Hooking up a HD Plasma TV to a laptop

[Slowlearner]

I would like to hook up a Toshiba A135-S4527 laptop (Vista) to a Panasonic TH50PX75U TV to watch videos. The laptop has a VGA socket. The TV has HDMI ports and whole bunch of component ports but no VGA. Googling this, I am coming up with some options:

1. Use S-Video but quality may be poor. Both have S-Video ports. I could not get this to work<< may need to configure the laptop for two displays.

2. Use a VGA to 5 components cable << has anyone actually got this to work.

3. Use a scan converter box. Now these range from 50$ at monoprice to 125+ at converters.tv or sewelldirect.com.

4. Then there are all kinds of USB to VGA/DVI/HDMI converters.

I looking for recommendations on the best price/pix quality. I dont intend to use the TV as the primary monitor, but merely view home videos. The kid's xbox360 connects to it fine with the RYW cable combo.

Thanks

 

[zerocool84]

Didn't think about a VGA->DVI adapter???

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10419&cs_id=1041903&p_id=2397&seq=1&format=2

 

[Slowlearner]

Neither the laptop or the TV has a DVI connector. So it will have to be Laptop VGA to DVI cable(m/f), then DVI(f/m) to HDMI cable, plus a separate audio cable for the sound. Seems kinda of cumbersome.

 

[zerocool84]

Neither the laptop or the TV has a DVI connector. So it will have to be Laptop VGA to DVI cable(m/f), then DVI(f/m) to HDMI cable, plus a separate audio cable for the sound. Seems kinda of cumbersome.

My mistake

 

[blanketyblank]

Maybe just stream the videos to the xbox for viewing?
Otherwise you're going to need some kind of active converter if you expect to use component or hdmi. Although you can get VGA to component cables those will NOT work. They will only work if your particular video card can support them.
I'd suggest a VGA converter instead of a USB solution. It should be faster since USB will most likely tax your CPU more. Either VGA to DVI, VGA to hdmi, or VGA to component will work. For sound you will need a seperate 3.5mm to 2 RCA cable anyway you go.

 

[lopri]

Streaming through XBox is the best option. The next best would be VGA to component, but even if that works the result won't be satisfactory, I'm afraid. Plasma just doesn't work well with PC's.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Didn't think about a VGA->DVI adapter???

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10419&cs_id=1041903&p_id=2397&seq=1&format=2

Only works if he has a DVI-A or DVI-I connection on his plasma TV or a DVI-A -> HDMI converter. Computer monitors "usually" use a DVI-I connection (however Dell is notorious for cost cutting the extra few bucks and uses DVI-D). The difference you ask are 4 pins around the flat "tab" pin on the one side of the connector. Those are the analog video pins. A VGA->DVI connector simply takes the important RGB from the VGA side and maps those pins to those 4 on the DVI connection. If your TV does not have a DVI connector which has those 4 pins available, then this will not work.

 

[drew726]

If your laptop uses Radeon xpress 200M than VGA to Component will not work. You'll just have to hope that there's a dvi-I or dvi-A connection on your TV. No point in buying the VGA to HDMI converter when a WDTV can be had for 100 bucks.

 

[kalrith]

Streaming through XBox is the best option. The next best would be VGA to component, but even if that works the result won't be satisfactory, I'm afraid. Plasma just doesn't work well with PC's.

False. Please explain to me how an LCD TV would work better with a PC than a plasma for watching videos. My 50" plasma works GREAT with my HTPC. 80% of the content I watch on the TV is from the PC. I will say that some people prefer viewing white-background documents and web pages on an LCD TV than a plasma TV (I'm not one of them), but since this thread is about viewing videos and not viewing documents, then that point is moot.

Pretty much all TVs limit the VGA to a lower resolution than native, so that's not a good option. VGA to component will likely look bad as well. The only way to make it look good is to somehow feed a signal to the TV and have the TV in PC mode, which is dot-for-dot mode. The only way to do this on the vast majority of TVs (and definitely not just plasmas) is to connect it via DVI or HDMI.

Since you can't do that with your laptop, then as already mentioned, streaming the the XBOX is the best option.

 

[drew726]

People don't like using large tv's as PC monitors simply because they don't sit close enough to it, but still, we're staring into a giant light bulb...can't be good for eyes

 

[RobsTV]

People don't like using large tv's as PC monitors simply because they don't sit close enough to it, but still, we're staring into a giant light bulb...can't be good for eyes

Size Vs distance.

My 17" laptop that sits 2ft away has the exact same size to my eyes as my 50" plasma that is 10' away. With laptop at 1440x900 and plasma at 1366x768, even all text, icons and graphics look the same size. Visual quality is much better though on the plasma at 10ft than it is on the laptops 17" LCD 2ft away. Ask me, and the large TV is a far better choice as a PC monitor than being close to a laptop screen. And original poster has a laptop, so...

Also to other poster. Plasma's work great with laptops and PC's. It is all I use for 100% of my TV viewing (DVB-S HDTV sat card in HTPC). If given a choice, Plasma is the choice to make when highest quality image is desired.

It looks like the original poster is SOL. Your only options are USB to DVI convertor or a VGA scan convertor. I would not waste money on either and I use a scan convertor everyday to feed composite video to the rest of my home.

When buying stuff, some people skimp on things to save a couple bucks. This is what happens when you skimp on both ends. TV does not have the normal input jacks and laptop does not have the normal output jacks. (normal, as in most units include these normally). If either unit had the right parts, you could get by, but not now with both missing things.

 

[djnsmith7]

Streaming through XBox is the best option. The next best would be VGA to component, but even if that works the result won't be satisfactory, I'm afraid. Plasma just doesn't work well with PC's.

I disagree with this in a major way. My 5850 & 58" plasma work very well together through VGA @ 1080p.

 

[kalrith]

I disagree with this in a major way. My 5850 & 58" plasma work very well together through VGA @ 1080p.

That's great for you, but are you using a VGA-to-component adapter? The OP's TV doesn't have a VGA input, and it's very likely that a VGA-to-component adapter is going to be less than optimal.

 

[djnsmith7]

I was disagreeing with Lopri on a general level regarding PC's not working well with plasmas. No, I'm not using an adapter because I don't need one. In terms of the OP's situation, he's in a bad spot. He doesn't have either of the connectors he needs to produce a high quality image, such as VGA or HDMI. I don't have a proposed solution to fix the OP's current problem.

 

[kalrith]

I was disagreeing with Lopri on a general level regarding PC's not working well with plasmas. No, I'm not using an adapter because I don't need one. In terms of the OP's situation, he's in a bad spot. He doesn't have either of the connectors he needs to produce a high quality image, such as VGA or HDMI. I don't have a proposed solution to fix the OP's current problem.

Oh, nevermind. I should've realized that. I totally disagree with Lopri's statement as well.

 

[octopus41092]

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.as...ingid=44807698

 

[blanketyblank]

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.as...ingid=44807698

I'm pretty sure that will NOT work. For that to work the video card would have to do some kind of conversion, and the guy who bought it and gave it a 1 star review said it wasn't active and didn't work for him.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

OP: You could look into one of the cheap set top boxes like the WDTV. They've come out with lower end models under $50 I believe.

 

[simonizor]

VGA->DVI with converter and then DVI to HDMI with DVI to HDMI cable. No second converter required just a cable with a DVI on one end and HDMI on the other.
:EDIT:
You could also try this if a VGA to DVI converter won't work.
http://www.buy.com/prod/kensington-...ter-black/q/loc/101/212199084.html?adid=17654