Monday 27 August 2018

How to connect your Mac to an external display or projector via HDMI or VGA



In this post we are going to tell you the different methods we have to connect a Mac computer to an external screen via cable, we will see the different connections that your Mac can have and the options of your monitor, television or projector.

How to connect your Mac to an external display wirelessly
As you know there are two alternative methods to the cable connection, on the one hand, the Apple TV that will allow us to stream video, although we have tested it on a MacBook Pro Retina 15 '' and an iMac of 27 '' and the quality It is not the expected one. Yes, it works well on other computers with lower screen resolution.

The second alternative method to the cable is to use a server like Serviio, a few months ago we made a step-by-step tutorial.

How to connect your Mac to an external display with cables
The cables you may need to connect your Mac computer to an external screen are:
    HDMI to HDMI, you will have a MacBook Pro Retina and your external screen HDMI connection.  Mini Display Port or Thunderbolt to HDMI, your Mac computer will have the Minidisplay Port or Thunderbolt connection if it is a more modern model and your external screen has an HDMI connection (most of the current televisions have one or more HDMI ports). 
    Mini Display Port or Thunderbolt to VGA , your Mac computer will have the Minidisplay Port or Thunderbolt connection if it is a more modern model and your external screen has a VGA connection, very common in monitors from a few years ago and the standard of most of the market projectors and they are all available under the Amazon Basics brand with an unbeatable value for money:

In the following video, we show you how you can connect your Mac computer to an external screen, in our case we have used a MacBook Pro Retina 15 '' since it has a Minidisplay Port or Thunderbolt input and an HDMI port. The screen that we used for the connection is a Samsung Smart TV with HDMI connection: +

What connection does my Mac have?
Your Mac computer can have more than one type of connection, the most common is that it has Thunderbolt or Mini Display Port, it is a square port that requires a special cable. This cable will have the Mini Display Port connection on one end while on the other you can have HDMI or VGA, it is also common to see adapters from MiniDisplay Port to VGA or HDMI so we would then have to buy the HDMI-HDMI cable or VGA- VGA, if we already have one of these is a good option although it does not always come out cheaper and we will also be using two cables (adapter and cable) instead of just one.

To identify this connection ... an image is worth a thousand words:
The other connection option that your Mac can carry is the HDMI, it is an easily identifiable entry since it is present in most of the screens and televisions that are currently on the market. It is like this:

What connection does my external screen, monitor, television or projector have?
The external screens have an infinity of input ports, we will highlight those used to connect a screen or projector to your Mac:

    VGA: it is very well known although, in disuse, it has 15 pins and in the photo, it is identified and it is blue (in our case). This connection will require the cable to have VGA on one end and Mini Display Port on the other. It is difficult to find HDMI-VGA cables so if you have this connection it is better to buy an adapter.

    DVI: very old connection and that few computers have. You will undoubtedly have to buy a DVI to VGA adapter.

    HDMI: is the modern standard connection, if your screen has this connector you can use an HDMI-HDMI direct cable to your computer if it is a MacBook Pro Retina or an HDMI-Mini Display Port Cable otherwise.

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