Use TV screen as Monitor to watch CBS Sportsline
For those who likely won't get the Michigan game on CBS due to regional coverage (damn you Villanova), here is how you can use your TV screen as computer monitor. That way, you can watch the game on your big TV instead of huddling around a small computer screen.
Go to any electronics store and buy the following:
1) DVI-to-VGA Adapter
2) VGA PC Monitor Replacement Cable
3) Stereo Audio Cable
The DVI input goes into your laptop. Then, run the VGA cable from the end of the DVI input into the VGA socket on the TV. Connect the audio cable from the headphone jack in your computer to the "audio" input on your TV.
To do this, your TV obviously needs a VGA input socket, so check that.
All of the equipment costs about $60. It just so happens that BestBuy has a 30 day return policy. I won't judge.
That's a sweet idea. Not a problem for me as I live in Michigan, but great idea nonetheless.
Did you work at the AV Department in High School?
but i should have...
this was going to be a sarcastic thread about watching games online.
though it will work, isn't your idea going to look really ugly?
the quality is surprisingly good. it looks the same as my macbook screen. I was pumped after I set it up.
FWIW Best Buy cable prices are a rip off. Although it won't help you for if you want this for the game tomorrow, Monoprice.com has much better prices including S&H.
DVI-VGA Adapter: $1.68
VGA + Stereo Audio Cable $6.65, and it's cheaper if you don't need a 10 ft cable.
Grand total after cheapest S&H (USPS 2-3 day business): $14.28
Like I said, this is no good if you want it for tomorrow, but it's way cheaper than Best Buy if you don't need it until football season.
Or use a single HDMI cable if your TV and Laptop have HDMI ports.
My brother in law works at Best Buy and says their markup on cables is astronomical.
I bet you could go to Radio Shack and get perfectly good cables for much less, actually. Won't be as cheap as that online link, but you could probably still get them today. I have to think it would be more like $30 to $40 at the Shack.
If it's $60 and you have DirecTV and you'd be buying the cables only for this, you'd probably be better off just buying the Mega March Madness package for $70 instead of paying $60 for Best Buy cables and having to drive over there and such. With Mega March Madness they'll have a channel where you can have all four games at the same time on the same screen.
Their cable markup IS insane. I happen to have a guy that will hook me up with his employee discount. RocketFish HDMI cables that retail for $65 run my guy $6.
I am fortunate enough that I will be able to watch the game at home. If for some reason I couldn't, I would just go to the bar rather than deal with watching on a possible shaky internet connection.
Depending on your computer you can also find cables that are VGA or DVI at one end, and HDMI on the other end. This is exceptionally helpful for other things than the Tourney, especially if you want to watch 400 free episodes of LOST or whatever floats your boat.
30 day return policy at best buy (cough cough).
How common is it for TVs to have a VGA port? I don't know that I've ever seen any that do. Granted I haven't bought a TV in ~5 years.
On the flipside, how common is it for laptops to have HDMI outs?
March 18th, 2009 at 11:57 PM ^
I think most TVs that have come out in the last 3-4 years have VGA ports.