A portable or notebook PC, small or large, old or new, becomes very useful when connected to a latest generation TV . In this way everything that appears on the computer monitor screen will appear on the large screen of the television and we will be able to enjoy the various multimedia contents, available on the Internet in streaming or directly on the PC's hard disk, at a much higher quality than the small monitor. (usually no larger than 15-18 inches).
It does not matter if the television you have is old and is not set up to be a monitor, in general, it is possible to connect almost all models of televisions, even those that are particularly old (plasma or old LCD TVs).
Let's find out all the methods to connect the laptop to the TV.
READ ALSO: When and how you can use the TV as a PC monitor
How to connect your laptop to your TV to watch videos and movies
Among the most valid reasons to make this type of connection there are: the possibility of watching football matches and sports streamed on television, watching YouTube videos in TV format even at 9/16, watching streaming movies from various sites that distribute this type of content, see the movies downloaded to your PC, watch the digital photographs of the holidays or whatever you want, in all or almost their resolution.
By connecting a laptop to the TV, you can also create a home cinema system to connect to the TV to watch movies and videos online .
Types of connections
To connect a laptop PC to the TV you only need cables that change according to the model of the computer and the TV.
Regarding the technical guide on cables, connectors, computer ports and sockets, I refer to another page, but we have summarized all the main ones (and more comfortable to use) in the following list:
1) HDMI
2) DVI
3) VGA
4) S-Video
5) Composite / RCA
6) Chromecast
7) Microsoft Wireless Adapter
READ ALSO: Hear PC audio on the TV, with cable or WiFi
Connect the laptop PC to the cable TV
In this part of the guide I will show you all the methods you can use to connect your laptop to the TV using cables.
1) HDMI
"High Definition Multimedia Interface" or HDMI is the most popular connection and also the one that offers the best quality (together with DisplayPort, still not widespread on TV). Virtually all modern TVs have one or more HDMI sockets and more and more laptops are adopting this connection to connect external monitors or TVs (with mini-HDMI version port).
This cable also transports audio digitally (up to 5.1 channels) and there is no need to have a separate audio cable, thus limiting the size.
We can buy a mini HDMI / HDMI cable (suitable for use on laptops) from here -> AmazonBasics - High speed mini HDMI to HDMI cable (€ 7).
If our laptop has the standard HDMI port we can view the suitable cable here -> AmazonBasics - High speed HDMI 2.0 cable (8 €).
2) DVI
DVI stands for "Digital Video Interface" and is a standard for connecting computer monitors. The quality of this cable is very good (especially if configured to exploit the digital signal, i.e. DVI-D) but it does not carry the audio, so we will have to equip ourselves for the transmission of the audio on a separate cable.
On TVs it is quite rare to find this type of socket, while it is more likely to find it on PCs and notebooks of a few years ago.
If we need a standard DVI cable for direct connection we can view a suitable product here -> Rankie DVI to DVI cable, DVI-D (7 €).
If instead we want to adapt a DVI connection to an HDMI socket (on the TV), we can use the adapter available here -> Rankie DVI to HDMI adapter (8 €).
To transport the audio on two channels, we can connect small USB speakers, such as those shown below -> Trust Leto Speaker Set 2.0 (€ 6).
3) VGA
VGA or "Video Graphics Array" is a connection widely used in old computers of at least 10-15 years ago, but it is rapidly falling into disuse since it offers only the analog video signal of a much lower quality than DVI and HDMI. As DVI does not carry audio, therefore a separate connection will be needed.
On TVs this type of connection is rapidly disappearing, so if we have a PC that supports this type of cable but the TV does not have it, better bet on other types of connection or, if we really want to use it, take advantage of an external VGA signal converter -HDMI like the one shown here -> Topop VGA to HDMI Adapter Convertor (15 €).
To transport the audio we can use the small USB speakers previously seen -> Trust Leto Speaker Set 2.0 (€ 6).
