Connecting the PC to the TV

**VALIS** · September 06, 2007, 10:44 AM

What is everyones experience and feelings to doing this?
Would you recommend it?

I want to connect my PC to my TV, it's a HDTV 32" with 720p.
Will this be worth it? or will the graphics on the PC come off looking like crap?
Should I just buy a new PC monitor?

**Roman Clone** · September 06, 2007, 01:59 PM

Ave Duke,

Not many people around here know how to connect T.v's to a computer. In my old school they connected Mac's to T.v's but I thought Macs were built to especially to do that.

Also, if you do somehow connect, I think you could also plug a new graphic's card into it if you end up staring at crap.

=S=,
Romus Maximus Clone

**VALIS** · September 06, 2007, 02:05 PM

Yeah, the graphics card I'm getting is pretty good.

**Ummagumma** · September 06, 2007, 03:09 PM

It's fairly easy to set up. The card should auto-detect. I use one (an analogue CRT) for video editing, and testing 3D. It's a much smaller screen than my monitors (14") so I never use it for watching DVDs.
For day-to-day computing, you are probably better off sticking to a normal monitor though, even for no other reason than having a higher resolution.

**OTZ** · September 06, 2007, 08:46 PM

A good graphics card may not make the experience any better.
You'll need the Red, Green, Blue video cable and also digital audio cable, if you want to hook it up to your surround sound system. I have a media PC hooked up to a normal TV, and I have no problems using it for internet/movies/music...etc.

**Freddie** · September 07, 2007, 10:26 AM

I pan to connect my Media PC (when I build it next year) via HDMI.

**VALIS** · September 07, 2007, 11:03 AM

Cool, is 720p a reasonable resolution for running new upcoming games on the PC?

**Ummagumma** · September 07, 2007, 01:18 PM

Here you are:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/720p

(It's 1280*720)

**VALIS** · September 07, 2007, 01:51 PM

Hmm......thats kind of a weird resolution....

**Shaun** · September 08, 2007, 11:07 AM

Originally Posted by Duke

Hmm......thats kind of a weird resolution....

No, it's a wide screen resolution, as 1280/720 = 16/9 or sixteen ninths, the ratio of widescreen monitors, as opposed to 4/3rds like normal monitors.

**shadowarmy75** · September 07, 2007, 03:06 PM

I connect my PC to my TV just fine but it's not a very good one so the res is a bit low. I use an S-video cable, most recent graphic cards I have seen have a S-Video out.

**Lacirtemis** · September 07, 2007, 08:42 PM

For doing desktop based work and gaming it kind of blows, due to the sheer size of the screen.
For movies and stuff you have on your computer however it saves transferring them to a dvd.

Most new (good) graphics cards have two analag (or digital) output ports meaning you can your PC upto a monitor and a TV (or a second monitor) at the same time, then you just either NVIDIAs or ATI's display wizard to set it up, which is easy as.

You could also use the SVideo plugs but your TV and graphics card should both have the actual PC component input and output respectively.

The only PC games I have played using my TV are Oblivion (with the 360 controller) and Bioshock (with the 360 controller), but both look better on my monitor anyway (which is large enough anyway).

@Roman Clone, seems like you have no idea what people around here know then...

**VALIS** · September 08, 2007, 07:39 AM

Does this mean I have to play my PC games at 1024 x 768 because of my 720p TV?

That kinda sucks, Thats how much my crappy 17" CFT monitor can handle.
Thats dissapointing.

**Ummagumma** · September 08, 2007, 09:46 AM

Originally Posted by Duke

Does this mean I have to play my PC games at 1024 x 768 because of my 720p TV?

No. 768>720..
16:9 widescreen is a widely used aspect. Many laptops have similarly sized screens. Many games (Including RTW) allow you to play at 1280x720 as a native resolution.