I have an older laptop and want to hook it to a TV that has USB, HDMI, and standard (F-connector) cable. Laptop has USB, and VGA. Can I just get a USB to USB cable and it will work, or do I need a USB Display Adapter? Thanks again.Xubuntu 20.04.
SnapOverflow
No. Your TV is not designed to receive a data stream over USB and turn that into a video signal.
You could add a USB 2.0 attached HDMI adapter to the laptop which would make a video signal and send it to the HDMI port of the TV. This uses your CPU to process the signal, and if your laptop is old, it might not have the computing power to show a signal at the maximum resolution the TV will accept. If the USB port on your laptop is 3.0, not 2.0, better adapters are available.
USB 2.0 ports on laptops are normally black; 3.0 ports are normally blue; 3.1 ports are normally red. However, that's not guaranteed; check your PC's specifications before making a buying decision.
You could also add a VGA-to-HDMI adapter and connect it to the VGA port of the laptop; but you would only get the resolution of the VGA output from the laptop. You may wish to see what the maximum resolution and vertical scanning frequency of the VGA output is before making a decision. You'd need to make sure you get an adapter which also connects to the sound output of your laptop.
Old is old.
Connecting the laptop to the TV via USB will not work. You would need a USB HDMI adapter (a USB graphics adapter with and HDMI output), and you may need additional drivers for the adapter to work.
You could look for a VGA-to-HDMI adapter, but these could be dicey if you go on the cheap end, as the adapter would have to convert the analog VGA signal to a digital HDMI signal.