What is the best way to connect your laptop computer to your big screen (CRT) television?

Answer 1

There are several connections to consider and not all Televisions contain the same connections.

I'm assuming that if you have a CRT screen (whether it's big or not) it probably does NOT have an HDMI, VGA, or DVI port in.

At best, your CRT television may only have a component cable in, consisting of what is known as 3-RCA connectors (red, green and blue for the video) and 2-RCA connectors for the audio (usually Red and White for the Left and Right stereo in). If you have a component in on your CRT TV then you need a VGA to Component Cable. You can view one at http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/vga-rgb-component.html . To hear the audio from your computer on your TV you would need a "3.5mm connector to RCA" cable to go from the 'audio out' of your laptop to the 'audio in' of your TV. You can view one of these audio cables at http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1631982&CatId=778 .

If you do not have a 'component in' on your CRT TV then you almost surely have an S-Video in or an RCA in. In this case you need either a VGA to S-Video adapter, or VGA to RCA adapter. The VGA to S-Video signal will look "ok" on a big screen, and the VGA to RCA signal will be brutal. But at least you can get your laptop to show on your TV. You should be able to buy either of these cable at your local electronics store.

Don't forget that you may have to adjust the resolution on your laptop's screen settings so that the CRT TV picture looks half decent. You may have to bring your laptop screen settings down to 800 x 600 resolution or as low as 640 x 480 running at 60 hertz.

Best of luck,

- Astro Boy

Answer 2

Something like this
http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/PC-TV_video_adapter.html
might do it, especially if your laptop has a vga output.

Something like this
http://www.surveillance-spy-cameras.com/mini-spy-camera.htm
might let you do it wireless.