Thetownend.com

I want to connect my laptop to my TV but need to know the best route. USB, monitor pin to scart etc.?  :sherlock:

Never tried, but would go for HDMI.

Yeah, HDMI. If the laptop doesn't have it, then VGA to HDMI.

HDMI cable, easy as toast.

For my Macbook I use Airplay to beam it to my Apple TV over Wifi. Works really well and no cables.

Must be something similar for PC's.

HDMI, Simples...

No hdmi on my lappy  :)

Assuming your TV is not an antique, just go VGA to VGA.

Quality won't be great, but I suspect it will suffice.

sound will be rubbish though!

When my HDMI cable broke i had to VGA to VGA but just had the laptop volume on, wasnt fantastic, but did the job

Ah, I see you can get vga to hdmi cables. Will that suffice? Or will it be crap?  ???

I had asimilar problem re a laptop only havign a vga, so I bought a little bluetooth receiver that I plug into my hi-fi. Connect laptop to that and bingo, perfect sound, perfect picture.

AirParrot broadcasts to Apple TV from a Windows machine

It'll be ok, but you won't get any sound.

Oh. I have a plug in dongle, would that do?

What television do you have and what laptop do you have? What do you use for audio with the television? i.e. through hi-fi/surround sound receiver/soundbar/just the television speakers?

LG led with tv speakers. Toshiba satellite pro (about 2 years old). Tv has hdmi and usb etc.

Is your TV network capable? i.e. does it have an ethernet port?

What are the model numbers etc.

LG 421s. No Ethernet port.

The television can normally play saved photos/videos through the USB port - so you could save your downloads to a usb stick/external hard drive and play it through the television that way, rather than connect up a laptop.

And I'm making an assumption as to what you really want to do because the information is pretty lacking. I don't even think the model number of your television is correct, don't know about the sound situation and what model number of laptop you have.

I would have thought a tv could easily be used as a monitor, sounds a bit of a minefield.

Si, I basically want to play video from my hard drive on TV, but your saying I need to save it to a flash drive and go down that route?

That's one option of many. If the TV has a USB, you have a spare USB stick and you want to play  some sort of file based media, why not. If it plays then great, that's the easiest option.

But if you really need to link the PC to the TV, then you can connect via standard D-Sub (VGA), provided your TV has the input, but you won't get sound from the TV. Cables are cheapish. The following are not recommendations, but show the kind of ting you need so that you can check the TV to see if it has a connector that looks like it:

http://www.businessdirect.bt.com/products/belkin-standard-vga-signal-cable-TTS.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=ppc%20product%20search&utm_content=QE00&utm_campaign=Cables,%20Power%20and%20Adaptors%20-%20Cables%20-%20AV%20Cables&origin=pla (http://www.businessdirect.bt.com/products/belkin-standard-vga-signal-cable-TTS.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=ppc%20product%20search&utm_content=QE00&utm_campaign=Cables,%20Power%20and%20Adaptors%20-%20Cables%20-%20AV%20Cables&origin=pla)

Or, even more complicated you could buy some sort of media player that connects to the TV and stream the video from the PC to the player (TV).

And this ladies and gentleman is one of the many reasons I have a MacBook.

You don't get any of this bollocks with Apple.

As long as every device you have is Apple.

I use a piece of software called PS3 media server that streams my video files through my PS3. The only downside is your PC has to be always on, not a problem for me as I never turn mine off.

http://www.ps3mediaserver.org/

So how exactly does having a macbook make it easier to use it on a TV?

If you want to stream to a non smart tv, I would suggest buying a Now TV box from https://shop.nowtv.com/ (only £10)

Once that is delivered download plex server to your PC (www.plexapp.com) and then install plex onto the now tv box (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmQBcbVLWZc)

It is easy to do and then you can stream on a non smart tv.  Unless you have a games console attached to the TV, you could just use that.

With an Apple TV. Just need to press a button to stream any of my Apple devices to the TV, no setup required.

It costs £99. But it just works, good for picture slideshows and streaming (eg iPlayer) from your iPhone or iPad. Really portable as well as it's a small box, so you can use it for presentations and the like. Connects to TV with HDMI.

Does some other cool stuff as well.

Sounds pretty cool, but in this case I suspect you will be moving the problem to "how do I connect my apple TV box to my TV?" , and other various issues.
==
Personally I'll give side loading Plex onto Now TV a go.

Apple TV has an HDMI connection to the TV. You just need to setup the network on the Apple TV and that is it.

All Apple devices can find Apple TV's on the same network and connect automatically.

Yeah, but it's 4D we are taking about:)

We are an apple household and didn't know about this. Cheers Jonny, might give it a look in the new year if we get a new TV.

On another note, has anyone got one of those F5 skybox things?

I understand you can get sky tv and box office etc for free on it, you just update the encryption codes with a usb stick

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00EC86RXA/ref=pd_aw_sims_3?pi=SS115

No but it's less fucking about and more cost effective. Plus you have full control through the telly, if you use it as a monitor you end up having to control the video on the laptop.

Or you could buy a Macbook and an Apple TV because it's super ace.

Or a ps3 and media server as mentioned cos that's fuckin ace if you don't want to remortgage the house for apple

If you have a network port on your tv you can do away with the Apple TV.

Fuck it, I'll just watch it on the lappy. Merry Christmas all  :)