Brand new widescreen TV wants to play videos from computer but cannot

[sugarsickness]

Here is a picture of the inputs on the side of my new TV: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sgrsickness/3549446663/sizes/l/

So, I recently moved and my tv and computer are both in the living room and I want to hook them up together. I've done it before but the circumstances were significantly different, so I'm not sure I'm thinking this through right.

So, my goal is to connect my shiny new fancy pants TV to my computer, in theater mode, so that I can watch video from my computer on my tv (And thus sit on the couch, etc).

They are about 25 ft apart and the cables plugged in already got o my PS2 which I'd rather keep plugged in but I don't use it enough to make having to plug it in when i want to play a big deal. My video card has a yellow component cable out and I think an S Video port too. I don't have a separate sound card, and the onboard doesnt have the red/white ports, just a speaker out plug. My speakers have a Y cable that plugs into my comp and on the other side has the red/white that goes into my subwoofer thingy.

I've never had to deal with anything other than, you know, the red/white/yellow cables :P So I'm not sure what all of my options are aside from that (Or if there are any others).

So, I need another Y cable so that the red/white can go into my computer on one end... but also another split, so that I get audio out of both my computer and TV, right?
Then red/white into my computer (where my PS2 is plugged in? What is Y/Pb/Pr?) and the yellow end into the TV and then just into my vid card regularly.

I think I can maybe use the DVI port instead, though I don't know how that compares in terms of... anything :3

I'm also not sure how the widescreen dimensions of my TV will work with the non-widescreen-ness of my monitor, but I imagine that won't be too difficult to figure out, once I can actually get the picture and audio over to it.

So, any of you better educated people want to lend me a hand? If it's as easy as getting a really long r/w/y cable and two Y cables to split the audio then thats not too bad a solution, if a little wonky on the audio end.

if I'm just being completely oblivious or something please tell me :3

[tamtamg]

Best way is to connect your computer is use a DVI -> HDMI cable. You'll be able to get full resolution instead of 480i that you would get with your RCA(yellow/red/white) and Svideo connection. As for the sound, why don't you just use the computer speaker if your in the same room?

[trunolimit]

Ok let me get my two cents in before this thread gets pounded into submission because there are a ton of ways to do this.

my set up is like yours but I only have an svideo coming out of my computer. I have an old dell p4 that I stuck behind my fancy pants tv. you see that black input jack right under the black (which should be blue by the way WTF) VGA input? yeah that is where your computer sound goes in. all you have to do is get a double sided plug see image below

http://img.alibaba.com/photo/11730506/Audio_Extension_Cable.jpg

How i got it set up is I use the VGA instead of s video or component. this offers the best resolution given my options. the hierarchy of quality is this from worst to best

AV (yellow plug has an official name just not important enough to google since its horrible quality and should never be used unless you have no choice)

s video

component (green blue orange plugs)

VGA

DVI

HDMI

so if your like me and don't want to spend a lot on a fancy video card with an HDMI output then stick with the DVI or VGA. but know that if you bump up the resolution to 1080 flash videos will run slow if your graphics card sucks. I am forced to keep mine at 720. you can get long VGA cords on line for not that much as for the sound jack I know radio shack has 100ft cords for like 30 bucks. or better yet buy a spool of speaker wire and make your own.

[computoman]

Some one just gave me an ancient laptop with a messed up lcd. I was thinking of converting it to a media front end and use the composite output to input on the tv.

[trunolimit]

Some one just gave me an ancient laptop with a messed up lcd. I was thinking of converting it to a media front end and use the composite output to input on the tv.

add a wireless keyboard and mouse and dude you're living room just became 1000 times more fun. I hulu it up all the time. netflix watch it now is the ish.

composite thats what it was. component is the Green blue orange plugs and composite is the yellow one. right?

[computoman]

Until the RIAA and it's associates stop allegedly using gestapo tactics to harass innocent defenseless people, our use of copyrighted media will be kept minimal. There is a small growing cottage industry for making movies where we live. The commerical media et al can not compete with the quality or price of the home grown media. We have no use for all the violence and alleged suggested drug use typically conveyed. /How can a democratic country convey the need for peace when we have for the most part but not all such violence based media. It seems so two-faced to me.

[tokenuser]

How can a democratic country convey the need for peace when we have for the most part but not all such violence based media. It seems so two-faced to me.I have similar issues with American TV ... its OK to have graphic violence and (fairly graphic and explicit) drug references on TV, but for some reason the FCC is all over a show that has nudity or sex.

I find the violence far more offensive and corrupting to "our youth" than a "wardrobe malfunction" at a Superbowl half time show.

