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Someone told me you could hook up a computer to a television as a monitor. I am interested in this for my father who has trouble viewing his small monitor. There is a portable TV on his computer desk and I wonder if I can route his computer through it? Any advice appreciated.
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using a television as a computer monitor
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#2
vdkooiwa 
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Posted 22 April 2009 - 08:14 PM
Yes, computer output can be sent to a TV. You will need hardware to convert the computer output type signal to the analog TV type signal.
There are external devices that take their input from the computer graphics output and send an S-video signal to the TV as well as output to the computer monitor.
Some graphics cards have an S-video output in addition to the normal output for the computer monitor. The display settings on the computer need to be set to activate the output to the TV.
The TV needs an S-video input connector, or the RCA type input jacks and an adaptor to connect the S-video cable to the RCA jacks.
Connecting a computer to a large TV is nice for looking at videos or pictures. However, a small portable TV will not improve your Dad's ability to see what is on the screen. It has been my experience that it is much harder to read small characters on the the TV than on a computer monitor. Analog TV resolution is considerably lower that that of computer monitors.
A larger computer monitor would be a better solution for his vision problems. And then pick display settings to make the characters as large as possible.
I hope this is helpful.
There are external devices that take their input from the computer graphics output and send an S-video signal to the TV as well as output to the computer monitor.
Some graphics cards have an S-video output in addition to the normal output for the computer monitor. The display settings on the computer need to be set to activate the output to the TV.
The TV needs an S-video input connector, or the RCA type input jacks and an adaptor to connect the S-video cable to the RCA jacks.
Connecting a computer to a large TV is nice for looking at videos or pictures. However, a small portable TV will not improve your Dad's ability to see what is on the screen. It has been my experience that it is much harder to read small characters on the the TV than on a computer monitor. Analog TV resolution is considerably lower that that of computer monitors.
A larger computer monitor would be a better solution for his vision problems. And then pick display settings to make the characters as large as possible.
I hope this is helpful.
#3
trinpim
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Posted 22 April 2009 - 10:39 PM
Yes, there are many kinds of cables can help you do this, such as VGA--->RCA cable, S-video -----> RCA cable, VGA---->HDMI cable , I will recommend a good website where you can find these useful cables (www.wowparts.com).
#5
smax013
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Posted 23 April 2009 - 10:27 AM
teflach said:
Someone told me you could hook up a computer to a television as a monitor. I am interested in this for my father who has trouble viewing his small monitor. There is a portable TV on his computer desk and I wonder if I can route his computer through it? Any advice appreciated.
What kind of TV is it? An newer LCD HDTV? Or an older tube style analog TV?
What size is the TV?
If the TV is analog and small (i.e. about 20" or less), then you will likely not gain any benefit over a computer monitor. Analog TVs have a resolution of 640x480. Thus, unless you are running that computer monitor at the lowest resolutoin (aka VGA mode...or 640x480) AND that monitor is significantly smaller than the TV, you will likely be worse off with the TV.
If the TV is an HDTV, then you might gain some benefit.
Beyond that, we will need to know what kind of TV it is and what kind of connections it has in order to help determine if/how you might hook it up to the computer.
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