How To Connect Your Home Projector To A Smartphone, Laptop and Cable TV?

There are many ways in which you can use a projector. Whether it comes to watching a film with your friends using a home theater projector or watching the pictures from your family album in a slideshow with a mini home projector, you can just simply connect your projector to any electronic device. Devices range from Smartphone, laptop, computer, or cable TV. Let’s take a look.

Connecting Projector To A Smartphone

Before you connect your smartphone to an outdoor video projector, you must know the difference between the options that are used for Android smartphones and those for IOS.

Android smartphones

Whether it comes to connecting your Android device to an outdoor video projector or watching a Power presentation, there are different ways you can do all of that.

• Chromecast – Safe to say, this might be the safest option if you are an Android smartphone user. This device attaches to the projector’s HDMI port directly and after that, you can play videos sent from your Android to the projector via Wi-Fi network.
• Miracast – As technology evolves, people are now trying to adapt by simply using the new products and innovations. Miracast allows you to mirror anything you want on your device. If you are using a newer model of Android device and projector, then they may support Miracast.

If they don’t support, you can just buy a Miracast video adapter that you can attach to an HDMI port of your projector.

• Hardwired Connection – You can use a hard - wire connection as a backup option if your wireless connection doesn’t work. However, you may have an issue with that. Many of the Android devices don’t support a hardwire connection. So, you have only two options. To use MHL or HDMI connection. The easiest way is to use the HDMI connection. Why? Because you can use the mini HDMI cable of your device (if there is one), to make a connection between the HDMI port of your Android device to the projector’s HDMI port.

On the other side, if your device only supports MHL, then you can connect your MHL to HDMI adapter of the device so you can make a connection to the projector’s HDMI port. There might occur a problem if the projector doesn’t have an HDMI port. The solution to this problem will be to use a VGA port. There are many adapters that can connect MHL to VGA or mini HDMI to VGA.

IOS Smartphones

Using a VGA cable – There are 5 steps you must follow to connect your iOS Smartphone to a projector. First of all, you have to get the right cables like a standard VGA cable and an Apple V.G.A Lightning adapter. Good news is, these you can purchase in an Apple store. You must pay attention to which adapter to buy because there are adapters only made for specific iPhone models. An example is the adapter for iPhone 4 is VGA-to-30 pin.

After you have the VGA cable, you connect it to the VGA-to-Lightning or some other type of adapter (depends on your iPhone model). Then, you connect the end of the adapter to the adapter of your iPhone. The next step is to enable the audio sound of your video or presentation if there is one. And the last but not least is to navigate your iPhone on the projector’s screen; whether it is a home theater projector, a mini home projector, or outdoor video projector.

Connecting Projector To A Laptop

There are 6 easy steps to connect your laptop to a home theater projector:

• Before you connect the devices, make sure they are both turned off.
• Connect the VGA cable from the external port of your laptop directly to the projector.
• Press the power button on your projector.
• Turn on your laptop.
• If your video has a sound, connect the audio port from your laptop to your projector.
• The last step is to sync both devices by holding the ‘‘Fn’’button on your keyboard and at the same time pressing F4, F5, F7 or F8.

Connecting Projector To A Cable TV

If you want to connect your cable TV to a home theater projector, mini home projector or maybe make an outdoor presentation with an outdoor video projector, you are going to need more cables. To make it easier for you, take a look at the following steps:

• Gather all necessary materials– To connect your cable TV to a projector, you will need a cable box, or VCR combo as a channel selector. You will also need the right amount of white, red, and yellow input cables that are often used in digital devices.
• Place your projector in the right place– Connect the input cables of the TV to the out video slots on the back of your TV. After that, connect the other sides of the cable to the video inputs on the projector.
• Connect the coaxial cable to the device – The cable box must have a port for a coaxial cable to be plugged in. After you plug in the cable in the box, you should be able to watch cable on your projector and use a menu to channel search so that you can set up your channels. Remember that if your TV is off, you will have a blank screen on the projector.

Connecting Projector To A Computer

There are a few steps to connect your computer to a projector:

• You must identify the video cable type– Most of the projectors can support VGA, HDMI, or DVI cable types.
• Connect the cable – You must connect the cable in the connection port. These kinds of ports are usually on the back of the projectors and flat screens displays.
• Turn on your computer.
• Send a video to the computer – Most of the computers require you to send a video directly to the projector.
• Press Win + P buttons – Pressing these buttons will display the projector’s options on the right side of a computer with Windows 10.

Final Word

Remember... ... There are many other possible devices where you can connect your projector, from sound bars, speakers, Macbook, to Bluetooth speakers.

It all depends on your need at the moment, whether it is a presentation, watching a movie or maybe watching photographs from your vacation.