Can I connect my computer to my tv?

[matmarsh]

I am livinging in a small dorm room and want a way to watch movies that I have on my harddrive on the tv we have. There are audio and video ports on the tv, but would i have to buy a special card, or just a new cable for it? Any helpful hints are appreciated.

[GForce64]

You can WATCH movies using an S-Video to Composite cable if your card has an S-Video out area(which would allow you to use your TV as a moniter). To record things, however, you would need a TV Tuner.

[Hi Ho]

THIS guide should help you out. It's really not difficult.

[Vigo]

To answer your question more directly... it depends on what connections you have on the video card. If all you have is the basic VGA connector for your monitor than I'll say "sorry, don't bother trying again" since, although I saw someone post somewhere that theres a few tvs that have a vga connector- theres a very slim chance you have one.

Describe all the "ports" (jacks) you have on the tv and the card.

If you have an s-video or composite (rca) jack on the video card, or even an rf coaxial out it should be easy. Your tv likely has in/out composite/rca jacks on it. Atleast one coaxial (RF) in, and maybe some more in/out connectors. If you have an S-Video jack your lucky.. if you have component.. wont help you out much here.

If you do not have an s-video or composite/rca jack on the vid card. You're pretty much out of luck and need a new graphics card with at least one of those connections. I dont know if you can easily convert vga to rca (if you can at all). I know that they have moderately priced converter boxes to convert digital audio (spdif) to rca/analog audio... so maybe its possible. But for the price of a converter you can likely buy a graphics card for the connection you need.

So the best and most cost effetive way is to connect your computer to your tv using a s-video or composite/rca connection. You need a graphics card with either one.

Once you have that you can figure out how your going to hook it up exactly.

Remember that, thats only for video. If you dont mind sticking with your computer speakers (if theyre located nearby) then you wont have to worry about audio. But if you want to listen to the movie through a different set of speakers you'll have to worry about a completely different set of jacks, y-splitters and cables.