How to Stream Video from a PC to an HDTV

Whether you're streaming video of last summer's vacation at home, or hosting a business conference, the compatibility between today's HDTVs and our home computers is undeniably more convenient than ever. Many of these smart televisions have the functionality to accept inputs from computers already.

Equipment You'll Need

• Windows PC
• HDTV
• Connection cable

Setting Up the Connection

The most common variety of cable connector is going to be a 15-pin VGA, and cables for this type of hook-up are likely to be very easy to find. You can get them at just about any electronics store, or at retailers that sell computer parts. They usually can be bought at a length of about 6 feet, so keep that in mind if you think the connections on the back of your television might be hard to get to.

Connecting the cable is very simple. One end of the cable is going to hook up to the VGA output on the back of your computer, which is usually colored blue. The connector itself is about 2 inches wide. The other end is going to hook up to the VGA input slot on the back of your television. The two ends should look very similar, but they will only hook in one way for each end. They are shaped specifically so that it is impossible to attach them improperly.

How to Adjust Settings For Both Devices

Now it's time to get these two pieces of electronic equipment talking with one another. First, you'll need to prepare your television to receive the signal from the computer. On your remote, there should be a button that will allow you to scroll through the various types of input it knows how to handle. If your television has the VGA connector on the back, then it's very likely that it has an input mode named just for this purpose, which makes things easy. If you set it to this mode and see only a blue screen instead of your streaming video, don't panic, it just means there's nothing to receive yet.

At this point, the next step is to start sending the signal from the computer. On nearly all versions of Windows, the procedure is basically the same. Right clicking on any empty space on your desktop and clicking on the "properties" option will bring up a dialog box that has several tabs across the top. The "settings" tab should have a button on it to bring up advanced settings for your display driver. The exact procedure beyond that is going to depend on the manufacturer of the graphics hardware, but there typically is an option for cloning your desktop's image across multiple monitors. Windows will be able to recognize your HDTV as a second monitor, and the image should then appear on the screen.

Enjoying Streaming Video

From here, everything you do on your screen will be reflected in synchronous on your television. If streaming video is what you're after, simply start playing your chosen selection on the computer in full screen mode. The image will automatically take up your entire screen, and you'll be able to pause or rewind it as you normally would. This is also a very handy trick for showing off pictures to friends, or demonstrating how to do something technical on your computer.