Want to cast your laptop’s screen on your TV? But don’t know how to connect laptop to TV? Then don’t fret, in this post I’ll show you different ways to connect a laptop to TV. You can connect an ordinary LED TV or a smart TV to your laptop. If your TV has HDMI, VGA, DVI port then you can connect your old TV to your laptop using any of the mentioned cables. If you own a smart TV then you can connect your machine to your TV wirelessly. Also, if you would like then you can connect your old TV wirelessly using a media streaming device such as Google Chromecast.
So let me show you how to connect laptop to TV wirelessly or using a cable.
What will you need to connect your laptop to TV?
It depends on what TV you have. For smart TV with WiFi don’t require anything, all you need to do is connect both devices using WiFi.
For smart TV or internet TV, as mentioned above, you don’t need to buy anything because they come with inbuilt WiFi connections that you can use to connect laptop to TV or in other words mirror your laptop screen.
For old TV, you’ll need to look at your TV’s available ports and then you will need to buy a cable accordingly. For example if your TV and laptop have HDMI ports then you can buy an HDMI to HDMI cable. All latest TVs and laptops come with HDMI ports, therefore, probably you’ll need to buy an HDMI cable.
There’re some old TVs and laptops also who have VGA and DVI ports if you own such a device then you’ll need to purchase VGA to VGA, DVI to DVI cable.
In another scenario, if your TV has HDMI port but your laptop doesn’t (or vice versa) then you’ll need to buy an HDMI to VGA or HDMI to DVI cable (if your laptop doesn’t have HDMI port then it’d have VGA or DVI port).
Those who want to connect old TV to laptop wirelessly can buy media streaming devices such as Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire Stick or other media streaming devices. Just read on to know more how to connect laptop to TV wirelessly or via a cable.
Different ways to connect a laptop to TV
There are basically three ways to connect a laptop to TV:
- By using an appropriate cable
- By using inbuilt WiFi of a smart TV or using cast screen/screen mirroring option of your TV
- By using a media streaming device
Let’s discuss them one-by-one.
1. Connect using a cable
If your television is not a smart TV then read on, otherwise jump to method 2.
To mirror your laptop screen, first, try to know what ports are available on your TV and laptop? If both TV and laptop have HDMI ports then simply arrange an HDMI to HDMI cable and plug its one end to your laptop and another one to your TV’s HDMI port.
If your laptop is running on latest windows version then you’ll need to do nothing except connecting your cable to your devices. After connecting your devices using an HDMI to HDMI cable, you’ll be able to see your laptop screen on your TV.
If it doesn’t happen then right click on laptop’s home screen and choose ‘Display Settings’ and under ‘Multiple displays’ choose ‘Extend these displays’ or ‘Duplicate these displays’.
Note: You’ll not need to buy an audio cable separately because HDMI cable will transfer both video and audio signals.
Don’t have HDMI port on either TV or laptop?
Then don’t worry just look at both TV and laptop and buy a cable accordingly. For example if your laptop has HDMI port but your TV has VGA or vice versa then you can buy an HDMI to VGA converter. In another case, if your laptop as well as TV have VGA ports then simply buy a VGA to VGA cable.
Note: In some rare TVs, you find DVI port. In that case, buy DVI to HDMI cable than VGA to HDMI, because DVI cables are capable of transferring digital as well as analogue signals.
Recommended cable: HDMI to HDMI.
How to connect laptop to TV wirelessly
Have a smart TV? Then you can easily cast your laptop screen on your TV wirelessly. To do so, all you need to do is enable screen mirroring/cast screen/smart screen option from your TV and enable wireless display option from your laptop settings.
Let me demonstrate how to connect laptop to TV wirelessly.
From your TV remote, press button to select different modes and choose screen mirroring mode. If you’ve Sony smart TV then read you can read how to use Sony screen mirroring feature.
Now, right click on your laptop home screen and choose ‘Display settings’.
Under Multiple displays, click on ‘Connect to a wireless display’.
Thereafter, in the sidebar, you’ll be able to see all available wireless displays. Just click on your TV wireless connection name to connect it to your laptop.
That’s it. You’ll be able to see your laptop screen on your TV. You can duplicate it or can run different programs on both screens. To do so, under Multiple displays, click on drop down arrow and choose ‘Extend these displays’ option.
Connect using a media streaming device
To connect your old TV to laptop wirelessly, having HDMI ports, you’ll need to buy a media streaming device such as Google Chromecast and Amazon Fire Stick. Google Chromecast 3 media streaming device would cost you around $45 or ₹3300 and Amazon Fire Stick around $54 or ₹3900.
I suggest you buy a cable instead because that’s a cheaper way and also such devices require a WiFi connection; you can’t connect them directly to your laptop. Therefore, if you’ve an internet connection at home with WiFi connectivity then you think of a media streaming device. Otherwise, buy a cable to connect your TV to laptop.