Guide · Setting up

How to connect a laptop to a church projector

Most Sunday projection problems happen in the ten minutes before service, and most of them come down to one setting: the laptop is mirroring when it should be extending.

1. The cable

Most modern projectors take HDMI. Older ones use VGA, the blue plug with screws. Many newer laptops only have USB-C, so keep the right adapter in the media box, not in someone’s bag. For a long run to a ceiling projector, test the cable before Sunday: long, cheap HDMI cables often cut out.

2. Extend, don’t mirror

This is the setting that matters. Mirroring shows your whole laptop screen on the wall — every menu, every search you type, every notification. Extending makes the projector a second screen, so the congregation sees only the slide and you keep working on the laptop.

Windows: press Windows + P and choose Extend.
Mac: open System Settings → Displays and make sure the projector is used as an extended display, not a mirror.

3. Resolution

If the picture is stretched, cropped or blurry, set the projector display to its native resolution in the same display settings. When in doubt, 1920×1080 or 1280×720 are the safe choices for most church projectors.

4. Put the slides on the projector

With the display extended, Psalter finds the projector by itself and opens the output full-screen on it. The control room stays on your laptop, so you can find the next hymn or verse while the congregation only ever sees what you choose to put up.

If the cable is knocked out mid-service, the control room keeps running on the laptop. Plug it back in, reopen the output, and the slide you were on is still selected.

5. Check from the back