Introduction

Playing games on a TV is an extremely exciting experience. Since we have huge flat displays as our home TVs, it is extremely rewarding to experience games on the big screen. Compared with the smaller 15” or 17” gaming laptop screens that we normally use, playing the same games on the bigger screen makes for a more satisfying and fulfilling experience.

While playing games on the normal laptops’ screens is fulfilling, we can experience console-level gaming experience when connected with the TV. You can even connect a joystick to your laptop to complete the console gaming experience. Hence, we will be discussing how to connect your laptop to TV in this blog. We will also help you understand whether you can play high-end games by connecting your laptop to your TV. Finally, we will also answer the query, ‘how to connect your laptop to your smart TV?’, to provide you with the complete idea.

Can I Connect Laptop to TV?

The simple answer to the query, ‘Can I connect laptop to TV’ is ‘Yes, you can connect’. However, it is easier said than done despite the multiple options available. To easily connect laptop to TV, you have the choice of either going the wired route or connecting them wirelessly. While connecting them with a wire is suggested and encouraged, wireless connections do have their benefits too.

So, let us understand whether you can connect your laptop to a TV using both wired and wireless connections:

How to Connect your Laptop to your TV via HDMI?

You can connect your laptop to the TV using an HDMI cable as the connection. You will require an HDMI cable with both ends having male connections to ensure smooth connectivity. Additionally, if you are planning to use the laptop’s keyboard, you will require a long cable to ensure that it reaches the back of the TV, where the connectors and slots are usually located.

Once both the laptop and the TV are connected using the HDMI cable, you can simply click on the ‘Windows + P’ button combo on your keyboard to access the settings related to projecting the screen or duplicating it. We recommend that you select the ‘secondary screen only’ option to ensure that the laptop is sending the video signals to the TV only. Duplicating the screen will be a waste of your laptop’s resources such as RAM and CPU, hence, it is best avoided.

Can I Connect my Laptop to my TV Wirelessly?

On the other end of the spectrum is a wireless connection, using which you can enjoy the connection of wirelessly streaming the laptop display to your TV. However, to enable this functionality, both your laptop and TV should be connected to the same Wi-Fi network. Additionally, they both should support the same wireless protocol such as Miracast or Chrome Cast.

Hence, it is essential to ensure that you have the right protocol enabled in both the laptop and the TV to ensure smooth connectivity. However, they both may support different protocols and hence, are unable to connect wirelessly. In such cases, you will have to check for other options such as installing screen cast apps. Hence, to answer your query of ‘How do I connect my laptop to my TV without HDMI?’, you can simply do it wirelessly by connecting both the laptop and the TV on the same network and connecting them using common wireless display protocols.

How to Connect your Laptop to the TV and Play Games?

As mentioned above, connecting your laptop to your TV is the easy part. It can be accomplished either with a wired or wireless connection. However, to play games, you will require additional settings both on the laptop and the TV. On the laptop, you will have to check whether the game supports a multi-monitor setup as well as whether the resolution remains as high as on the laptop’s display when it is connected to the TV. Some laptops provide the same resolution while others lower their resolution, especially when connected wirelessly.

Similarly, you should also check the in-game settings for resolution and other graphics and display-related settings to ensure that you are getting the best output from the game both in terms of display fidelity and performance. On the other hand, you need to check inside the TV settings to find an option such as ‘Game Mode’ which provides flicker-free performance to ensure that the fast-moving graphics are displayed accurately and smoothly.

Many TVs also provide enhanced saturation and stop using AI-powered smoothening algorithms once you switch on game mode. It further enhances the gaming experience on the TV. However, the exact name for the setting could be different depending on the TV model, its manufacturer, and its operating system. You will have to consult the TV manual to get the exact setting name and path.

Can I Play a High-graphic Game on TV?

Yes, you can play any high-graphic game on TV, provided that the game and the TV support it. The game should support playing on external displays with high-performance settings turned on. Additionally, the TV should also provide adequate options for enhanced gaming performance to avoid common issues like aliasing, game tearing, lower resolution, lower refresh rate, etc. Enabling gaming mode will resolve most of these issues, while also improving the performance of the TV for gaming.

Once the laptop and TV are connected, you will have to check the in-game graphic and video settings to ensure that you are getting the maximum highest graphic settings. Sometimes, games lower their graphic options to enable compatibility with external monitors and TVs. Hence, checking the game settings is essential to ensure a smooth gaming experience.

An additional pointer to keep in mind is that you need to check for gameplay lags while playing and then lower the graphics if required. You should also note that graphically demanding games may lag considerably if you have connected to the TV wirelessly and if your Wi-Fi network is slow. Hence, we would recommend connecting the laptop and TV using HDMI cables to ensure a smooth performance. A wired connection removes all connectivity issues, while also allowing for maximum video output fidelity.

Conclusion

Connecting your laptop and TV for playing games is easy with modern TVs supporting Miracast as well as providing multiple hardware options such as HDMI and USB-C ports. However, your laptop should be either compatible with the wireless protocols supported by the TV or contain the same ports to ensure smooth connectivity. Additionally, you should also have the right cable so that there are no issues even if the laptop and the TV have different connectivity ports.

If you have the right protocols and the right ports, it is still possible that you may have lowered performance, especially with wireless connections. Hence, you need to tweak the settings on both the TV and the in-game graphic and video settings, which will provide you with the best graphics performance for playing your games smoothly on the larger display.