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Sony Vaio FW HDMI to RCA/Composite Television

TiniTini SlippyPARegistered User regular
edited January 2010 in Help / Advice Forum
So I recently purchased a Sony Vaio FW model. It has an HDMI and VGA output. What I'm interested in doing is connecting my laptop to my television through the rca auxiliary ports in the front of the tv.

Can this be accomplished? If so, what do I need? Thank you.

Do a barrel roll.
Tini on

Posts

  • PirateJonPirateJon Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    VGA-to-RCA adapters are like $30.

    PirateJon on
    all perfectionists are mediocre in their own eyes
  • TiniTini Slippy PARegistered User regular
    edited January 2010
    I ran into some problems when researching on the net how to do this. A lot of people report that they use the cables and that only fuzz appears on their televisions. Something to do with the laptop not being tv out compatible unless its straight hdmi to hdmi or vga to vga.

    Tini on
    Do a barrel roll.
  • TiniTini Slippy PARegistered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Is this the cord you're talking about?
    c040.jpg

    Tini on
    Do a barrel roll.
  • SpamSpam Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    That cable is for a Video Card that has the TV-out pass-through through the VGA port - not many support that - check see if your laptop does.

    To convert a VGA signal to Composite, you normally need a dedicated converter unit like this.

    Don't bother looking for a HDMI to Composite adaptor - they are available, but they are extremely expensive ($150+)

    Spam on
  • halkunhalkun Registered User regular
    edited January 2010
    You will not be able to see anything on your TV screen going from VGA to composite.

    Computer output breakdown -
    HDMI and DVI-D are digital out only. There is no analog signal whatsoever coming out of them and are completely incompatible with a TV analog input.

    VGA is an analog signal split into Red/Green/Blue/HSYNC/VSYNC which is also completely incompatible with analog TV input

    RCA/Composite is an analog "mix" of sync data with colorburst data multiplexed in. Computers don't generate this kind of signal without a modulator.

    Now for the very bad news...

    With a TV, on every line, the electron guns "smear" color across the screen, it's an analog signal based on voltage levels, not on digital ones and zeros. This means there is no concept of "horizontal resolution" for a TV, in fact there is no color separation at all. This means you are limited by the fidelity of the TV set which is quite low...

    Rule of thumb is the "resolution" of a standard analog TV set is about 500x375. (Minus the Hsync bars)

    to give you an idea of what resolution that is, here is my desktop sized to that resolution
    92219923.png

    Here is what it looks like at full size on a TV screen.
    tv2.png

    Good luck with that :)

    halkun on
  • TiniTini Slippy PARegistered User regular
    edited January 2010
    Thanks a lot. I get a product and some knowledge. thanks again.

    Tini on
    Do a barrel roll.
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Penny Arcade Forums› Help / Advice Forum