Tech Question

[Dr.Epic]

So this question shouldn't be too difficult to solve. I'm looking for something. I know it exists; I just don't know what it's called. Is there some sort of cord that allows one to play what's on their computer on a television? I've seen this done in an old computer class: the teacher showed the class what was on his monitor on a TV. I'm assuming he did this with a cord of some sort. That's what I'm looking for. If it matters (and I wouldn't think it would) I need one that'll work for a laptop. Thanks to anyone who can help.

[Erloas]

It depends on the TV and on the computer. There is the old (and very bad looking) composite video, but not a whole lot of computers output this any more.

After that it depends on what connections your TV has. My TV has d-sub (15pin), DVI, and HDMI connectors on it, and my computer can output to all of those formats as well. You can convert from some types of DVI to either HDMI or to d-sub.
If you don't know what types of connectors your TV or computer has (they should be labeled but aren't always) then you should be able to find pictures of each on wikipedia or your search engine of choice. Once you know what your TV and computer have, finding the right cable is fairly trivial.

[thubby]

every computer has vga, and every TV has RCA, and there are adapters for the 2 to work together.
aside from a 5 dollar cable, the rest is display settings.

[hap_hazard]

S-Video or VGA? Some TVs can do HDMI.

[Erloas]

every computer has vga, and every TV has RCA, and there are adapters for the 2 to work together.
aside from a 5 dollar cable, the rest is display settings.

There is no (simple) adapter for d-sub (VGA... but its a misused term in this case) to composite video (yellow RCA connector*). The signals are in no way compatible. There are some converters that will do it, but they aren't passive components, they have powered circuitry in them.
Also S-video and composite both only support standard definition, which isn't too bad for TV but it is practically unusable for computers. Besides, most video cards don't have the option for s-video output any more.


*Component video is different, it is 3 RCA (or BNC) cables. I've seen a number of video cards with adapters for this type of output, but that was mostly years ago, around DX8 and 9 mostly, I think it was pretty much gone by the time DX10 cards started showing up. And while some TVs have component inputs, they are not very common any more, and I doubt most TVs in the last 3-4 years will have those connectors. It was a lot more common when DVI was first coming out and I think by the time HDMI was wide spread the use of component video was almost completely gone from most consumer devices.
edit: never mind. After closing inspection I found that both of my TVs and both my and my brothers computers have the connector video cards use for the adapters for component video. Its mostly that I simply haven't seen it used at all lately since DVI and HDMI have started showing up all over the place. Component at least does HD. However, I don't know what all types of adapters they make for converting to component video, and the common one on video cards I haven't seen on any laptops (its a mini-din rather then d-sub or DVI, it wouldn't be HDMI because HDMI is entirely digitial and component is analog, d-sub is analog but different and DVI has both analog and digital, but I don't know if it has the same type of analog, not that I'm aware of though given that they don't use DVI-to component adapters for video cards and instead have a specific mini-din connector for the component adapter.)

[Dr.Epic]

It depends on the TV and on the computer. There is the old (and very bad looking) composite video, but not a whole lot of computers output this any more.

After that it depends on what connections your TV has. My TV has d-sub (15pin), DVI, and HDMI connectors on it, and my computer can output to all of those formats as well. You can convert from some types of DVI to either HDMI or to d-sub.
If you don't know what types of connectors your TV or computer has (they should be labeled but aren't always) then you should be able to find pictures of each on wikipedia or your search engine of choice. Once you know what your TV and computer have, finding the right cable is fairly trivial.

Well, my computer is a Compaq laptop. If you need more info on that, I might be able to tell you (I'm pretty tech uninformed). As for the TV, I'm not sure. It'll be a TV in at one of the student lounges. Forget the type and I;m not back at school yet.


every computer has vga, and every TV has RCA, and there are adapters for the 2 to work together.
aside from a 5 dollar cable, the rest is display settings.

Is there a just some sort of universal appliances I could get?

[factotum]

Check that TV out. If it's less than two years old and is a flatscreen TV it'll probably have a VGA input, in which case, all you need is a cable to connect the VGA out on your laptop (assuming it has one, but pretty much all of them do) to that port on the TV.

[Dr.Epic]

Check that TV out. If it's less than two years old and is a flatscreen TV it'll probably have a VGA input, in which case, all you need is a cable to connect the VGA out on your laptop (assuming it has one, but pretty much all of them do) to that port on the TV.

I know that it's a flat screen. I'm going to be a junior, and I'm relatively sure that TV was there when I was at school (so probably over 2 years old).

[IonDragon]

Is there a just some sort of universal appliances I could get?Not for cheap. IIRC I saw something @ Best Buy for $50 or more that did something like that.

Alternatively, you could go here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_connectors) and start at VGA about half way down, and match up what connectors you have on your computer and what you have on your TV. Then you go on eBay and find a cable that goes from connector A, to connector B.

You will almost definitely have VGA out on your laptop and RCA on your TV (I think someone already said that though). Here's one (http://cgi.ebay.com/VGA-SVGA-S-VIDEO-3-RCA-TV-AV-CONVERTER-CABLE-ADAPTER-/190411510139?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0), but it looks like you would need another double male RCA connector, but most people have a spare one of those someplace, or they are about $10.

[Dr.Epic]

Not for cheap. IIRC I saw something @ Best Buy for $50 or more that did something like that.

Alternatively, you could go here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_connectors) and start at VGA about half way down, and match up what connectors you have on your computer and what you have on your TV. Then you go on eBay and find a cable that goes from connector A, to connector B.

You will almost definitely have VGA out on your laptop and RCA on your TV (I think someone already said that though). Here's one (http://cgi.ebay.com/VGA-SVGA-S-VIDEO-3-RCA-TV-AV-CONVERTER-CABLE-ADAPTER-/190411510139?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0), but it looks like you would need another double male RCA connector, but most people have a spare one of those someplace, or they are about $10.

Well, I know that the club has a budget (not sure what, I'm the leader this year but my underlings did that while I was not present). I could just write it off as a club expense. I do know that there is a DVD player hooked up to the TV.

[Galdor]

Well, I know some TV's allow you to plug in the standard monitor cable (cant remember the name, but its blue with about fifteen prongs in a trapezoid shape). This worked for my television, and I was able to salvage one of those cords from an old Dell desktop computer and monitor I had lying around, but these cords are often used with projectors, so you may be able to use one of those. I have a Sony Bravia TV by the way.

[Erloas]

A specific model of laptop (not just a brand) maybe even a year if they made the same model number over several years and variations, would help. But really it should take you all of a few seconds to actually look at the laptop and see what connectors you have. IonDragon's wikipedia link gives a very good idea of what the connectors look like. As for what is standard on a laptop, thats a bit harder to say. They usually have the d-sub VGA but I have seen others with only DVI, and some of the smaller form factor laptops will only have HDMI (because it is smaller) For instance the Apple laptops only have displayport outputs now which means another set of adapters to connect to virtually everything.
(VGA is used in a lot of places and doesn't just refer to a connector type, common usage has them as the same thing, but they aren't. For instance DVI-A is analog signals, the exact same ones on the d-sub, just in the DVI form, its still a VGA signal, just not with the "VGA" (d-sub) connector)

As for the adapter that IonDragon linked to from Ebay... I doubt you would find much that it would work with. It isn't very common to have TV out via VGA which is what that requires.


Really though, it is fairly easy. There are 3 very common connector types that either your laptop and TV will have, those are DVI, VGA, and HDMI. The cables to connect between them are fairly easy to find. But until we actually know what the TV has and what the laptop has there isn't anything more we can say about it.