How Do I Play a YouTube Video on My Projector?

There are lots of ways to use YouTube videos. You might use them in a presentation, use them to show your friends something, or use them to learn more information. There are lots of ways to display them, but playing them on your projector requires a few things. T.K. Coleman, a computer enthusiast and website designer from Minneapolis shares some strategies.

Understand YouTube to start with, so you can really understand what a YouTube video is and how to use it. YouTube is a hosting site, where people can post their own videos, and where users can watch videos for free. Therefore, as long as a video is still up on YouTube, you can use the Internet to access it. YouTube is not a download site, nor is it a site where you can purchase videos. Coleman says it is important to understand this so you know how the site works.

In order to lay a YouTube video on your projector, first hook your projector to your computer. Make sure that it is a projector that is compatible with a computer--the box or instructions should tell you so. You need a visual cable and an audio cable, although some AV cables do both at the same time. The cable should plug into the back of your computer and into the front or back of the projector. If you don't know what type of cable to get, read the instruction book for the projector. Then, aim the projector at a projector-screen on the wall, or at a blank, white wall. Turn the projector on to be sure that the light from the projector hits the projector-screen. Adjust the placement of the projector to ensure that the light is hitting the projector-screen or the wall you intend to use to show your YouTube video. Turn on your computer, and you should see your desktop, or whatever is currently displayed on the screen of your computer, on the projector-screen. In order to use YouTube to show a video, you must have an Internet connection. This is because you have to play the video from the site it is on.

Open up a browser window, like Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer. Go to the YouTube site and find the video you want to show. Click "play". As long as your projector is hooked up right to your computer, whatever you see on the computer screen you will also see on the projector-screen.

You can import the video to your Facebook, or your own personal website, simply by putting the link into the code of your site, or using the "add a link" feature on Facebook. As long as you are able to display the link or video, you can play it. You can also play it directly from the YouTube site, by typing in the site of the video in the address bar, and then clicking the play button.

However, you absolutely must be online to do this. You cannot save a YouTube video to your hard drive, to a CD, or to anything else. It must be played from the YouTube site itself.

If you would like to save a YouTube video so you can play it on your projector when you aren't online, the only choice you have is to find the video on another site, and try to download it from there. Some private sites, company sites and other video hosting sites will give you a download function for the videos. Search for the video and see if it shows up on another site. If you find it, right click on it and see if "download" is an option. If you download the video onto your computer, you can then play it on your projector without being online.