How to Connect Computer to TV?

Computer Gaming on the TV

We always wish to spend time with our friends and family watching television and browsing through the photographs of good old times and holidays that we spent at exotic places. The memories can come alive if the screens on which we see our photographs are big and clearer than seen on our PC where sometimes images are fuzzy. Spending the weekend watching latest movies is yet another fun activity for the entire family. All our wishes can come true by just connecting our computer to the big TV that we own. Connecting a computer to a TV was never so easy. Computers can be networked to our TV with cables or wirelessly. It all depends on the type of hardware that is supported by our television. Mentioned below are some of the cable types available for connecting a computer with a TV.

A cable named S- Video is possibly the most widely used connector for networking computer and TV. It’s very cheap and the reason for its popularity is that it can be connected to any type of TV as all brand televisions have a port for this type of cable connection. However, one has to make sure that the laptop to which the TV is connected has the port as well. This cable is available in 4 pin and 7 pin options. The only drawback of this cable is that almost all TV have ports for 4 pin while the laptops have ports for 7 pin. If this is the case then one has to look for other options.
For all HDTV, VGA cable is most suitable cable type. They are made for each other as other TV’s don’t have port for VGA cabling. The quality of picture is usually very high and much better than S-Video.
The other type of cables available is Digital Visual Interface. The pictures are of great quality and much better than even VGA. The reason is that the signals are digital which produce pictures of high quality. This cable can be put on HDTV provided the computer has a port for DVI cable connection. These cables are comparatively expensive than others.
So far the only cable that produces the best picture quality is from HDMI. Almost every computer available in the market doesn’t have HDMI compatible port. However, one can buy DVI and HDMI cables and connect them to computer and TV.

After setting up the connection between two devices, one has to change the setting on the window for a successful connection. A menu will appear on the TV screen if the all the cables are connected in the respective ports.

The other way of connecting a computer and TV is through Wi-Fi connection. Ordinarily televisions are not designed to support wireless or Wi-Fi function. Hence one has to install a device or a small unit between both the devices. This needs an AV type cable connector for TV which would supply wireless connections to any of the computers located nearby.

Photo Credits: Brad & Kristine

Originally posted 2010-04-24 09:14:03.

This post involves:

cable types, connecting a computer to a tv, digital visual interface, hdtv, networking computer, vga cable, watching television

... and focuses on:

Computer Tips, Device Hookups

Posted by How To Computer on January 24, 2012 in Computer Tips, Device Hookups. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.