Using HDTV as a Monitor Screen

High quality LCD/Plasma HDTV’s are becoming cheaper by the day. With these HDTV’s, they usually allow you to plug a PC video cable to them to use as an extra monitor for your laptop or desktop computer. Why limit yourself to that small laptop screen or that tiny LCD/CRT monitor when you can control your computer through your 32+ inch HDTV!

Now, I know that attaching your computer to your TV is nothing special or nothing new but from time to time, I stumble into a few that didn’t know of that being possible! Just recently I’ve helped my friend do just this so I thought it would be neat to write about it.

While some of you are probably thinking that connecting your computer to your HDTV via a PC cable is out of date considering as how we have so many streaming devices such as the 360 and PS3, you have to remember that not everyone has these types of devices in their homes nor do they wish to. If all someone wants is to be able to watch content downloaded on their computer on their big screen, than using a simple cable to connect them both is one of the easiest and most likely cheapest methods as well! There are clearly some advantages and disadvantages to using this simple method and so I’ll list some of them here.

Advantages
- Cost: Buying a simple VGA, DVI, S-Video or HDMI cable is much cheaper (more on this later) than buying a dedicated streaming device such as a 360, PS3, or Popcorn Hour.
- Simplicity: Simply connect one end of the cable to to your computer, the other end to your HDTV, configure a few options and you’ll be set up in no time (which I’ll go over in this post on how to do it).
- Capabilities: Ever wanted to stream videos from sites like Hulu or Youtube to your big screen but found out that it’s not supported by your streaming device? Well now you can because whatever you can watch on your computer, you can do so as well on your big screen because it’s just another monitor! No extra codecs to install or plugins to download. If you can watch it on your computer now, you can watch it on your big screen TV.
- Quality: Streaming can sometimes hinder video quality. By connecting your computer directly to your TV, it bypasses this ‘conversion’ process and so the video is played directly from the source, your computer.

Disadvantages
- Cable: One of the biggest disadvantage to using a cable to connect to your TV is well, the cable itself! Remember, a cable needs to be attached on one end of your computer and the other end to your TV. While this might not be a problem for portable laptops or desktop computers in close proximity to the TV, it is one if the opposite holds true.
- Incompatibility: In order to successfully make a connection, both your computer and TV need to have a matching connector. If your laptop has a VGA port and your TV also has a VGA PC port, than connecting them is a simple matter of buying the right cable. If however your TV has a DVI PC port, than it will be more difficult. Most desktop computers with a dedicated graphics card, even older generic one’s, have two video connections: one for your main monitor and the other for your HDTV or another extra computer monitor. If your desktop computer only have one video connection, then you’ll most likely have to purchase and install a graphics card. The good news is that you don’t have to spend $400 for one. A measly $50-$60 can get you one with dual video outputs.
- Audio: Unless using an HDMI cable, you’ll need a separate cable to attach to your home stereo system. VGA, DVI and S-video cables only carry video signals and not audio so while your video plays fine on your TV, the sound will still output from your computer/laptop speakers.

Cable, Cable, and More Cables

Now I’ll go over some of the more common cables that can be used to make the physical connection, from the best quality to the lowest. Remember, both your computer and your TV needs to support whatever cable you will be using!

HDMI
These cable are today’s cream of the crop when it comes to digital content viewing. They provide the best video quality and it is also capable of carrying audio signals so that means less cable clutter. Although this type of cable is recommended, not a lot of laptops or desktop computers give you that option. If your computer does have an output HDMI outlet, than you can rest assure that your HDTV will also have one because HDMI is the standard when it comes to high definition viewing on HDTVs.

DVI
Although some technical video fanatics might argue that DVI offer the same picture quality as HDMI (as both are digital), I’m not even going to touch on that subject here! Chances are that if you are said fanatics, you’re probably not even reading this so I’ll just leave it that HDMI is higher as it is the new standard for high definition viewing. DVI ports aren’t that popular in laptops but more in desktop video cards. Newer HDTV should have a DVI connection as their PC input. Also, there are many types of DVI connectors so be sure you buy the right one.

