Worldofcables (Santa Clara- CA)& Cable wholesale (Pradeep) -Playingcomputer games, watching downloaded movies or anything else done on a computeris great. Wouldn't it be better if you could use your new 42" HDTV as adisplay instead of your little 17" computer monitor? Its difficult toresist that urge, but connecting a computer to a TV isn't always as easy as youmight hope. In fact, "How can I connect my computer to my television"is one of the most common questions we receive on our technical support lines.Sometimes, it can be as simple as a single cable, but more often than not,connecting these two devices requires a converter box. In this article, we'lllook at all the options for connecting a PC to a television.

Assuming your computer has a VGA input, then the easiestconnection is if your TV also has a PC . This would be thestandard VGA video output from a computer to the same connection on a TV. Manynewer televisions, in particular HDTV's, have this connection. If your TV doeshave this input, then a simple Super VGA cable (male to male) will do thetrick, and will give you the best possible video quality.

If your television does not have a VGA input, your next bestbet is if the television has a component video input. If so, a converter box isavailable (our part number 40H1-50200) that will convert your VGA signal intoComponent video. (Note that this part only works in one direction; if youneeded to convert component video back to VGA, you would want part number40H1-50300). Component video gives you the same high quality picture as VGA, soit's the next best choice after VGA for converting a computer signal. (Theother two video options we list below, composite video and s-video, will notdeliver as clean a picture, and should only be used when neither VGA norcomponent video are available.)more on http://www.worldofcables.com

Converting VGA to component video often causes confusion forcustomers, who wonder why a converter box is needed. This confusion is becausethere is also a cable out there that looks as though it would do the same jobas the VGA to component video conversion box. VGA to component video cables,such as the one shown to the right, are often mistakenly purchased in anattempt to connect a computer's VGA source to a component video display. Moreon www.worldofcables.com

The reason why this cable will not work to convert acomputer's VGA signal into component video is because the VGA signal andcomponent video signal are very different video signal types. It takes morethan a simple cable to convert between the two. This cable is actually designedfor use with certain projectors that have a 15-pin VGA connection that isspecially designed to be capable of accepting the component video signal (oftenreferred to as a Y/Pb/Pr signal). This design is so that the projector doesn'thave to have separate jacks for both component video and VGA, thus saving space(and money). This same dual-purpose connector is also found on certain HDTVset-top boxes.

If you have an older television set that has neither a VGAnor a component video input, then it will most likely have a composite video(yellow RCA jack) and / or an S-video connection. To convert your VGA intoComposite video or S-video, our part number 41CV-50220 will do the trick. Thisbox gives you the option of converting your computer's VGA signal into eitherComposite or S-video. It also has an additional VGA output if you would like tohave a VGA monitor and your TV hooked up at the same time. More onwww.worldofcables.com

Any new HDTV out recently will have a DVI or HDMI input onit as its digital connection. If this is the case for you, connecting your PCto the television is simply a matter of choosing either a DVI cable (if your TVhas a DVI input port on it) or a DVI to HDMI cable (if your TV has an port on it).

So what do you do if your television is not equipped withDVI or HDMI ports? Well, as it turns out, most computer video cards with DVI onthem can be readily adapted to a VGA connection using a simple DVI to VGAadaptor to convert the DVI port into a VGA port. From there, you can simplyfollow the instructions above for connecting a VGA output to your TV. More onwww.worldofcables.com

All of the options listed above are for video signals only.Audio will have to be run separately. Fortunately, unlike the video hookup,connecting up audio between a computer and a TV is pretty straightforward.Computer sound cards have a 3.5mm (sometimes also referred to as a 1/8 inch)connection. This is the same connection you would find on headphones orcomputer speakers. That signal is easily converted to a 2 RCA (Red and White)stereo connection, which can be plugged into the back of your TV, or the backof your receiver if you have one. Worldofcables offers two versions of thiscable, depending on your needs; our standard quality and premium quality 3.5mmto two RCA cables are shown in the pictures on the right. More onwww.worldofcables.com