What's the best way to connect a computer to a tv for video playback, gaming and general usage from a sofa...

February 9, 2008 12:58 PM

What's the best way to connect a computer to a tv for video playback, gaming and general usage from a sofa...

I haven't purchased the tv yet but it's likely to be a "32 Panasonic LCD tv obviously with HDMI in. PC has a vga and digital out.

I'm sure this has been asked before, but is it possible for someone who has actually done this to let me know if its workable? I'm hoping to eliminate the need for a console by being able to play stuff like Call of Duty 4 etc on a pc through the tv.

posted by tomw to computers & internet (4 answers total)

You can get a DVI->HDMI cable. You'd also need an audio cable, since DVI doesn't carry audio. Make sure the TV you buy has RCA audio inputs for at least one of the HDMI inputs. Most do, but some don't.

As far as software, you might want to look into MythTV Frontend and getting a Wiimote for the remote control.
posted by zixyer at 1:11 PM on February 9, 2008

Your TV will more than likely have a VGA input, I'd use that rather than buying the DVI > HDMI convertor. Works great on my 32" TV.

For audio, if you use the VGA your TV will probably have a 1/8" stereo input jack right next to the VGA port, this is for your sound. You can buy a $5 stereo cable to plug from the PC to the TV.

Windows Media Center would probably work great for videos and such, and it's designed for your purposes. You can buy a remote control that will work with it.
posted by DMan at 1:14 PM on February 9, 2008

Your TV will more than likely have a VGA input, I'd use that rather than buying the DVI > HDMI convertor.

There's no conversion necessary, HDMI and DVI are electrically compatible. It's just a different looking head (there are some HDMI only features you can't use, though, like carrying audio). Here's a cable that costs $4.24. Since digital is much sharper than analog, it doesn't make sense to use your vga unless you have to, especially at higher resolutions.

For audio, if you use the VGA your TV will probably have a 1/8" stereo input jack right next to the VGA port, this is for your sound.

Yuck! Don't use the TV speakers, almost anything else will sound much better. If you have it, use your computers optical or digital coaxial out to connect to an AVR so you can play games or watch movies in 5.1. Alternatively, just get a good pair of computer speakers with a sub. Again, pretty much you only want to use your TV speakers if you have to.
posted by tracert at 2:45 PM on February 9, 2008

Yep, what they all said... I'd personally go for the DVI to HDMI connection, but you can try both and see which works better. For the audio, I'd use the TV for input and then route the input to something else, but again you can experiment and see what works best.

Note that you might need to do some tweaking to get the screen to fill entirely with DVI (due to the fact that TV's expect to overscan the image, which is good for TV but makes your menus disappear on computer!) ... If you've got an NVIDIA or an ATI card, then the drivers should give you some tools to do this... The NVIDIA drivers are particularly good at this task (I've used them!).

Also, I second the purchase of a Wii Remote for input (assuming your PC has bluetooth?), although you'll need to do some reading and get a wireless sensor bar to really make the most of it. You can also get a bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse so you can use the PC from the couch.

Anyway, sounds like a fun project and is definitely do-able with a good LCD TV... Let us know how you go!
posted by ranglin at 4:43 PM on February 9, 2008