Wired Affordable Entertainment Setups
Casting your favorite movie to your TV is simple. You can even do it just by speaking to your phone or digital assistant. But for that, you’d need a whole bunch of smarts in your TV, and a digital assistant device and whatnot.
Before all of this came along, there was, and in many homes and offices, still is, a simple cable to connect something to a display. It was the HDMI cable. But it was also the HDMI to DVI cable.
While casting may seem like the simpler option, these cables didn’t require an internet connection, nor a power plug. It is just the connection cable that works with the connected devices themselves.
These cables were the only way to display anything to the big screen. Not only can you connect your computer to your TV, but also a projector very easily.
Let’s explore where you’d use the different cables:
The main television setup:
TVs generally have one or maybe 2 HDMI ports. This is not always sufficient. You need one to connect to a cable box, if you have cable. So for the other one, you can plug in your DVD player via a simple HDMI cable. These are two devices that you are less likely to unplug very frequently.
Instead of the DVD player, you can also have a gaming console, which is also something that is a part of your permanent setup.
The struggle of ports comes when you want all three of these things.
But there is quite a simple solution to that. Use the DVI port on your TV to connect to the HDMI port on the DVD player or console with the HDMI to DVI cable. This way both of your HDMI ports remain available for the cable box and the third device.
Sometimes you may also want to connect your laptop to the TV. Depending on the ports you have on it, you can pick the cable that connects the devices. Apart from HDMI and DVI, it may be a DisplayPort.
In all of the above cases, if you want to plug in an external speaker, which you should because TVs don’t have good speakers, then see if your TV has the HDMI ARC port. If not, the RCA ports will do the trick.
Home theatre setup:
You might say that this is pretty much the same as a TV setup. But it really isn’t. You go to your TV to watch the news, watch reality TV, shows and movies. but the TV is also something that is on while you cook your meals, for children to watch cartoons on and everything in between.
A home theatre setup is a serious entertainment space. You specially created a space for entertainment apart from your TV. So this should most certainly have the right equipment. This does not mean the equipment has to be expensive.
The two main things you need in this setup are a projector and the device you will use to project things from.
The projector you get will depend on how you are going to place it. You can set it up permanently on the ceiling or if you don’t want to make such changes to your house, you can simply put it on the table. The placement will depend on how clear a picture it can project from what distance.
If you have an old laptop lying around that you can simply leave plugged in to the projector, it would be the easiest setup. Use this laptop to run DVDs or even stream from the internet. To connect the laptop and the projector you can use an HDMI cable and you can connect speakers via an AUX wire.
This makes for a relatively affordable setup and gives you the most bang for your buck. While technology is moving forward, if your products are running well, then you can make the most out of them simply by using cables correctly. Moreover, you can mix old and new technology by using adapter cables.
Wrapping up…
Don’t right off your gadgets because you think they are old and can’t do much for you because new tech is all you see around you. With the right variation of cables, you can save on your setup and still get a nifty outcome.
SF Cable has them all, old, new, adapters, whatever your setup requires. Browse the store and reach out to us for queries!
