Although we live in the age of thesmart TV, where plenty of apps can be run directly on a TV’s operating system, there are still plenty of reasons why one might want to cast from a laptop to a TV.
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Maybe you want a bigger screen to share yourGoogle Chrome,Safari, orMicrosoft Edgeactivity with others, or just find it easier to stay on your laptop to share that YouTube video rather than booting up the YouTube app on your TV.
Whatever the case, if you’re looking to cast your laptop to your TV, it’s easy to do so in 3 easy steps. Read on.
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Option 1: Use a Wi-Fi connection
The easiest way to cast your laptop display to your TV is via Miracast, if both devices support it.
Miracast is a wireless communication standard that permits transmission of video and sound over Wi-Fi rather than a physical cable. In other words, it acts like a wireless HDMI cable.
What is Miracast and how is it different from Chromecast or AirPlay?
Most modern latops with Wi-Fi capabilities should support Miracast, as should most modern smart TVs. However, TV manufacturers often have their own name for each implementation of this technology. Here are just some of the most common:
Smart View / AllShare Cast
SmartShare
Screen mirroring
Screen Sharing
To cast your laptop screen to a modern smart TV using Miracast, first ensure your TV’s settings allow for it by navigating through its settings and looking for one of the above terms (for example, ensuring “allow screen mirroring” is ticked on aRoku device).
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Then, follow the steps below to cast your Windows laptop or MacBook to your TV. If you have an older laptop that doesn’t support Miracast, you may buy a Wi-Fi adapter that does such asthis oneand plug it into your laptop, using it to connect and cast to your TV.
How to cast a Windows laptop to a TV
There are two ways to wirelessly cast a Windows laptop to a TV. This first way will be the most convenient if you might want to cast your laptop to your TV more than once. If “cast” is already an option in the quick settings tray, you can skip step 3.
Now, whenever you want to cast again, you can skip step 3 and launch via the quick settings panel straight away.
Alternatively, you can cast to TV by opening Windows Settings (right click Windows button -> Settings), selectingDisplay,and then selectingConnectnext toConnect to a wireless display.
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Option 2: Connect directly via HDMI
Of course, not everything has to be done wirelessly, and there are still plenty of reasons to opt for a wired casting solution over a Wi-Fi one. Perhaps most importantly, a HDMI cable will probably provide better and more stable casting quality and latency than some Miracast connections, especially at higher resolutions where more data has to be transferred.
If your laptop doesn’t have an HDMI port, it might support HDMI over USB-C, in which case you can connect via a USB-C to HDMI cable likethis one, or use a USB-C to HDMI adapter likethis onein combination with a standard HDMI cable.
For this reason, connecting your laptop to your TV via a HDMI cable is a great, simple casting solution. Simply plug anHDMI cableinto your laptop’sHDMI port at one endand yourTV’s HDMI port at the other, switch over yourTV’s input sourceto match the source the cable’s plugged into.
Then, you may navigate your Windows or MacOSdisplay settingsto choose whether to extend or mirror your display.
Option 3: Use website, browser or app casting features
If you don’t want to mirror or extend your screen but, for example, just cast a specific video onto one of your smart TV’s streaming apps, then different websites, apps, and browsers will have different ways of letting you do so.
Most of the more popular streaming services should give you a way to cast videos on their platforms from another device to your smart TV.
Why a Chromecast is the ultimate tool for streaming and casting
you’re able to turn any TV into a smart TV with Google’s own dongle. It’s inexpensive, has a full UI, and lets you stream, cast, and more.
For example, if you want to cast aYouTube videofrom your laptop to your TV, you canpair your TVand hit the cast icon on the bottom-right of the video.
If you don’t own a smart TV, you can still cast from laptop to TV by using a HDMI dongle such as a Google Chromecast.
Or, for example, to cast everything inside yourGoogle Chromebrowser, you can click thethree dotson the top right, then go toSave and share-> Cast… andselect your TV.
