Tony L. Posted July 27, 2011 Share Posted July 27, 2011 So I am hoping to watch the Atlanta contest this weekend, but instead of watching on my laptop, I was hoping to watch it on my television. I have a Mac and I have a television that has a place for me to hook up a "pc" to the television. If anyone has any advice or instructions for what I will need to do this, I would appreciate it. Technologically challenged as I am, I can use all the help I can get! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Don-O Posted July 27, 2011 Share Posted July 27, 2011 I connect my Samsung laptop to my TV with an HDMI cable. Do your Mac and TV happen to have HDMI ports? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fsubone Posted July 27, 2011 Share Posted July 27, 2011 From a Mac, plug in the HDMI cable to both your computer and the TV. Then go into System Preferences, and click Display. Click on detect displays, and if you're plugged in right, it should pick up your TV. Make sure to add the displays to the top bar of your computer, then click mirroring on, and it should turn the screen blue for a minute, and then pop up on your TV. Hope that helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GABA Posted July 27, 2011 Share Posted July 27, 2011 So I am hoping to watch the Atlanta contest this weekend, but instead of watching on my laptop, I was hoping to watch it on my television. I have a Mac and I have a television that has a place for me to hook up a "pc" to the television. If anyone has any advice or instructions for what I will need to do this, I would appreciate it. Technologically challenged as I am, I can use all the help I can get! I don't really know much about MACS, does your laptop have HDMI out? Use that hookup to your TV. Better picture and sound. If not, you can use your TV like a monitor if it has the 15 pin high density D connector. Try using a monitor cable from your laptop to your tv. You will then need to get the sound from your laptop to your TV or hook up speakers to your laptop. HDMI is way easier since the audio and video are carried by that one cable. -G Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skywhopper Posted July 27, 2011 Share Posted July 27, 2011 (edited) What you need depends on your Mac and your TV. You need to figure out on your Mac: do you have a DVI port or a mini-Display Port? DVI: MiniDP: Newer Macs have the Mini Displayport (the latest models actually have a "Thunderbolt" port, but it's backwards compatible with MiniDP). Older ones used DVI. And on your TV, do you have HDMI in available or VGA in or both: HDMI: VGA: HDMI is going to be a better quality picture, but if you don't have any HDMI inputs open, you might prefer to use the VGA port. I hook my Mac laptop to my TV using a DVI->HDMI cable, and a headphone jack extender to an RCA Y-splitter to my stereo system (or the TV) for the audio. If you have the miniDP connector, you might can use this MiniDP to HDMI converter if you want to use an HDMI cable to connect, or the "PC" port on your TV is probably VGA and for that you'd need this MiniDP to VGA adapter along with a VGA cable. Once you've got the video plugged in, your OS should just realize that it's there and try to make use of it. You should be able to move the window with the drum corps show over to the TV from your laptop's desktop (the TV space of your desktop will *probably* be to the right of your laptop's desktop, ie move the window off to the right and it will show up on the TV). Hit the full screen button and see how that looks. If there are black lines around the picture, or if the picture extends past the edges of the TV, then you have to do some adjustment. IIRC, on the Mac OS, in the Display properties you can manage the properties of the TV you're plugged into and there's an "overscan" option that will make things fit the screen a little better (either off or on, depending on what the problem is when you first plug it in). Not sure if there are more options than that. On Windows, you need to find your display adapter driver's properties. I have a Macbook Pro, but I run Windows, with Apple's supplied driver for the Nvidia video chip inside the laptop. So I pull up the display properties and one of the tabs is the "driver properties" or something to that effect, and there's a driver control panel that then gives me a way to adjust exactly where the edges of my display are, and I used that to set the width and height properly. After all of this, watching Fan Network (live webcasts or older stuff) on the big TV is an awesome experience. Way way better than just on the laptop screen. It's worth the effort. But be willing to put up with a lot of false starts and weird happenings and mistakes, and if you are anything like me you will end up with a bunch of cables at the end that you don't need, because you'll have bought about three or four of every option trying to figure out what works best with your TV and stereo. Good luck! Edited July 27, 2011 by skywhopper 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dans Posted July 27, 2011 Share Posted July 27, 2011 I will be happy if DCI puts the camera in a location that captures the entire field. Am I the only one that was disgusted last weekend about the entire field not being in view? What was DCI thinking? Did they really think it would be OK to only show part of the field? Can you imagine watching a televised NFL game where you can not view the entire field? DCI really needs to get their act together if they are going to charge money for these webcasts! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lance Posted July 27, 2011 Share Posted July 27, 2011 I will be happy if DCI puts the camera in a location that captures the entire field. Am I the only one that was disgusted last weekend about the entire field not being in view? What was DCI thinking? Did they really think it would be OK to only show part of the field? Can you imagine watching a televised NFL game where you can not view the entire field? DCI really needs to get their act together if they are going to charge money for these webcasts! in that stadium, i think it's the best they could manage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baridon09 Posted July 27, 2011 Share Posted July 27, 2011 I must say as an Apple employee, that I'm impressed with the advice given. Just get those adapters and you're good to go. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fsubone Posted July 27, 2011 Share Posted July 27, 2011 I must say as an Apple employee, that I'm impressed with the advice given. Just get those adapters and you're good to go. :) Well, I've been watching DCI on my MacBook Pro for three years now, so I had to learn how to get it on my TV. A 15 inch screen is fine, but a 47 inch HD is much nicer. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xmarcoestradax Posted July 27, 2011 Share Posted July 27, 2011 Either use an HDMI cable or if you have component cables with a USB attachment that should work as well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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