What do I need to connect a MacBook to a 42inch Bravia

Hello there. I've done a search for this and found some tips, but some of the technical stuff went woosh over my head so I thought I'd make a plea for someone to kindly explain this to me v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y.

I have a black macbook (intel) and two TVs, one 42 inch Bravia, one Samsung HD one.

I want to connect the macbook to either to watch films through VLC.

I tremble at the thought of going into the Apple Centre here in Singapore -- it's worse than Dixons (UK members will understand how bad that is) so wanted to know if anyone has a similar set up, and if so, what do they use?

Cabling? What do I need and will audio come with that?

What do I need to do on the Macbook to make it full screen (simply use VLH fullscreen?)

Are there any pitfalls trying to configure this on the Bravia menu?

A sincere thanks to anyone with advice. I bought some piece of cable about 6 months ago and after a frustrating 4 hours or so got it to work -- but without audio (and the quality looked bad)

And I apologise for being thick. I'm not a techie, and I'm not familiar with some of the terms (like DVI, VGA and so on)

Neither is my husband, who works in TV....

Take a look at the back of your TVs and see if they have either of these connections:



If you have the one on the left, then all you need is a mini-DVI to VGA adapter. If the one on the right, then you need a mini-DVI to DVI adapter.

If you have neither, chances are you have at least one HDMI connector:



If you do, then you can get the mini-DVI to DVI adapter and use it with a DVI to HDMI cable:



The above was just for getting video to your TV. Check to see if you have a headphone-like jack (i.e. 3.5mm mini-plug) on the back of your TV, somewhere near the VGA or DVI connectors. If not, then you'll need something like this:



Once you have the Macbook hooked up to your TV, using it to watch movies is very simple. When you plug it in, the Macbook will automatically set it up to be used as a second monitor. You should be able to just open a video in VLC, drag it to the second screen, hit full screen, and you're good to go. You can also do something called mirror the screen where everything you see on the Macbook's desktop will show up on the TV.

Hi Kash. You made my day! And anticipated my questions about ports. Thanks!

Thanks so much. I'm off to check and get those *ahem* bits.

I'll let you know when it works.

If I do have a headphone jack on the tv do I still need that male/female to jack cable? Or something different?

No, in that case you'll just need a regular 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable, which you can pick up at any local electronics store, or for very cheap online.

Just a thought........
is there any way to do this wireless?

Thanks

N

Yea, but it's expensive and really prone to interference.

Cheers Kash - I found the old mini-DVI to DVI adapter and DVI to HDMI cable and tried it in the Samsung (trying to see the picture before I go out and buy the audio cabling.

What setting on the TV do you use? - PC setting is blanked out and won't allow me to select, so I was trying through the HDMI setting but when I plugged it in the Macbook it didn't allow me to drag the VLC window across. The TV kept its default wallpaper.

Is there an order in which I should plug them in. Do I need to alter a setting on the macbook?

Thanks again.

dorisbonkers said:

Cheers Kash - I found the old mini-DVI to DVI adapter and DVI to HDMI cable and tried it in the Samsung (trying to see the picture before I go out and buy the audio cabling.

What setting on the TV do you use? - PC setting is blanked out and won't allow me to select, so I was trying through the HDMI setting but when I plugged it in the Macbook it didn't allow me to drag the VLC window across. The TV kept its default wallpaper.

Is there an order in which I should plug them in. Do I need to alter a setting on the macbook?

Thanks again.

Click to expand...

Each source on your television corresponds to a specific port on the back of your tv. I'm guessing the reason the "pc" source is greyed out due to your television having some sort of auto detect setting on it, preventing you from switching to a source if there is nothing plugged into the corresponding port.

Check to see if your hdmi cable is plugged into the "pc" port. You may have to map a specific hdmi port to the "pc" category. I know I can label the ports on my tv via it's built in menu but I'm unsure if this will affect the operation of the port.

Another thing to try: have your mac detect the monitor/tv after you have the cabling plugged in. Go to your Apple menu and select "System Preferences". Click display and hopefully (depending on the OS you're running) there will be a button that says detect displays. Once (if) it detects it, you'll be able to control the resolution settings and possibly the refresh rate. Again, this might be dependant on what OS you are running.

Hope this helps.

Kash, tehlumberjack

I just wanted to thank you for your help. I got it working fine without any problems.

Thanks so much. I wish I could repay the favour.

DB xx