VGA to RCA?

[daver]

Hi I need help. I want to connect my dell inspiron b130 to my sharp television. I have been trying to google a solution but I came here for support. My dell laptop doesn't have an s-video just a vga connector. I need something that connects from the vga on the laptop to the rca in the sharp tv.

 

 

 

The sharp is pretty old (5-8 yrs?). Would the picture be horrible, and will my graphics card on the laptop support it? I'm not sure what type of video card I have tho, it's stock tho.

 

 

 

SOrry if this thread is sloppy or if you need more info let me know.

[lordkafei]

Televisions are different from monitors in one important aspect:

 

 

 

A computer monitor is laid out like a checkerboard. There are sharp rows and columns; say 1024 x 768. So vertical lines are always sharp.

 

 

 

Television is different (at least, old televisions are). The screen is set up like a honeycomb; there is no way to draw a sharp thin vertical line on a television.

 

 

 

Look at your TV with a magnifying glass and you will see what I mean.

 

 

 

So if you intend to use your TV as a computer monitor, you will likely be disappointed.

 

 

 

Now new HDTV monitors are like computer monitors - laid out in a checkerboard. So if you have a new TV, what you are wanting to do looks a lot better.

[Collective]

You don't need a special video card to support a VGA-to-RCA cable, however you may wish to check if it supports using two monitors simultaneously.

 

 

 

You will get normal picture quality for your TV, which is fine if you want to play DVDs but not so good for browsing the web at normal font sizes.

 

 

 

You can find VGA-to-RCA cables online for around $10-20.

[Doomster]

Just a cable is unlikely to be enough - the simple VGA to RCA plag cables are for high-specification monitors that DO support common VGA scan rates.

 

 

 

For PC to TV, either the PC graphics must be programmed with a suitable scan rate for TV (custom driver) or active (powered) circuitry is required to make the conversion, anything from a full-frame scan conversion, down to simpler line buffer systems where there is an appropriate relationship between source and target rates.

[daver]

Ok thanks I'll just wait till I eventually get a new TV with pc input.

[Doomster]

What RCA's are we talking about?

 

 

 

1. Yellow (composite) / Red/White (sound)

 

 

 

2. Red/Green/Blue (component) + Red/White (sound)

 

 

 

Those are what you would normally find on a TV.

 

 

 

The VGA to 5x Phono (computer monitor) is normally for those large/heavy beasts which accept RGB & H/V sync - the normal VGA signals just carried using better quality cables - popular in 19"+ CRT monitors.

 

 

 

There are PC to TV adapters about

 

http://sewelldirect.com/pc-to-tv.asp - and that is a lot cheaper than I thought they would be

[daver]

That looks like it would work thx.

[ClareJonsson]

Televisions are different from monitors in one important aspect:

 

 

 

A computer monitor is laid out like a checkerboard. There are sharp rows and columns; say 1024 x 768. So vertical lines are always sharp.

 

 

 

Television is different (at least, old televisions are). The screen is set up like a honeycomb; there is no way to draw a sharp thin vertical line on a television.

 

 

 

Look at your TV with a magnifying glass and you will see what I mean.

 

 

 

So if you intend to use your TV as a computer monitor, you will likely be disappointed.

 

 

 

Now new HDTV monitors are like computer monitors - laid out in a checkerboard. So if you have a new TV, what you are wanting to do looks a lot better.

 

Yep, that's all down to a thing called a shadow mask, that's a sheet of metal that has all the dots cut into it, 3 dots per segment for the RGB guns. The shadow mask is also the thing that causes impurities in the screen when it gets magnetised as it forces the guns to stray off point, this is why CRT systems need degaussing.

 

 

 

There's also another point, televisions are interlaced so you will never get a sharp screen with a PC. Even my mega super duper TV that can handle 100Mhz is a little fuzzy.

 

 

 

Also you will be converting RGB, vertical sync and horizontal sync into S-Video, which is not much better than composite. It's ok for watching movies on, or possibly Media Center, but forget surfing the web or playing high res games on it.

[bartoron]

Don't do it. I've used a TV as a monitor for my computer before through the S-Video port in my video card and let me tell you, the quality is horrible. It was even worse when I hooked up the TV end using an S-Video to RCA adapter.

[blade995]

Don't do it. I've used a TV as a monitor for my computer before through the S-Video port in my video card and let me tell you, the quality is horrible. It was even worse when I hooked up the TV end using an S-Video to RCA adapter.

 

 

 

That's because normal definition tvs have low resolutions. Something like 800x600 or less. A standard computer monitor usually runs at 1280x1024. High def tvs run at 1280x720(720p resolution) or 1920x1080 (1080p resolution).

[bartoron]

Don't do it. I've used a TV as a monitor for my computer before through the S-Video port in my video card and let me tell you, the quality is horrible. It was even worse when I hooked up the TV end using an S-Video to RCA adapter.

 

 

 

That's because normal definition tvs have low resolutions. Something like 800x600 or less. A standard computer monitor usually runs at 1280x1024. High def tvs run at 1280x720(720p resolution) or 1920x1080 (1080p resolution).

 

 

 

I don't recall ever saying otherwise. :-s

[blade995]

Don't do it. I've used a TV as a monitor for my computer before through the S-Video port in my video card and let me tell you, the quality is horrible. It was even worse when I hooked up the TV end using an S-Video to RCA adapter.

 

 

 

That's because normal definition tvs have low resolutions. Something like 800x600 or less. A standard computer monitor usually runs at 1280x1024. High def tvs run at 1280x720(720p resolution) or 1920x1080 (1080p resolution).

 

 

 

I don't recall ever saying otherwise. :-s

 

 

 

I'm just explaining why it's like that :wink:

[bartoron]

Don't do it. I've used a TV as a monitor for my computer before through the S-Video port in my video card and let me tell you, the quality is horrible. It was even worse when I hooked up the TV end using an S-Video to RCA adapter.

 

 

 

That's because normal definition tvs have low resolutions. Something like 800x600 or less. A standard computer monitor usually runs at 1280x1024. High def tvs run at 1280x720(720p resolution) or 1920x1080 (1080p resolution).

 

 

 

I don't recall ever saying otherwise. :-s

 

 

 

I'm just explaining why it's like that :wink:

 

 

 

Kai. :-s

 

 

 

But regardless there's no way the quality of RCA is going to be anywhere near as good as D-Sub.

[ClareJonsson]

Don't do it. I've used a TV as a monitor for my computer before through the S-Video port in my video card and let me tell you, the quality is horrible. It was even worse when I hooked up the TV end using an S-Video to RCA adapter.

 

 

 

I wonder if that was what I said?

[bartoron]

Don't do it. I've used a TV as a monitor for my computer before through the S-Video port in my video card and let me tell you, the quality is horrible. It was even worse when I hooked up the TV end using an S-Video to RCA adapter.

 

 

 

I wonder if that was what I said?

 

 

 

Congrats, I made my post based off of my personal experiences. :-s