Your Step By Step Guide to Turning Your TV Into a Secondary Laptop Monitor

Laptops are great and all, but they don’t exactly cut it when it comes to screen-size. This is especially true if you do a considerable amount of work, gaming, or streaming on your laptop. Thankfully, there are a few different ways you can connect laptop to TV for a larger-screen experience.

If you’re trying to find out how to connect laptop to TV, keep reading.

Connect Laptop to TV: HDMI

The easiest way to connect your laptop with HDMI input to your TV is through the HDMI port.

Most laptops come with HDMI-out ports specifically for connecting your laptop to a TV. The port is wider than a USB port, with a small divot at the bottom. Connecting your laptop to your TV through the HDMI port is as simple as buying an HDMI cord and plugging it into both objects.

First, make sure you have an HDMI-compatible TV. The majority of modern-day HD TVs have them. Plug the cord into the TVs HDMI port, plug the other end into the laptop’s HDMI port, set your TV to the correct input mode, and voila — you’re done.

You can now view anything on your laptop through the TV.

Extending & Mirroring

Using your laptop’s display settings you can decide how you want the content to show on the TV.

For example, you can mirror content, which shows the same content on the laptop and TV screen. You can also set it so your laptop screen goes black when playing content only on the TV, allowing you to focus on the TV completely.

You can also set it so your TV screen acts as a continuation of your laptop screen. This essentially gives you two screens to work with. This is great for comprehensive work projects and multitasking.

Connect Laptop to TV: Wireless

If you don’t want to deal with any wires, consider a wireless option.

AirPlay makes this easy if you own a Mac, but requires an Apple TV, or other AirPlay-compatible TV. With AirPlay, you just hit the AirPlay button, search for your device, and tell it to stream to the TV.

If you have a Windows PC, you can use an app called Miracast. It’s compatible with Roku devices, and natively with some TVs. In this case, it’s as easy as downloading Miracast, cligcing ‘Enable wireless display’, finding the compatible TV and clicking ‘Cast Screen’.

You can also use Chromecast to stream the contents of your Chromebook to your TV, or if you don’t have a Chromebook, you can stream through the Chrome browser. Just click the three dots in the top-right corner of Google Chrome and click ‘Cast’. Your compatible TV will pop up, you can select it, and stream anything from the browser to the TV.

Turn Your TV Into a Laptop Monitor in Seconds

With the right laptop and equipment, you can turn almost any TV into a laptop monitor. Follow the tips above to connect laptop to TV and finally enjoy all your content on the big screen.

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