How to Connect TV to PC

Choosing how to connect your TV to your PC can be dizzying, especially with all of the different types of TV connections and PC connections.

Converting from a VGA port to a Yellow RCA (Composite Video) Port

This is one of the most common conversions I've seen, but sadly, also one of the lowest quality. The main problem is that you're converting two extremely different video signals, and so you will experience quite a bit of quality loss. This is the route you go when you're pretty much working with the most inexpensive TV available on the market; one that only has composite video-in (the yellow RCA port). If that's really the only TV video-in port you have available, then you'll need to stick with this solution.

Convert from VGA to 3 RCA (RGB or Component Video) Ports

The next best way to connect your TV to your PC is with a VGA to Component (or Red Green Blue RCA connections) because, even though you're still working with clunky analog conversions, at least this one is high definition. This is the conversion recommended for people that need a high enough quality conversion to read text on the TV from the PC.

Convert from VGA to HDMI

If your PC doesn't have a digital output (like DVI) and you're still confined to using a VGA video source, but your TV has an HDMI port on it, then this would be the recommended solution, especially if you're an avid gamer, because the next option I'm about to mention is more convenient for some users, but not gamers. VGA to HDMI however is a hardware conversion, and since it is to a digital format (HDMI, or High Definition Multimedia Interface), the conversion is quite clean and nice.

Convert from USB to HDMI

As stated above, VGA to HDMI is more recommended for gamers and also avid videophiles, and this USB to HDMI conversion is also for video watchers, but also geared towards wanting to use a TV with HDMI ports as a computer monitor. The conversion is super clean and crisp, the resolution is super easy to set, the hardware is super easy to connect (since you almost always have extra USB ports), and it becomes super easy to make an HDMI screen a secondary monitor that can view 1080p movies.

Best Quality and Cheapest at the Same Time

There is a big caveat with this title. The cheapest PC to TV solution is actually just a DVI to HDMI cable, but you need a computer that outputs DVI, and a TV that inputs HDMI, which are basically the most expensive PCs and TVs on the market today. Since DVI and HDMI video signals are identical (HDMI is just DVI with audio added, so you'll need a seperate cable to route audio to the TV or stereo receiver), there is no conversion needed, so what you see on the TV is the exact same thing the PC is outputing, making it perfect every time.

Where to Find All of These Conversions

This PC to TV quality guide lists a bunch of different brands and their price tags. It also shows screenshots of different PC to TV solutions so you can see for yourself the quality loss of some of the converters compared to some of the other solutions that don't have quality loss issues.

Further Reading

Wanting to send video to your TV wirelessly? Yeah, they've done that too. Read about it in my Wireless HDMI hub.