How to Connect Computer to HDTV

Connecting a Home Theater PC (HTPC) to a TV and A/V receiver is relatively simple task, but there are some points that you should take into account to ensure an optimal video and audio quality. This article is aimed for beginners and will discuss various ways of connecting devices together and introduces the optimal way to enjoy crisp clear video and sound.

LCD and Plasma TVs have become very common in living rooms, so I specifically target these instructions to those who own
- LCD/Plasma TV
- Laptop or desktop PC or Mac
- A/V Receiver with an optical input connection

This is a common setup in many living rooms, but if you do not yet own some of the required devices, this article will also help you to take some points into a consideration when eventually buying a new device.

VGA Socket

Many PC laptops and some desktop computers have a VGA socket. Some LCD TVs allow you directly to connect your computer using VGA plug to the TV. When you connect your computer to your LCD TV with an analog VGA connection, there can be shown so distortions in the picture and picture may not be very sharp. Using VGA connection, the signal from the CPU is converted to VGA by the video adapter and sent to a monitor with VGA input, which causes some loss of quality.

DVI Socket

When you use a digital connection, often called a DVI (Digital Visual Interface), there is no digital-to-analog conversion and there should be no corruption of the signal. An LCD TV should give you a clean and crisp image when you use a DVI connection. The yellow round socket in the picture is an S-video port, which is an older analogue way of connecting computer to a TV. This kind of connection is not anymore recommended due to poor image quality.

Mini-DVI Socket

Mac laptops and desktop computers like Mac Mini also use a digital DVI connection, but in order to connect Mac to a standard DVI cable you will need an adapter to connect mini-DVI to DVI. Usually this adapter is included in the retail package of your new computer. In addition to the adapter, you will need a DVI-to-HDMI cable which will be discussed in the next paragraph.

HDMI Socket and Cable

HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) connection provides both digital audio and digital video which is used e.g. in a newer DVD and Blu-Ray players. Your LCD/Plasma TV should have at least one of these HDMI ports. The DVI socket on your computer can be connected with a HDMI socket, but you will need to use a DVI-to-HDMI cable. Please note that only image signal is transmitted to your computer, so you will still need to make a separate audio connection to your A/V receiver.

Optical Socket

In order to enjoy clear digital audio, you will need to use an optical cable to connect your computer into the A/V receiver you might have. Surprisingly many already have this digital audio output socket in their computers, but they do not know it. The trick is to use a Toslink to optical mini adapter (shown in the right hand side picture), which will be attached to the optical cable. This way you will be able to connect your computer to the receiver using the optical cable.

Another obvious benefit is that you are able to transmit multi-channel Dolby Digital or DTS signal to your receiver if you happen to have 5.1 or similar audio system in your living room. However, in order to switch on the digital audio output on your Windows computer, you probably need to go to Control Panel and Sound Settings to set digital out as default output. Otherwise your computer still attempts to transmit analogue audio which results as silent with an optical cable. On Mac environment I did not experience similar issue, but it worked out of the box.

To summarize, the optimal way to connect your computer to your TV is to use the DVI socket in your computer, DVI-to-HDMI cable and HDMI socket in your TV. For optimal audio, you should use the optical input on your A/V receiver and Toslink to optical mini adapter to connect your computer’s digital audio output with the optical cable.

Read also Quick Tutorial on connecting computer and TV