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Laptop S-Video (or VGA) to HD display Component input (or HDMI)

posted 12 years ago by littlefuzzy
3 replies | jump to latest

I hope this is the right board for this, It seemed like it could fit in Formats, Home Theater Equipment, Displays, or Computers.

I'm trying to figure out how I can cheaply connect my laptop to my HD display so I can watch digital media on the display.

These are all US products.

The laptop is a 6-year-old HP Pavilion dv5000. It has a VGA output and a 7-pin S-Video output. I read on Wikipedia that some PC 7-pin connectors use the extra pins for composite, and some are for component.

My display is the Sony Playstation 3D Display. It only has 2 HDMI ports and Component input. The two HDMI ports are taken up by my Blu-Ray player and by my XBox 360.

The Blu-Ray player is a Sony 3D player, but I don't know the model number offhand. It has wireless capabilities and a USB port. Is there a way to use either of those to connect to my laptop? I'm on a wireless home network.

If not, can I use the S-Video or VGA output to connect to the display? I know VGA doesn't have sound, and I believe the S-Video doesn't either (even with the additional pins.) I presume I would have to run audio from the headphone jack on the laptop.

A quick Google search for "s-video to component" brings me to a $2.69 cable that seems to be just what I need, but I was wondering if that was ALL I needed, or if there would need to be some sort of conversion box along the way. I did a search at Amazon, and found one for .69 cents, but it says the laptop must be capable of component output through the 7-pin S-Video connector.

[–] dangus 12 years ago

Have a look at Monoprice. Here's a VGA to HDMI converter:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=101&cp_id=10114 &cs_id=1011404&p_id=6191&seq=1&format=2

Can't you play digital media on the Xbox or Blu-ray player?

Consider getting a media player like a WDTV Live or Google TV, or run RaspBMC on a Raspberry Pi.

[–] littlefuzzy 12 years ago

The problem is, I'm broke. I was hoping for the cheapest solution possible, and ~$30 is a bit high for me right now.

I don't have X-Box Live Gold, so I can't use the browser or any streaming services.

The Blu-Ray player has quite a few streaming services on it, although many require subscriptions or fees. The browser is useless for videos, unless I'm missing something (maybe if I added a memory stick to the back of the player, I could download the flash plugin for the Opera browser.) Things like Youtube are cut down from what I can see on the computer, many videos are missing on the Blu-Ray player's version of Youtube.

I can load something onto a USB memory stick and then put the memory stick in the Blu-Ray player (or X-Box,) but that is a lot of work to do with each piece of streaming media I want to watch.

[–] whaduzitmatr2 12 years ago

I've always found it to be alot more work to hook up the laptop to the display every time than just loading a video to a flash drive. In your case if you are using S-video or VGA you will also need a cable for audio otherwise the sound will still come from your computer speakers.

I find it strange that your display does not have either an S-Video or a VGA built in. Sounds like Sony is trying to get rid of legacy ports.