Do you want to show the videos of your last vacation trip to your family, but you are limited by the size of your laptop screen? The ideal way to do this is to connect your laptop to the TV using an HDMI cable or even your own mobile to transmit on the screen.
It may seem like a pretty obvious procedure for some, but connecting your PC to your home TV can become quite a chore if you don’t know how to do it. If you have a smart TV at home, the connection process is much easier . Now doing it with an HDMI cable shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes .
How to Correctly Connect My Laptop to TV Using an HDMI Cable
Index
- What is an HDMI cable?
- How to connect laptop to TV using HDMI cable?
- My laptop doesn’t connect to my TV
What is an HDMI cable?
Its name is due to its acronym in English that means High Definition Multimedia Interface and it is nothing more than a cable that is capable of transmitting audio and video in high resolution. It offers a great image quality and depending on the type it can transmit images in resolutions of 720p, 1080p and 4K.
How to connect laptop to TV using HDMI cable?
What I need?
The first thing you have to do is check that both devices (the laptop and the TV) have built-in HDMI ports. Almost all laptop models have HDMI ports by default , only older versions don’t.
Of course you must have an HDMI cable that is the correct length so that both devices can be connected in a safe distance. There are some cables that are mini HDMI type , check which one is yours and if you have the corresponding port to connect it.
Make the connection
Now that we verify that we have everything we need, we begin the installation process.
- Turn on your laptop and your TV.
- Plug the HDMI cable into both ports, no matter what order you do it. Take into account the port number of the TV where you put the cable.
- The TV must be tuned to the HDMI channel. Use the AV button onthe TV or on the remote control, consider that on some TVs this option is known as Source or Imput (input).
- Now the image shown is the laptop image.
The connection between the laptop and the TV should start automatically, but in case that doesn’t happen you have to do some settings.
- Enter the system settings from the start menu. Click on the gear-shaped icon.
- Select the System optionand then the Display submenu .
- Scroll down with the mouse until you find the Multiple screens option.
- Press the Detect button.
The system will search for all connected devices and detect any connected display. IF there are no problems with your cable or with some of the ports, start the connection.
If necessary, adjust the screen resolution. For high resolution televisions you can use 1920 x 1080 and if you have a TV that supports 4K use 3840 x 2160.
A quick way to connect
Laptop keyboards have a key labeled fn that is used to access various system tools instantly. If when connecting the TV it does not automatically recognize it, you can use it.
Press the fn key combined with the key that has a screen icon and it starts automatic detection. Usually the key to start screen detection is F7, although it may vary depending on the laptop model.
My laptop doesn’t connect to my TV
If after following the steps to connect your PC with the TV it doesn’t work, you may have one of the following problems:
- You don’t have the necessary drivers installed. Use applications like Driver Booster to find and detect if you need to install a driver to connect the TV.
- The HDMI cable is damaged. Try connecting with another cable to rule out that the cable is no longer working.
- The HDMI ports are not working. There is a slight possibility that the ports no longer work, you can try connecting with other devices to rule out that this is the problem.
Current Smart TVs have other forms of connection such as Bluetooth. Others choose to connect devices to the TV with USB cables .
