TV to Computer connections (1 Viewer)

[Matt-Kach]

I want to hook up my TV so I can watch movies on it from my computer. My video card and TV both have S-Video ports so that will get the video to the TV, but how do I get sound to my TV? My sound card is built into my mother board and doesn't have RCA outs.

 

[adamKI]

Matt, you should have a line-out connector on your sound card/motherboard. It'll probably be a 1/8-inch plug (standard headphone plug size). You'll need to buy a Y-adapter like this one from Radio Shack. Then you can hook up RCA cables for stereo sound.

Alternatively, your motherboard might also have a digital audio out (coax or optica) that you might be able to use to get Dolby Digital or DTS if you have a surround receiver.

 

[Matt-Kach]

I'll get a Y-adapter and that should work. Also I have 2 audio out 1/8" plugs, one is green and the other is blue for analog and digital, would it matter which one I used for the TV because I use the green(analog I think) for my desktop speakers.

 

[Shane Morales]

Instead of getting sound from your computer to the tv (which is going to sound like crap) just use your computer speakers as normal. The TV is just acting as a monitor - no need to pass sound to it. Let the computer speakers handle that.

*BEFORE* you hook up your PC to the TV via s-video you need to change the resolution of your desktop to 640x480 otherwise you may not get a display on your tv or it might be truncated. If you have a snazzy video card, it might support 800x600 on your tv. Start at 640x480, though. It's gauranteed to work.

If you're using Windows XP you can configure autologon. If you do, you won't need a keyboard hooked up to your pc. You can just use your mouse to nagivate about. Pretty handy, especially if you have a good wireless mouse.

If you haven't seen this sort of thing done before, just a word of warning: the video quality is pretty bad.

 

[Matt-Kach]

I got the cable and set my display to 800x600, it doesn't go to 640x480, I hooked it up and nothing shows up. I have a GeForce 3 video card and a Sony FD Trinitron WEGA TV. Any ideas why it wont work?

 

[Matt-Kach]

Never mind, I have been searching through the hundreds of different Geforce3 menus and found display type and can change it to S-Video and it works. I havent figured out how to get the TV and monitor to go at the same time but im working on it.

Thanks for all your help.

 

[Allan Jayne]

It is possible that the Radio Shack Y-adapter mentioned above may not fit all computers due to limited space around the sound card's jacks. If thsi is the case you need to buy a stereo cable, 1/8" (3.5 mm) jack to 1/8" plug to go in between. (If the sound card can be installed into a different slot behind the computer, that may help.)

Some video cards, when they output S-video, shift their video scan rate in a manner that they cannot also operate the computer monitor or display. In other words they have only one video driver. My laptop is like that. Are you sure you don't have "640 x 480 @ 60 Hz" as a selection? Sometimes the refresh rate (Hz) is selected using a differnet menu on the PC.

Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

 

[Matt-Kach]

It's ok now, I have it all working. It is at 800x600@60hz and the quality isn't that bad. I also got a Y-adapter, not the radio shack one, and the sound quality is perfect. I used an Acoustic Research mini to RCA cable from Best Buy , it is more expensive, but it fits and the quality is better. It won't let me post links.