Tech News & Deals

In this article, we will look at the different ways in which you can hook up your desktop, laptop, or netbook computer to your television and the reasons that you may want to do this.

Most of us have a computer at home.  And, most of us have a television in our living room.  For the majority of us, the television in the living room is much bigger than the monitor that we have for our computers.  Many think this and ask:  “Is it possible to connect my computer to my TV?”

Aside from the sheer size of your television, there are also many other reasons that people may want to connect their computers to their television sets.  For example, now-a-days most people store all of their photos on their PC.  Thus, what do you do if you want to show a room full of people your photos?  For that matter, what do you do if you want to share your vacation videos with all of the people gathered in your living room?

You get the picture?  You have a lot of data in the form of music, movies, photos, and more that would be better viewed on the LCD TV in your living room than your skimpy monitor that is attached to your computer.

So, is it possible to connect your desktop or laptop computer to your new television to accomplish all this?  You bet it is and it is not that difficult.  There are four ways that you can do this.

The first method is the old way and I do not recommend it.  This method involves connecting an S-Video cable from your computer to your television.  Old computers and older televisions often had an S-Video port on them and this was the only way to connect the two.  The visual and audio output on the TV was not optimal.  This inadequate solution now is not available for most people anyway as S-Videos ports are no longer a standard.

The method that will almost certainly work for everyone is a male VGA to VGA connection.  The reason that this will work is that nearly all computers and all LCD TVs have this type of connection.  This is the connection that I currently use and the picture is fantastic.  For audio to come out of your TV or stereo, simply get a stereo mini phone jack to dual RCA jack stereo cable.

Your final two options are even better.  DVI and HDMI.  These are the best digital transfer mechanisms.  Many people, however, have a problem with this because their computer or LCD TV does not have one of the two connections.    Many computers have DVI but not HDMI.  Almost all of the best LCD TVs have HDMI but sometimes not DVI.

Not to worry.  If your computer has DVI but your LCD TV does not, you can buy a DVI to HDMI converter to connect your computer with your TV.  You will still need to run the audio separately as DVI does not carry audio.

Your most optimal connection of all of them is HDMI to HDMI but this is only possible if both your computer and LCD TV have HDMI.  As we discover in the article “What is the Best HDMI cable”, do not be swayed by people trying to sell you an expensive HDMI cable.  They can be had for around $10 so don’t pay more.

In summary, connecting your desktop, laptop, or netbook computer to your LCD TV is pretty awesome because it allows you to view, and listen to, all of your computer media on your big screen or home stereo.  I fully recommend it!