VGA
VGA cables have been the standard computer video connection for a long time. This is probably the cable you should be most familiar with. You know, the blue one. For basic video viewing, VGA cable is sufficient. Even viewing high definition content is enjoyable with a VGA hookup. The good news is that if your HDTV does offer a PC input connection, it most likely is a VGA connection. The other good news is that this connection can be found on a lot of laptops. However, newer desktop computers with newer dedicated video cards probably don’t offer VGA output but of DVI instead.

S-Video
S-Video has also been around for quite some time. While VGA cables are grouped together with the color blue, S-Video cables have the color yellow with them. They have the worst video quality out of the one’s I’ve mentioned but it’s sufficient enough for basic use. S-Video is quite outdated so don’t expect to see them on new computers.

So those are the 4 most used connections to hookup your computer to your TV. Some may note the omission of component cables but that’s only because I’ve never really seen a laptop or computer with component outputs. Anyways, now you’re probably wondering how you can obtain these cables. While you obviously can just march into your local computer shop and ask for one, the price they charge will probably be ridiculously high, especially for HDMI cables. I highly urge everyone to visit the awesome site of Monoprice to shop for your digital cable. They offer cables (and many other products) at a fraction of the cost you would pay at your local retail stores. For example, why pay $80 or more for a single HDMI cable when you can spend a measly $7 for it at Monoprice that does the same job and offer the same video quality?

Setting Up the Connection

With the introduction out of the way, we can finally go into how you would actually connect and enable the connection on your computer.

For laptops, especially equipped with Windows 7, you usually can skip most of these steps by simply connecting the cable and pressing the Windows Key + P. This will bring up a menu asking you how you would like to set up the projector settings as seen in the picture below:

1. First you’ll want to turn your HDTV on and switch to the PC input. Next, simply connect both ends of the connection with your cable. Sometimes the connection will be automatically made once both ends of the cable are connected. If that is the case, your TV will then show an extension of your desktop! No other configuration is necessary unless you want to adjust the resolution or the display mode, which I’ll discuss further down.

I am curently using Windows 7 so while the steps might vary a little for Windows XP and Vista, it shouldn’t be that big of a difference. I’ll try to note the differences whenever I can.

If no display showed up, don’t worry. It just means we have to manually enable the connection. First right click on any empty area of your desktop and select either Personalize or Properties. For XP users, select the Settings tab while for Windows 7, hit the Display link in the bottom left corner and then the Change Display Setting link afterwards. You should then be presented with your display settings. If you are using a laptop, there usually is a button combination you can press to tell the laptop that a second monitor or projector has been attached. This button combination is usually the blue Fn (function) key along with either F7 or F8.

3. You should see two monitor display icons. This represents the two monitors and allows you to control how each behaves. In XP simply right click on the second monitor and select the Attached option and hit Apply. For Windows 7, select the second monitor and in the Multiple Display drop down box, select either Extend These Displays or Duplicate These Displays option and hit Apply. Your TV should then show a display of your computer. If not, make sure your TV is set to the right input.

4. Once you have the display on your TV, the hard part (if you can all it that) is over. Now we can adjust a couple of options. For one, you’ll want to make sure the resolution on the second monitor is the one you are comfortable with. The resolution should go as high as the resolution your HDTV can handle (or depending on your graphics adapter). For example, my Samsung HDTV is 1080p capable so the highest resolution I can go is 1920×1080. If you want something lower, then you can specify it as well. Simply select the second monitor and adjust the resolution. Don’t forget to hit the Apply button!

5. The other option we can set is how the TV should behave. We basically have two options: either set it to be an extension to our main computer screen or to have it be a duplicate. By using it as an extension, you’ll have extra desktop space to work with. For example, you can watch a movie on the ‘HDTV side’ while still browse the net back on your ‘main computer screen side’. To use the extension space, simply drag your programs and movie applications to the right of your main computer screen. It should then float over to your HDTV’s side. Pretty neat huh? If you choose the duplicate option, then your HDTV will display everything you see and do on your main computer screen. Basically, it’s a mirror of your main computer screen. This option is useful if you are doing presentations and want everyone in the room to view what you are doing on the computer.