Did you ever wish your TV could double as a second monitor for your laptop, PC, or Mac? Or that it could act as a picture-in-picture secondary screen so you can keep an eye on something else while watching your favorite sitcom? You’d think this may require some magic, but it’s not that difficult to make this a reality. All you need is wireless connectivity between the two devices and a little bit of know-how about how to use the TV as a second monitor wirelessly. Read on to find out how.
How To Use Tv As Second Monitor Wirelessly
Connect your laptop or PC to the TV
Turn on the TV and make sure it’s connected to a power source. Open up a web browser on your computer and type in the TV’s IP address. You can find this on the back of the TV, or use an app like iSpy to find it for you. The default IP address for most TVs is 192.168.0.2 for both PCs and Macs, so just enter that into your browser and you should be good to go!
Connect your laptop or PC to the wireless router by using an Ethernet cable (not Wi-Fi)
If you don’t have an Ethernet cable handy, then get one from any office supply store for about $3 – $4. Once you have this cable, connect it between your computer and router using a straight-through configuration (no crossover cables). Make sure that both devices are turned off before connecting them together.
Connect your device to the TV using the HDMI cable
Plug the HDMI cable into your laptop or PC and into the HDMI port of the TV. Turn on your laptop or PC and make sure it’s connected to a power source, then open up a web browser on your computer. Type in the TV’s IP address, as you did in step 1. The default IP address for most TVs is 192.168.0.2 for both PCs and Macs, so just enter that into your browser and you should be good to go!
Connect your device to the wireless router using the Ethernet cable (not Wi-Fi)
If you don’t have an Ethernet cable handy, then get one from any office supply store for about $3 – $4. Once you have this cable, connect it between your computer and router using a straight-through configuration (no crossover cables). Make sure that both devices are turned off before connecting them together.
Set up a second monitor for your laptop or PC using software on the computer
Once you’ve connected both devices to the TV and router, open up a web browser on your computer and type in the TV’s IP address. The default IP address for most TVs is 192.168.0.2 for both PCs and Macs, so just enter that into your browser and you should be good to go!
What You’ll Need
- A TV and an Apple TV
- A Mac, PC, or laptop (a laptop is better)
- A mouse
- A keyboard and USB extension cable
- A power outlet adapter
- An HDMI cable equipped with a male-to-male AV port that is done up properly
- A HDMI corded converter
5 Ways To Use Your Tv As A Second Monitor Wirelessly
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Bluetooth
You may be thinking this would just work with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, to which you can answer “yes” though you may need higher quality setup and testing. We don’t recommend trying to do this with wireless speakers since they have too much interference to work well. Bluetooth keyboard and mouse pairing work especially well here as the formula: Channel x Modulation x Bits per sec (Mbps) is the easiest, fastest, and most widespread pairing ever.
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vTuner
If you have an HD digital TV antenna and compatible home theater receiver, then this is the next best solution for your needs. Similar in function to a regular wired keyboard and mouse, you must use either a nice quality digital or analog extension cable or adaptor to connect from Bluetooth: Input vTuner, select COM Port, and don’t forget to put the drive letter ‘x’ in known/guest mode since this will be used in your display mode settings. You can tell where input is connected by looking at the input selection overlay that shows up on the same display (lower left corner side); experiment some to see what works best.
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TV Tuners and Digital Diagnostic Tool Kit Sticks
This may work well not only on flat-screen TVs older models with S-video inputs if they have ADAT ports which are still widely used among audiophiles, but also on modern HDTVs using HDMI as one of their inputs if they have another type of port here. If you find this time-consuming problem troublesome, we recommend purchasing an FTAmagic key so placing your mouse or gamepad (such as XBOX 360 and Nintendo Wii) right onto this allows faster start-up times for your secondary monitors. Try different transmitting tricks for good results for deciding which would be better. You’ll want one that handles anti-flicker and probably looks like FTAmagic EM120 Dual Ethernet Diagnostic Tool Stick Dongle digital input such as a component.
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RaspiTuner
Not a lot is written about this here except that it has been shown to work well but because few people seem to still use Windows-based laptops and gaming systems open for the likes of HumbleBundle, libre, OSMandu, etc., forcing it on an OS rarely seen much publicly nowadays might not be worth your time unless you already know how to perform minor tweaks anyway. Many people criticize it as far as taking up valuable space while Nvidia runs perfectly fine without him on most GNU/Linux desktop distributions out there.
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Use a Composite & Component Video Converter Box
Use a cable that is advertised as using only one connector (the tricky part with these is that you should actually see the wires going into your kindle fire g) and when the box plugs into your TV turn the TV power off and hold in the ‘input’ button (it may have an actual switch or said symbol on it) and let begin – it may update automatically at some point but often not reliably.
Conclusion
There are a number of ways to use your TV as a second monitor. You can just connect it via an HDMI cable, or you can use streaming services like YouTube TV or Sling TV to display a picture-in-picture feed. You can also use split-screen windows or mirror your computer screen on your TV using an HDMI-to-AV cable. No matter which method you use, you’ll be able to get more work done with the added screen space of your TV. Now you just have to decide which is best for you.