"Gosh Martha, they just showed a nipple on TV."
"Well Hank, time to hit the speed dial to the FCC - we can't have gosh darn nudity on TV what will the children think? ... RANDY YOU PUT DOWN YOUR PAPA'S HUNTING RIFLE RIGHT NOW!"
"Aww, but Ma, we're just playing Cops. I just gotta take down the bad guys."

Hooking a TV up via composite (yes, that is the "yellow" - or sometimes "brown" one) is OK, but really is a sub par picture for internet based content (hulu, youtube, etc).

[sugarsickness]

DVI->HDMI seems the easiest, so a cable like this: http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10231&cs_id=1023104&p_id=2505&seq=1&format=2
and once I connect the two it will just read as a second monitor and I can go from there, yeah?

As for the sound, I know the computer is in the same room as the TV but when you are watching something ten feet in front of you and the audio for that is coming noticeably from another direction it is uncomfortable (but bearable, if I have to).

[tamtamg]

DVI->HDMI seems the easiest, so a cable like this: http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10231&cs_id=1023104&p_id=2505&seq=1&format=2
and once I connect the two it will just read as a second monitor and I can go from there, yeah?

As for the sound, I know the computer is in the same room as the TV but when you are watching something ten feet in front of you and the audio for that is coming noticeably from another direction it is uncomfortable (but bearable, if I have to).

That's pretty much it, you may want to adjust the resolution of the output. Sometimes the video card doesn't register the correct resolution. If your TV is 720p then set your output resolution to 1280x720, if it's a 1080p set it to 1980x1080. As for the sound, get yourself one of these (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10218&cs_id=1021802&p_id=667&seq=1&format=2) to connect to your computer to split audio to your speakers and tv. Get one of these (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10218&cs_id=1021804&p_id=666&seq=1&format=2) to connect from the splitter to your tv(i should also mention your going to need either a long stereo RCA cable (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10218&cs_id=1021803&p_id=2009&seq=1&format=2) or 3.5mm male to female stereo cable to get from . Only caveat, is that your TV must have the ability to assign audio from an RCA input to the HDMI channel, otherwise your going to need a sound system to play the audio back.

[trunolimit]

dosn't HDMI carry sound too? or just video?

[tokenuser]

dosn't HDMI carry sound too? or just video?It can, but its optional. I think the issue in this case is that its not HDMI to HDMI, but HDMI via DVI, which doesn't include a sound channel.

[davmoo]

dosn't HDMI carry sound too? or just video?

The HDMI spec can do both. Unfortunately, there are manufacturers who make cables and such that only carry the video. One has to pay really close attention to what one is buying. And price is not an effective indicator. I've seen $50 cables that didn't carry sound, and I own $5 HDMI cables that do a fantastic job with sound (and video).

I agree with the comments on sex versus violence on TV. Its okay to have night after night after night of blood and violence, but show nekkid people and you'd think the end of the world was tomorrow.

And I ignore the RIAA and MPAA. Once I've purchased their disk, I'll do what ever the hell I want with it (read: rip it to my media box), and they can kiss my rear end. I really wanted to do things legally. I'd like to buy legal software to do the ripping. But they don't want me to have that option. And since the MPAA is accusing everyone of "rent, rip, return" anyway, maybe that's what I need to start doing...my local public library, surprisingly for a small city like this, has a very extensive DVD collection.

[fishtoprecords]

dosn't HDMI carry sound too? or just video?

HDMI is designed to be a single cable to do everything you need. Video + audio in high res.

But, and this is a big but, very few PC video cards with HDMI output also incllude the audio signal.

I don't know the cause for this, but I bet its more because of MPAA rules and DRM than anything technological.

[tamtamg]

But, and this is a big but, very few PC video cards with HDMI output also incllude the audio signal.

I don't know the cause for this, but I bet its more because of MPAA rules and DRM than anything technological.

Wrong. Has nothing to do with the MPAA and DRM. HDMI spec evolved from the DVI spec. HDMI carries the exact same video signal as DVI, except with the addition of a sound signal. Most computers only have DVI out, that's why you don't get sound when you use a DVI->HDMI cable. Also, even in some computers that have HDMI output on the video card, they don't output sound. This is because the sound is handled on a discrete sound card. There is yet to be a standard spec between the manufacturers to send the audio data from the sound card to the video card to be combined with the video signal and outputted via HDMI.

[revision3fan]

Try connecting the computer audio to (what looks like) a speaker connector under the DVI 15-pin connector. Then connect a red/white audio cable to the audio outputs just above the HDMI connectors on one side and the sub-woofer on the other. Thus, no need for a splitter.

Question: What does the PS2 audio play through?

Y/Pb/Pr are component video in connectors.

Good luck.