Can I hook up my Win XP desktop to my tv and play avi files without converting them with like av cables or something? I've been successful in using ulead's movie factory to cut a few dvd's but the dl dvds keep coming up with errors. While I'm at it, can anyone suggest a good convert/burner? Yes, a complete noob lol...but I joined this site because everytime I googled something your website links came up to help. Thanks to you all...it's a great site!
you can connect your computer to a regular tv only if your computer video card has an RCA video plug. If you have an LCD tv, it might have a built-in vga plug, allowing you to connect the computer video cable directly to the tv. The best avi to dvd converter is convertxtodvd. But there are also free converters "dvdflick", uleads movie factory is mainly a movie editor and most people wouldn't use it to convert avi to dvd. But make sure you use only "sony or verbatim" blank dvd's to burn dvd movies, they are the best brands and very reliable. Other blank media will cause the video to freeze or skip during playback. I have my 27" lcd connected permanetly to my desktop computer, the tv has the vga connector built-in. I can watch my avi's or dvd's even regular tv on it (I have a tv tuner card on the computer), what you want to do is very possible and not that hard to do. As far as audio, that will come directly from your computer speakers so it's not anything you need to worry about.
I have a Dell XPS 400 and a 42" digital tv. I have to look at a few things to determine what it has (not sure about the tv having a vga plug though I know it has the red,white and yellow rca's), and the back of my graphics card has the monitor connection then a round female plug with holes for pins and then another rectangle plug. Sigh...learning the hard way. Hope you don't mind me getting back with you again on this.
The latest digital TV's usually have all the different connectors that you will need built in. My 27 inch standard LCD is 3 years old and has all 4 connectors. vga http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VGA_connector rca http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCA_connector s video http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-Video dvi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Interface most video card's have the vga type connector, those video cards with tv out will have the rca plug or s video plug. The newer video cards will have the dvi plug. VGA and DVI will give you the best picture quality. Even though my video card has the dvi port, I have my 27 inch connected through the vga cable with acceptable quality. But if you have a high definition LCD and all the right plugs, it's best to get the dvi cable (cost about 25.00).
