Like most people you probably will have video and movie files of some description on your laptop and no doubt you have wondered at some point or another that it would be brilliant if you could stream video from your laptop to your TV.
If you were able to connect your laptop to your TV then you would not only be able to stream and watch video’s on your television you would also be able to watch YouTube and look at your photos on it also.
Connecting your laptop to your laptop so you can stream video and movies is actually not as difficult as it may sound and even a novice computer user is capable of doing this with a few simple instructions. This guide will provide those simple instructions so you can connect your laptop to your TV and then you can stream video and movies from your laptop to your TV.
Look at the Available Connections on your Laptop and Television.
If you take a look around the edges of your laptop you will see various different ports. The main ones that are used for connecting your laptop to your television set are known as VGA ports, S-video ports and in many modern laptops there is also an HDMI port.
In the diagram below a VGA port is circled and labelled ‘A’ while the S-video port is labelled ‘B’
A HDMI (high definition multimedia interface) looks very similar to a USB port so double check that the port looks like the photo below.
One of these three ports is the best and easiest way to connect your laptop to your TV for streaming video.
Moving on to your TV you need to examine the ports on the rear of the set. Some TV’s have their ports located on the side but they are usually grouped together so you should have no difficulty in locating them. The ports you are looking for on your TV that can be used to connect it to a laptop are as follows:-
HDMI port.
The HDMI port is exactly the same as the HDMI port is that may be on the side of your laptop.
Phono or Composite Connectors.
These are pretty basic looking ports (pictured below) and usually require 3 separate ports to properly connect your TV to any other device. Usually the yellow port is to carry the video signal while the red and white ports are to carry the two stereo audio channels.
DVI (digital video interface) Port.
DVI ports or rectangular in shape and have a total of 24 pins in them. They carry only the video signal and are usually found on older computers and some television sets although they are becoming less and less common.
VGA (video graphic array) Port.
The VGA is a similar shape port to the DVI port although it only has 15 pins within it. The VGA port is the port that you usually find on the rear of most monitors although nowadays most flat screen television sets have them also.
Choosing the Correct Leads to Connect Your Laptop and TV.
Now that you know the different ports that are on your laptop and on your TV you need to buy the correct leads to connect the two together. It is just a matter of choosing which port on your laptop you wish to connect to which on your television.
The best options on how to do this are as follows :-
- S-Video to Phono / Composite.
- HDMI to DVI.
- S-Video to S-Video.
- HDMI to HDMI.
- VGA to VGA.
- DVI to DVI.
There are probably certain combinations that I have failed to mention here but every combination is available in the form of a ready-made lead and will be stocked by most electrical or computer shops.
It is also worth checking out Amazon as the probably have the best selection of leads for connecting your laptop to your TV
Setting up Your Laptop Display.
Now that you have your laptop connected to you TV you are just about ready to stream video and movies from your laptop to your television. The only thing that remains for you to do is set up your laptop display so that it will send its video signal to your TV.
To do this you need to (presuming that you are using windows) go into the control panel and then into the display settings and setup the secondary monitor which is obviously your TV. Bare in mind here that the resolution and aspect of your TV is not the same as that of your laptop screen. Have a bit of a play around with the settings or refer to your TV manual to find the correct resolution and ratio. It should be pretty easy to find.
You will know once you have found it as you will be able to see your desktop screen on your TV.
It is now just a case of setting your video away to stream.
Through a Network.
If you are lucky enough to own a modern TV that is able to be connected to your home network via an ethernet cable and you actually have it connected to the same network as your laptop you also have another option. I am not sure if this works on older versions of Microsoft Windows but it does definitely work when using Microsoft Windows 7.
Simply right click on the video file you wish to stream to your TV and you will see a menu appear. There should be an option that reads ‘play to’. Select this and then select the name of your TV that will appear. Give it a few seconds and the video file or movie should start to play on your TV.
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