Connect Laptop to TV via HDMI

Back in the day it was an accepted fact that in order to transfer audio and video from one source to another they needed to be transferred over at least two separate cables. Anyone who has ever bought a VCR is likely more than familiar with these old-school RCA cables.

With these cables, the yellow cable carried the video data, the white cable carried left-channel (or mono) audio, and the right cable carried right-channel audio. If you had all three outputs on your VCR but your TV only had the yellow and white inputs you were getting mono sound whether you liked it or not. Flash forward to 2003 and suddenly we were able to get pure digital video and surround sound over a single cable. Behold the magic of the High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) cable!

HDMI Cable via Wikipedia

If your laptop and TV both have an input in this shape, chances are this little cable is all you need. To determine whether or not that's the case, check both your TV (or receiver) and laptop for an HDMI port. It may say HDMI or BD (short for Blu-Ray Disc), or any number of other various inputs. However, if it looks like this with the two tapered corners, it's an HDMI port.

HDMI input via Wikipedia

Connecting Your Laptop to Your TV

You'll want to find an HDMI output port on your computer and an HDMI input port on your TV or receiver. Since most computers and laptops do not possess an HDMI input, we can assume any HDMI slot found on your computer is HDMI output. First, make sure your laptop is booted up and your TV is turned on. Next, using your HDMI cable, connect the HDMI output on your laptop to the HDMI input on your TV. Take note of the exact name of the HDMI input you're plugging into on your TV (e.g. HDMI-1, HDMI-2, BD, SAT, etc...)

If you're really lucky, your TV will automatically change its input to the newly detected source and you'll instantly see a duplicated version of your desktop appear on the TV. If you're even luckier, the sound card on your laptop will automatically detect the change and will route all audio directly to the TV. However, if there's one thing I've learned over the years of dealing with IT and A/V equipment, it's that no one is ever that lucky.

If your TV did not automatically switch to the new input source, grab your TV's remote and press the button labeled Input or Source or TV/Video. It may be named something else, but those are the three most common button names I'm aware of. Keep pressing this button while you see the different inputs cycle through on your TV screen. Stop pressing it once you see the input on your TV screen match the input you plugged the HDMI cable into (HDMI-1, HDMI-2, BD, SAT, etc...) Now your TV is set to the proper input.

If you are still having issues with the video or audio not appearing as it should on your TV, please see my article on how to configure your laptop to connect to your TV.

Shopping for an HDMI Cable

Cables, accessories, and other various peripherals have long been the providers of the highest margins at retail electronic stores like Best Buy (trust me, I used to work at Circuit City). They'll try (and often succeed) in selling you the "top of the line, gold plated, guaranteed for life" cables for any electronic device you may purchase. One of my friends, without consulting me first, got suckered into buying a Monster brand, gold-plated, 10-foot HDMI cable for $120. The sales rep told him that it was the highest quality HDMI cable available and that it carried the best possible quality video and audio that was on the market. He said it was gold plated so it would never oxidize like some of the other "cheaper cables" and that if anything ever went wrong with it, he was guaranteed a replacement for life.

What the sales rep failed to mention to my friend was that HDMI carries a digital signal (that's literally 1's and 0's), so any quality signal is always going to be the highest possible quality. With digital signals the picture and audio either work... or they don't. There is no in between.

So, don't do what my friend did. When buying an HDMI cable to connect your laptop to your TV, buy in bulk and buy cheap. A simple, 2-meter HDMI cable that carries every signal you could possibly need only costs a few bucks on Amazon Prime... And for the price of 1 Monster cable from Best Buy you could buy 20 of these.