View computer on TV

[Jasonb61]

Hello, I was wondering if it was possible it hook my computer up to my TV and use it like a monitor? The Guy at Radio Shack said I needed like an S-Video cord or something, he didnt help much. Does anyone know if this is possible and if so, How do I do it?

Thank you,
Jason

[Spookster]

Well if your graphics card supports it and has an S-video out port and your TV supports it and has an S-video in port then you can hook them together. But however it is unlikely that you will be able to use the TV as a monitor unless it is one of those TV's designed with that in mind as the resolution will make text and such pretty unreadable.

I have a 32in TV hooked to my computer but I only use it to watch movies that I play from my computer. Computer graphics and text are pretty much barely readable.

[Jasonb61]

ya, thats what I want to do this for is to watch movies :-p But if my computer doesnt support S-Video, could I get a new video card or something that would and if my tv doesnt have S-Video, is there any kind of device I could get that would change S-video or soemthing. My Cabel box has an S-Video port in the back.

[Jason]

You could call your cable company and see if that s-video on the cable box is an 'in' or 'out' unless it says on the box itself. It might be an 'out' to tv though. However, you can get a new video card from any computer store or from the internet which would probably be alot cheaper. You are looking for a card that supports TV-Out which means it will have s-video. Now if you are doing movies and you have a reciever (stereo equiptment) it might have a input for s-video as far as DVD sound/picture goes and thus you can use that and then do a "monitor" out to the tv (which is a single RCA cable). You might want to check and see if there are converters from s-video to RCA, I know I had one before and it didn't work with movies, it would freeze on the first frame and not show any more of the movie when it clearly was playing since sound kept going and my computer showed it was playing...but you can look further into that.


Jason

[Spookster]

Also keep in mind that the S-video is just that....video, not audio. Unless you have the audio hardware for it and your TV supports it you won't be able to send the audio to your TV. You will need to run sound from your computer speakers.

In my case that's even better because I have a nice sound system for my computer with tweeters and a subwoofer. Sounds much better than my TV sound anyways. :D

[Mhtml]

You don't have to have S-Video, my Radeon just uses RCA composite connectors. IMO it's better to have a high-res tv for this stuff.