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Anyone think my plan will work? (connecting MBP to tv...)

techlover828

techlover828

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jun 28, 2007
2,358
2
Maine
Hey everyone,

I now have a job so can spend some money on my room/MBP. I am looking to get some sort of external monitor, and was thinking about getting a 23" ACD, but also would like a new LCD tv. I will be off to college in a couple of years so will most likely need a LCD TV there for space saving reasons. I do have a 22" dell LCD at my moms so I could bring that to college along with the tv I want to get here at my dads. I was thinking that I should just connect my MBP to the tv via something like this. This would connect it at the highest resolution possible I believe (if not, please let me know!). I then would like to get a 32" samsung LCD. I already have an igroove that works fine for sound, then I could get a wireless keyboard/mouse and run the MBP in clamshell. The only possible flaw I can think of is that the resolution will not be sufficient on the TV and it will be awful to look at. If someone could tell me if I'm right or wrong about that and/or just let me know if you like/see any flaws in my plan.

Sorry for the long post and thanks for looking!
 
The only thing I'd like to point out is that the MBP would be better heat wise open when in use. Apple says you run it closed, but a lot of heat that otherwise dissipates from and around the keyboard gets trapped. The display is more an insulator than a conductor of heat.

Otherwise I think everything would work fine. Though I'd buy the TV before the cable. Nowadays a lot of TV's have DVI inputs.

EDIT: looks like that TV doesn't have DVI in, so scratch that last part.
EDIT 2: I'd look and see what affect the resolution would have on the display. The max resolution of the TV is below the MBP's default resolution. The result is text *might* be blurry. I've heard about this happen but never read too closely since it wasn't anything I need to worry about.
 
i used to have a dell lcd tv, and I connected my laptop to it to watch movies and stuff, and well obviously the tv didn't have the same res as the laptop, so i didn't look as good, but it looked fine. I mean it's a tv, you watch it from a distance, which is why the res doesn't matter. it worked fine.
 
mashinhead said:
i used to have a dell lcd tv, and I connected my laptop to it to watch movies and stuff, and well obviously the tv didn't have the same res as the laptop, so i didn't look as good, but it looked fine. I mean it's a tv, you watch it from a distance, which is why the res doesn't matter. it worked fine.
Click to expand...

well this is a hi def dv, if it's not expectable for a main display I may have to rethink it
 
In theory it would work fine.. I have friends who do it, but personally... if you are going to be using it as a main display or something, then you are out of the ballpark. LCD tvs... even highdef ones.. you have to look at the actual resolution. That one is what looks to be 1366 x 768 which is lower then the 15inch mbps native 1450 by 900.... it WILL NOT look as clear as your screen or an LCD screen would ... even a 22inch LCD is 1640 by 1190 or whatnot in resolution.. anything 24+ is 1950ish by 15 something? either way.. higher then a tv.

Personally... if you are still a few years away from college, a tv is clearly not really super important for you at the moment, as you could get something smaller or more basic for your room (if you even NEED a second tv for your room right now in HS) and save up your money for college supplies and perhaps a tv then.. once oyu find out your room mate situation and all that years in the future.. who knows who you will live with, what tech they will have out, and what your roomies will have.

If you wanna work on a computer set up... and want a good resolution.. go ahead and et a nice 22 or 24inch LCD monitor... 24 would be a nice work up... You COULD go ahead and get a tv tuner if you wanted to watch tv in your room on your monitor in the near future too.. for under 100 bucks...

24inch LCD (under 400 for if you shop around smartly.. DO NOT buy from best buy unless you have some sorta crazy discount... or find an open box special.. otherwise go online like.. tiger direct) + tv tuner is still like less then a tv by 200...

However... same goes for tv shopping. BEST BUY = rip off.. you can even find a nice samsung model at walmart for 648 or something like that

Goodluck with your decision

EDIT: you do not need an HDMI cable UNLESS the tv doesnt' have DVI or VGA. I hook my computer up to my 32 inch LCD for random downloaded stuff and for a while when my normal dvd player died on me.. with the dvi to vga adapter... and since the tv is much lower then the laptop anyway.. it doesn't matter.. hdmi really only matters for HDTV stuff... so it seems.
 
jonnylink said:
also note that the cable you are looking at doesn't support audio. The apple store has this cable which probably does support audio.
Click to expand...

That cable doesn't support audio. It clearly states in the description:
...delivering digital video with perfect accuracy. Pair it with one of XtremeMac's XtremeHD audio cables—analog or Toslink fiber optic—for a complete audio/video connection
Click to expand...
 
There are ways to get the native resolution. I could be wrong, but I think a program like SwitchResx could help you get a hdtv looking great as a main monitor.
 
LCD screens vs. LCD TV

techlover828 said:
Hey everyone,

I now have a job so can spend some money on my room/MBP. I am looking to get some sort of external monitor, and was thinking about getting a 23" ACD, but also would like a new LCD tv. I will be off to college in a couple of years so will most likely need a LCD TV there for space saving reasons. I do have a 22" dell LCD at my moms so I could bring that to college along with the tv I want to get here at my dads. I was thinking that I should just connect my MBP to the tv via something like this. This would connect it at the highest resolution possible I believe (if not, please let me know!). I then would like to get a 32" samsung LCD. I already have an igroove that works fine for sound, then I could get a wireless keyboard/mouse and run the MBP in clamshell. The only possible flaw I can think of is that the resolution will not be sufficient on the TV and it will be awful to look at. If someone could tell me if I'm right or wrong about that and/or just let me know if you like/see any flaws in my plan.
Click to expand...


I'm in my last year of university, and I've just used my 22" Dell widescreen as TV. My bf, who I live with, has a desktop with a TV tuner card, but even if he didn't I've been told you can get external TV cards that I could have connected to my MBP I guess.

Anyway, so the point is that I didn't get a separate TV because LCD tvs are much more expensive than LCD screens (granted they're getting cheaper).

So see if you can get an external TV tuner to hook up to your MBP, get a widescreen LCD screen and for the money you save you can get some nice speakers.

Edit: Okay, so I missed the HD aspect, anyway for anyone else looking for non-HD my setup works fine... ops
 
Your setup should work. However as stated before the tv's resolution is pretty low for a computer display. Though you could save up just a little more and get a 1080P LCD TV, like this. You can find the 1080P's for the same price as that Best Buy one you were looking at but this has excellent customer reviews, 2 HDMI, 2 Component Video and other connectors.

For Audio to work on any TV you will need one of these cables. I am uncertain about the TV you are interested in but the Sharp I suggested will allow you to connect Video via DVI to HDMI and port audio separately.
 
You can get HD-tv tuners for mac. I forget the name of the brand that makes one, but you can get them for about 100 bucks if you shop around. Althought a lot of cable is still non-HD and in college you won't get very many (if any) HD signals in your dorms... so it's not too much of a concern.
 
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