Connect laptop to Hitachi plasma

[moonwhistle]

This has me rather baffled. I'm trying to connect a laptop that only has VGA out (no hdmi or DVI) to a Hitachi plasma tv. The TV only has scart, hdmi and s video in, no VGA.

I used to connect my old desktop pc to it using a DVI to Hdmi cable.

As far as I can gather my only options are a VGA to HDMI convertor box or a VGA to RGB scart cable if such a thing exists.

Has anyone had a similar problem?

I'm just looking for a simple and inexpensive solution, I'm not too fussed about picture quality.

Thanks.

[speedlolita]

Something like VGA to S-Video will be cheapest I believe.

[abigsmurf]

really unusual for TV not to have VGA in

[Lyris]

If the laptop ONLY has VGA output, you need one of these. Coincidentally, it's also going to give the best quality.

http://www.tvcables.co.uk/cgi-bin/tvcables/vga-to-hdmi-converter.html

What model # is the TV? There may be resolution problems if it's one of the older ones which uses stranger resolutions (1024 x 768 wide pixels for example).

[moonwhistle]

The TV is a Hitachi P42T01U. It's not full HD as far as I remember so probably has an odd native resolution.

It definately doesn't have VGA in.

Would a VGA to component cable work? These can be bought for pennies on Ebay.

The VGA to HDMI converter box on the other hand is very expensive so unless it would give a vastly superior picture I don't see the point.

[Lyris]

VGA to Component will work if the graphics card/chip can specifically output Component video (Y/Pb/Pr) out of the VGA socket. It probably can't, so will be outputting R/G/B/H/V instead, which is very different. To get that into the TV, the more expensive converter is needed.

Just checked and the resolution is 1024x1080. That's another potential hurdle and is probably why the TV doesn't have any explicit PC capabilities.

[moonwhistle]

VGA to Component will work if the graphics card/chip can specifically output Component video (Y/Pb/Pr) out of the VGA socket. It probably can't, so will be outputting R/G/B/H/V instead, which is very different. To get that into the TV, the more expensive converter is needed.

Just checked and the resolution is 1024x1080. That's another potential hurdle and is probably why the TV doesn't have any explicit PC capabilities.

The TV displayed fine using my old desktop outputting DVI to HDMI.

Thanks for your help so far. So, do you think I should just get the VGA to HDMI converter box? It would kill 2 birds with one stone as I coukd also use it on my 32 proper HD LCD which has VGA in, but using HDMI might be better for that too?

[Lyris]

The rule is always to avoid conversion boxes and such. If your other TV has a direct VGA input, go with that.

What do you want to do with the PC anyway, watch videos or play games? It might be better just to buy some sort of media player...

[moonwhistle]

I want to use the plasma for watching films while I house sit.