There are many reasons to hook your PC to your TV, but it has many cost-saving benefits as an alternative to paying monthly for cable or satellite television broadcasts or renting/buying movies.

If you are looking for more details as to why you’d want to hook PC to TV, please see this post.

Hook PC to TV – Available Options

A plethora of technological gadgets and gizmos make our daily lives easier and easier as we progress into the future, and there are always multiple options available when searching for a technical solution.

Connecting your PC to your TV is no different, but you will need a contemporary solution for newer technology. High Definition (HD) and digital signals mean that you will need an HDTV for the best and easiest way to hook either your Apple or Windows desktop or laptop to it.

Connecting a PC or Mac to an analog TV can prove to be quite a headache and requires different converters.

Various Mac/PC to TV Adapters: Wired or Wireless

1. The easiest and best quality method to connect your desktop or laptop to your television is to use HDMI. HDMI stands for High Definition Multimedia Interface (or Input), and it will transmit both HD audio and HD video through a single cable. These days, HDMI also works simultaneously as an Ethernet connection, and it has smart capabilities, such as controlling both devices which it connects. In order to connect your Mac or PC to your HD TV, make sure that both your computer and your TV have the HDMI port (see image on the right). Many people confuse HDMI with USB (because they look somewhat similar), but with HDMI, notice the trapezoid shape as opposed to the rectangular shape with USB (Universal Serial Bus).
2. Although a USB cable will obviously not work in an HDMI port, there is an option to use the USB on your computer and connect it to the HDMI on your TV. This can be done with a wired adapted, but nowadays there are plenty of wireless USB adapters that will transmit both the high definition video and audio signal from your PC to your high-def TV.
3. Newer HDTV sets are really just like a computer monitor, and when it comes to PC, you can connect it the same exact way. HDMI is again an example of this, but older computers have either VGA or DVI as their video output port. VGA came before DVI, but it was really the standard for connecting your desktop to a monitor (nearly all laptops have it as well). A large majority of HDTV models now also have a VGA input port that is paired with audio composite jacks (round red and white connectors also referred to as RCA, which is the company that first developed them). Mac computers do not have a VGA connection, but they have a Mini-Display  or a Mini-DVI port. Hooking PC to TV with VGA will only carry the video signal (not HD), but you can utilize a 3.5mm-to-stereo-audio (AKA mini-to-RCA) that connects your PC’s headphone jack to the red and white composite jacks (paired with the VGA) on the HDTV.
4. HDTV models that do not have either HDMI or VGA as a video input will most likely be older models that are equipped with components jacks. The component jacks are similar to composite, but it is comprised of five individual jacks. The three RGB (red, green, blue) jacks are for the video, and the other two are for the stereo audio. Component can do high definition, but unlike HDMI that does full 1080p, component can only produce 720p maximum video output quality.

If you would like step-by-step instructions on how to hook PC to TV, click here. For your particular model of computer and television, it will guide you through the entire process and help you select what technology to hook PC to TV will work best for you.