Late 2009 Macbook connection to TV

[BulldogGirl]

Hello,
I have come across quite the problem today. A week ago, I bought a new tv for college and the guy at the store said that if I bought a VGA cable, I could connect my laptop to my tv. I went online and bought a VGA cable as well as an audio cable because I had read that my old macbook wouldn't support the audio without it. I received the cords in the mail today, and I was sent an HDMI cable instead of VGA. I have both cords connected to the tv, and the only picture that shows up is the galaxy stars(purple/pink, I hope someone knows what I'm talking about..)- there is no audio and nothing but that picture shown.

I am not a very good technology person, so if anyone can help me with what to do to make this work for me, I will be so so grateful! I hope I didn't just waste my money on cords I don't even need...

 

[xpaulinax]

HDMI should transmit the audio. VGA doesnt though.
Idk what to tell you though, unless its a faulty cable.
might sound like a dumb question, but have you tried playing audio?

 

[BrettApple]

I have a Late 2008 MacBook that is similar in hardware to yours. If it is the Late 2009 model with the 9400m, it will not support audio out via HDMI. I'm assuming you got sent a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter. The adapter supports audio, just not the MacBook, the later models do however so it isn't the cable's fault.

So in your case, you would have to run the audio separate from the HDMI cable, which is doable, but most TV's will only see the audio coming in from the HDMI port. In which case you will need the VGA adapter and use the audio cable into the TV with it. Which is how most TV's work with PC's without HDMI.

Alternatively you can get a cable that takes the analog audio from the audio jack and combines it into the HDMI out or via USB audio.