How to Connect Your PC to Your TV

There are many people who do not know that they can connect their PC to a TV. This may look remedial to a lot of people, but it is simple. There are many reasons to connect a PC to TV. Today, DVD player is a standard hardware in PC and using it will eliminate the extra expenditure on buying 50 to 100 dollar DVD player. In addition to watching cable television programs, one can watch a lot of network television programs that stream over the Internet on the TV itself. Finally, connecting PC to TV is a great way to play music during parties.

The Requirements
You can connect your PC or a laptop to TV, if the PC has Windows XP or above. There are many ways to connect a PC to a TV, all the needed is the proper cabling.

Check the TV and PC features to see exactly what is required to connect. If it is an older TV, it may have only a composite connection (three wire cable with red, yellow, white connectors). Newer TV's will usually have HDMI, component, VGA, and/or DVI inputs. Modern computers will have VGA or DVI outputs. A lot of laptops will also have S-Video or some variant of Mini/Micro-DVI.

TV with a VGA or DVI input is the best-case scenario. In this case, an adaptor is not required but an additional audio cable is required. Check the TV for either a 3.5mm stereo plug or the white and red plugs from a composite cable associated with the VGA/DVI input. If it is the red/white composite audio inputs, the cable will have to be red/white plug on one end and a 3.5mm stereo plug on the other. The 3.5mm plug will go into the PC’s headphone/speaker output socket.

Another best-case scenario would be if the PC has an HDMI or DVI (with sound) output and the TV has an HDMI input. For this scenario all the needed is an HDMI cable or an HDMI cable plus a DVI to HDMI adaptor. For the rest of the connections suitable adaptor is required.

The PC Settings
Once the connections are made, there is just one last step to get the PC display on the TV. For this the PC display settings are to be configured. Follow the steps below -

Go to Menu -> Settings -> Control Panel -> select Display. Select the Settings tab and click the ‘Advanced’ button.

The options displayed in the dialog box vary based on the video graphics card.

Find the tab that is specific to the video graphics card. It will usually have the manufacturers name on the tab.

In the graphics card tab, see if it has options such as Clone or Dual or Multiple Display, etc.

Check the appropriate box or radio button for the desired configuration and click Apply.

Older TVs won’t display high resolution. Also, some newer TVs will only accept certain resolutions. If the display does not work right away, try changing the resolution. If that still doesn’t work, try rebooting the PC with TV connected. The PC may auto detect the display and configure it for you.

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