Sometimes, a small screen isn’t good enough. I mean who enjoys watching the new Game of Thrones episode on a smaller screen? Or even live sports for that matter? The bigger screen estate gives a more immersive viewing experience. Makes you more a part of the action than a smaller screen ever can. So why not get those videos on your laptop play on the larger TV in the living room? It’s possible and it’s not that difficult either.
Oh, by the way – you can also enjoy viewing your photographs from the last vacation you took this way. Are they backed up on Google Photos, or some other cloud service? Well, if your laptop is connected your home Wi-Fi network, then you can simply browse to the website and enjoy looking at those pictures on your TV’s larger display.
1. Know your ports
The easiest way to get your laptop connected to your TV is via the right port using the right cables. That’s easier said than done, however. Let’s first get the ports right. The 2 most useful and popular ports are HDMI and VGA. Both are highlighted in the image below (which is of a mini PC).
The ports look exactly the same on every device and only 1 type of cable will connect your laptop to the TV. There shouldn’t be any confusion here. If you have a choice, then connect the HDMI port of your laptop to the TV using an HDMI cable. These aren’t too expensive and readily available online.
HDMI offers the advantage of running audio over the same cable, which VGA doesn’t. The 3rd kind of port is DVI which also offers good quality of picture (same as HDMI) but still needs a different cable for audio.
2. Find the right cables
The next step to making the connection is picking the right cable. Needless to say that if you plan to use the HDMI port, then you’d need HDMI cables only and so it goes for VGA and DVI too. But if you need better quality picture then it’s imperative to get the best quality cables.
Do not cheap out and buy the cheaper ones. They not only last very little time but are also cause for more grief in prolonged use.
3. Connect and enjoy
Once you’ve got the right ports connected with the appropriate cables, you can connect them up and start enjoying the output on a larger display. Just a few things to keep in mind if you run into any trouble here.
- Check the input source of your TV. It should be set to the port/cable combo that you’ve chosen.
- Hit the Windows + P key combination on your Windows laptop to get the Project menu.
- Alternatively, you can right-click on your desktop and click on Multiple displays to choose how you want the display to be shown on your TV.
- You may need to adjust the resolution of your laptop if your TV isn’t able to display the content properly. Disconnect, adjust resolution and then connect again for best results.
- Also, you might only need to adjust the Zoom level of your TV’s display. Use that feature from your TV’s remote for best results.
Tried it yet?
Let us know if you’ve tried doing this and succeeded. Even if you didn’t, let us know what step was the most confusing or if there were any other issues. We’d love to help out!
Thanks for the information. I’d add ArkMC app for iOS and Android which helps me to stream my photos, ideos, music to different devices like PC, Mac, iPad or Smart TV. I definitely recommend using it, coz it works smothly, fast and without any bugs.