If you buy a new TV and haven’t purchased a new one in a while you may wind up a bit perplexed as to what all those inputs and cords are for!
Unlike the days of old when most TVs only had plug ins and corresponding cords that allowed one to obtain cable and/or hook up an antenna to tune in stations, today’s’ new HDTVs have a number of inputs; you can plug your TV into your stereo system, plug your DVD player into your TV via an HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) cable so you’ll see a clearer picture, plug an Apple TV or Roku media streaming player* into your TV, plug your TV into a wired Internet (LAN or Ethernet ) cable, plug your laptop into your TV to stream content from your computer to your TV and even, on a non cable plug-in note, wireless connect your TV to the Internet and access Netflix and other content via your wireless network.
So if you’re in the market for a new TV or just wonder what all those inputs are for on the HDTV you bought last year you might check out a recent New York Times article titled Hooking Up a New TV: Which Wire Goes Where? which shows you color pictures of the most common cable inputs found on HDTV’s and offers a brief explanation of what those inputs and their corresponding cords do!
And here’s a link to a CNET article that offers a more in-depth explanation of what on earth an HDMI cable, also known as a High Definition Multimedia Interface cable, actually does:
http://reviews.cnet.com/hdmi-guide/
Linda R.
*The Apple TV and Roku players are actually small devices, about the size of a hockey puck, and you plug them into your TV to access TV, music and movies from, in the case of Apple, Apple’s iTunes Store and Netflix, and in the case of Roku Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora, TuneIn Radio and Amazon among other app channels.
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