Cables Needed to Connect a Laptop to a Home Theater System

You have bought a new home theater system and are looking forward to enjoy your DVD collection on the big screen instead of the small laptop screen. All is fine but you cannot figure out the cables needed to connect your laptop to the home theater system. Here is all the information you need.

Cables Needed for the Video

First figure out the home theater input and laptop output that you have. This step is important because it helps you to buy the right cable out of the following four possible connections :

• VGA cable: If its a VGA connection, then simply use a VGA cable (standard 15-pin connection) to connect the VGA output of the laptop to the television's VGA input.
• DVI cable: If its a DVI connection, then connect the laptop's DVI output to the television's DVI input using a DVI cable (rectangular 24-pin connection). 
• HDMI cable: If its a HDMI connection, then use the HDMI cable (rectangular 19-pin connection) to connect the laptop's HDMI output to the television's HDMI input.
• S-Video cable: Connect the S-video cable from the laptop's S-video output to the television's S-video input if its an S-video connection.

Cables Needed for the Audio

A laptop generally has a headphone jack to send the audio out. And a television has a pair of RCA inputs, red and white for the audio in connection. Simply use a RCA Y-cable (having 2 RCA plus on one end and one mini audio plug on the other end) to connect the headphone jack on your laptop to the RCA inputs. Take care to match the red plug with the red input and the white with the white one.