What Cable(s) Do I Need To Make My Tv Into A Computer Monitor?
December 30, 2009 by Rich
Filed under Frequently Asked Questions
I have an Olevia 32″ LCD Tv. I got it for X-mas in 2008. I was wondering what cable(s) i need in order to be able to play games with my computer, but have the tv as my screen. My computer is also very new, a Dell, its no more than 1 or 2 years old. What kind of cable(s) would i need? where could i get it? and how much would this cost?
If your computer has a DVI port, you could get a DVI to RCA cable (RCA is the same as the ones that plug into the tv from the playstation).
If your computer has S-Video, you could get an Svideo to RCA cable.
Google up what each look like to see whether you have one. DVI is big and long, Svideo is round.
If your TV has a VGA port (sometimes called 15 pin RGB), just connect it with a VGA cable like any other VGA monitor.
Whether the computer recognizes the native resolution of the TV depends upon the TV. If I connect my laptop to my 40″ LCD HDTV at home, my laptop can use the full 1366×768 screen resolution, although, I think it defaults to something lower until I increase it. However, when I connected same laptop to a 1366×768 32″ LCD HDTV at a motel, the laptop would only see the PC modes that the LCD supported, so the best I could do was 1024×768.
If you use composite (yellow RCA) or S-Video, that is okay for playing DVD’s, but you would be disappointed trying to use that for a monitor (low resolution 640×480).