Going from MacBook Pro to TV - What do I need?

[johnbro23]

I want to be able to put my MacBook Pro next to my TV and watch movies via front row, so I want the TV to display what the computer displays. Is this possible? I want to get the most standard connection, because I want the hookup to be versatile enough if I want to hook the computer up to a different TV for a presentation or something. I'm guessing the RCA Inputs are the most standard (the red, yellow, and white ones) but I could be wrong. Please let me know what you would suggest! Thanks!

 

[mkrishnan]

You have several different options, but the most important starting point, to determine what to do, is to know what kind of TV you have.

These are the major possibilities for connection, in order from worst to best, that are likely between a US tv and a computer:

Composite (one yellow RCA plug for video, two for audio)
S-video (one plug that looks sort of like a PS/2 mouse cable for video + two RCA for audio)
VGA
HDMI

The first two use this. There's a MASSIVE improvement between the first two and the last two, so if you can do them, they (VGA or HDMI) are what you want. There're appropriate adapters for these latter two as well.

 

[johnbro23]

OK, so I want either S-Video or Composite. I definitely want to be able to hook this up to projectors and TVs for presentations, so I can't always count on HDMI. So If I get the $20 Apple cable, will I need another cable? And which one do I get, the RCA one or the S-Video one? I'm guessing the RCA one? It doesn't look like something like this RCA cable...

http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-12-Foo...0?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1177202043&sr=8-4

...would fit in the end of the Apple cable.

 

[mkrishnan]

It doesn't look like something like this RCA cable...would fit in the end of the Apple cable.

The yellow one is video. The white and red are audio. By convention -- they're all the same -- it doesn't really matter what color it is, etc.

The yellow one plugs into the apple adapter. You need one more adapter, like this:

http://www.eyespyvideo.com/accessories/rca-mini.htm

Which you use with the cable you showed (two adapters on the Mac side, two then the one cable going out to the TV)

or else you get something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Gold-Mini-Stereo-RCA-Cable/dp/B000FEHO0U

And you get a single RCA cable to go from the Apple adapter to the TV.

This is all assuming you want/need audio to the TV. If you don't, you just need the one RCA cable between the plug on the Apple adapter and the TV.

 

[ventro]

It doesn't work as well as you would hope.