVI to HDMI is not usually a good idea. DVI from the PC is video and the audio usually comes out of a sound output jack on the motherboard or a sound card. Because of this, you need to be aware that many amplifiers that have HDMI inputs will not get the sound as that non-digital sound input is disabled on the amp when you plug in the HDMI. Most TV have the same or similar attitudes, so its better to get the poop on what will happen when you connect what to what, before you go buying expensive equipment or cables. I ended up with a vga cable to the TV, and analog sound cables to the amp. I put the TV on PC input and it works just fine, but these days everyone wants HDMI, and I would at least LOOK for an HDMI output with audio for my PC before I went with a DVI or SVGA setup. Just MHO.
w0wie
There is nothing wrong with converting dvi to hdmi, most newer laptops have sound on dvi. And it is simple to make sure your PC DVI can carry the sound output. If you use good quality cables and makes sure you get one that uses all the pin outs, there is no problem. Also u would need to make sure your Video card is HDCP compliant.
Even some older video cards for the PC have the option for you to add sound to the DVI output through a internal SPDIF connector. They don’t always provide the cable for this though. Most motherboards also have a SPDIF connector on the motherboard
See:
http://www.leadtek.com.tw/eng/support/faq/spdif-1.jpg
and
http://benchmarkreviews.com/images/reviews/video_cards/ZOTAC_ZT-88TES3P-FCP/ZT-88TES3P-FCP_Digital_Audio.jpg
New cards have built in sound processors and do not require an internal SPDIF cable
I have built several machines for customer with videos cards that have sound on DVI. As well as provide the cables need for the older 8800 Cards to get sound on DVI.
The S-video port you have shown has 7 pins, it is near impossible to get a 7 pin s-vid on a tv or the relevant cable, but the usual 4 pin will work.
I have a Philips Lcd tv which is HDMI and I want to connect it to my laptop which is vga, I tried a converter but it didn’t work and I just bought an s-video cable and that is not working either.
Can someone please help???
Another tip for anyone who wants to do this: If you television does not have any of those connectors you can get a standard (and cheap) RF Modulator they usually have those connections as inputs on the units and it converts everything and sends it to coax. Thats what i had to do and I’m watching Total Recall 2070 while i am typing this. Thanks man!
I have been using the PC to TC converter box seen below, it works great but you can’t hear the sound out of the tv so you need some half decent computer speakers.
http://www.virtualvillage.com/pc-vga-to-tv-converter-box-006403-002.html
Thanks for posting this, this is working great! Thanks!
Dave or anyone….
I get the basic set-up for PC to TV, my question is my HP media laptop has Svideo & VGA ports and max 1280×800 res. My HDTV has Svideo,VGA, DVI and HDMI. When I connect PC SVideo to the Basic RCA video in, the picture quality is crap. So is it better to go like port to port? Which is going to give me best picture on TV and do I have to buy a converter to get TV image quality???