4) S-Video
S-Video or "Super Video" is an analog port to send a medium quality video signal, without audio transport (as already seen on DVI and VGA). We could still find it on old cathode ray tube TVs (as a physical port or managed via a SCART socket), but it has practically disappeared on flat monitors, since the quality leaves something to be desired with the written texts (they are all blurred, due to the low supported resolution).
This port can be found on some old laptops, but it is usually flanked by the VGA port so you might as well use the latter (it offers a decidedly higher resolution and yield).
5) Composite RCA
The connection with composite cable, also called RCA connection, it has the classic three cables colored yellow (video signal), red and white (stereo audio signal). This type of connection was one of the first methods used to connect an external device to the TV, so it is present on all old TVs (cathode ray tube) and is maintained as compatibility also on some modern flat TVs (supplied via a single plug, such as on Samsung).
Virtually disappeared on notebooks and PCs, it may only be present on older graphics cards released before 2005.
With these three cables we can also carry audio, but the general result leaves much to be desired: better to use other methods to transmit the audio and video signal.
Connect the laptop to the wireless TV
If we don't want to use cables to connect the notebook to the TV, we can rely on one of the recommended methods below.
1) Chromecast
One of the fastest and most practical methods to connect any WiFi device to the TV, without the latter having mandatory Smart capability or an integrated wireless module, just a free HDMI port!
Connect the Chromecast to one of the HDMI sockets on the TV, connect the USB power cable to the charger supplied or to the USB port of the same television and finally connect the dongle to the home WiFi network, both in 2.4 GHz is in 5 GHz.
Once the initial configuration is complete, we will be able to stream any video streamed over the Internet using Google Chrome or send multimedia content via smartphone or PC apps designed for this purpose.
If we are interested in this solution, we can view the Chromecast for purchase from here -> Chromecast (€ 39).
We can deepen the discussion on Chromecast in the guide below.
READ ALSO -> Chromecast guide with 18 tricks and applications to make the best use of it
2) Microsoft Wireless Display Adapter
A good alternative to Chromecast is Microsoft's wireless adapter, capable of bringing Miracast technology to any TV, even those not natively equipped with this feature.
Once connected to an HDMI socket and the USB port, simply configure it to access your WiFi network to turn any TV into a Miracast TV.
With this technology we can send the entire desktop of any PC with Windows 10 to the TV and take advantage of the apps that can interface with Miracast.
We can view this product from here -> Microsoft P3Q-00012 V2 Wireless Display Adapter (59 €).
How to set up your TV and laptop
Once properly equipped with one of the methods seen in this guide, checking the available sockets and ports and buying the necessary cables or adapters, the connection is very simple.
- The TV must be set in the correct source and, generally, this is found on the remote control under a symbol such as "AV", "AV1", "AV2", "E1", or with the word "Source".
You will always find how to set up external video sources in your TV instructions, and it's the same method you use when connecting a DVD player.
- On the portable PC, however, there is always a key that switches from the laptop monitor to an external screen and, generally, it is located above one of the keyboard numbers, to be pressed together with a key such as "Fn" which is located between ALT and CTRL on the left side.
Alternatively, you must press the right mouse button on the desktop, go to the properties and choose the external screen.
If the image that appears on the TV is distorted or moved, you need to change the resolution or move the screen to the right or up and so on.
On Windows 10 we can also use the Project menu to send the video signal to an external source or to a TV connected by cable ; just click on the bottom right on the notification center and then on Project .
If instead we use Miracast technology we can connect the TV and the laptop using the Connect menu, available in the notification center.
To take advantage of the Chromecast instead we must first install Google Chrome from here -> Google Chrome .
Once installed, just visit any page with streaming video content, then click Broadcast in the Settings menu at the top right.
Instead, to transmit the content on the PC hard drive to the Chromecast we can use the Videostream program, which will take care of indexing the content and possibly converting it to display it without problems on the Chromecast.
We can get the program from here -> Videostream .
READ ALSO: Connect mobile phone or tablet to TV (Android, iPhone or iPad)
