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VGA to HDMI possible?

Discussion in 'Home Theater PC' started by xalaros, Feb 28, 2006.

  1. taltamir

    taltamir Guest

    Use a DVI (white plug) to VGA (blue plug) adapter (~10$ online) and connect your DVI video card to your VGA port on the TV. Alternatively, a Geforce 8 card like yours has the HDTV out, a cable to connect it to component (green, red,blue cables) should have came with your video card.
     
  2. lakerdude

    lakerdude Member

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    Hi,
    I have a 1st Generation Mits HDTV. The ONLY way it can receive a HDTV Signal is thru the RGB Connection on the back of the TV. (Actually, I had to buy a VGA Cable with BNC Connectors on one end, that are RGBHV to get my HD Signal) Id like to upgrade to Direct's new HD Receiver, but it only has HDMI, or Component HD access. So I need to go from VGA to HDMI imput to the TV. Will this Startech VGA to Hdmi do the job? Thanks for any help...
     
  3. durks

    durks Member

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    Arghhhh,,,
    Still no luck in finding a way to go from the HDMI output on my cable box to my supposedly HDTV compatible TV that only has VGA, component and scart.
    Can anyone help and recommend something that doesnt cost mega bucks that allow me to connect the HDMI out of the cable box to the VGA of the TV.

    Cheers

    Durx
     
  4. ipmark

    ipmark Member

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    I've been ripping my hair out trying to solve this too. Here's my prob:

    I'm trying to put together an HTPC. I have a panasonic lcd projection tv with a native 720p resolution that will accept vga, but only standard vga resolutions. The closest vga resolution is XGA which is 1280x768 and the tv compensates by compressing everything vertically. I can still see everything, but its not sharp like a real 720p output should be.

    Unfortunately I picked up an HP s7600n for a great price but it only has VGA out and its so small that it only has 1 pci slot and a 108watt power supply so adding a video card is out of the question.

    This chipset is supposed to support component out, but it must be disabled or something on this motherboard because I tried plugging directly into the tv with a vga-to-component cable and the picture is purple and skewed.

    I'm pretty much ready to throw money at the problem at this point, I've wasted the better part of a week researching this. Does anyone know or has anyone tried the converters that are available? I'm leaning towards the Startech vga-with-sound to hdmi converter box, but I'm wary of jumping in if I can't get confirmation that I'm going to get perfectly crisp everything if I output at my tv's native 720p resolution.
     
  5. durks

    durks Member

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    Ipmark,

    I'm leaning towards the same ting from Startek, but i am unable to get a definitive price.

    just mail them again for a cost,, lets see if they reply this time.

    Keep posted on how it goes.
     
  6. ipmark

    ipmark Member

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    I just won one on ebay for $101. I'll post again when I receive it.
    Cheers!
     
  7. taltamir

    taltamir Guest

    On your HTPC, in windows, go to your driver menu, and set it to not scale your display (So that it will leave black bars on the top and bottom).

    Actually, what you should do is just set your computer to output XGA instead of 720p. And then you have an XGA desktop, with the movies that you play having a black bar.
     
  8. ipmark

    ipmark Member

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    Well, not sure what you mean by scale my display, I don't have a monitor hooked up to the HTPC at all... but the problem is on the TV side anyway. I currently have my screen set and outputting at XGA, but thats not my tv's native resolution (its native resolution is 720p, yet won't accept vga input at 720p) so it accepts the XGA then resamples it vertically into 720p which is where you get the slight blurriness and ratio distortion.

    I should be back home in a couple days and able to try out the converter box.
     
  9. taltamir

    taltamir Guest

    Go to wikipedia and read what a driver is. Then find yours, and change the display scalaing.

    The problem is probably with it. Not with the TV, or the monitor, or whatever it is.
     
  10. taltamir

    taltamir Guest

    you know what, now that you explained it more concisely... if your TV takes 720p then dont SEND it an XGA signal, doing so is silly.

    Your computer is perfectly capable of using 720p resultion. Make sure you have the latest drivers, and then select the resultion 1280x720.
    DO NOT select the resultion 1280x764. That would cause the problems and is completely pointless.
     
  11. ipmark

    ipmark Member

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    No, you're not listening. My computer can output 720P, or XGA or 20 other resolution combinations.

    My TV will not accept resolutions from its vga port other than "standard" computer resolutions. IE VGA, SVGA, XVGA. It will not accept its own native resolution from the VGA port at all. At the closest resolution that it does accept, XGA, the tv compresses it slightly to fit on a 720p screen.

    If I send a 720p signal through the VGA port (Which is not a standard computer monitor resolution), the picture is broken, skips all over the screen and is unusable.

    That is the problem and why I need to convert it to hdmi or component, its only the vga port that has this restriction.
     
  12. taltamir

    taltamir Guest

    AH!...

    Actually thats EXACTLY what I saw with a sceptre 22inch mon I bought from costco... I returned it to the store immidiatly.
    My parents Sony Wega also has problems accepting its correct resolution from a computer...

    Sorry, your TV just sucks. :(

    But now that I think about it... Try every single input mode, one of them MIGHT work... my parent's wega simply is no good with computers... but the sceptre DID work in VGA (despite being crap in DVI)
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 7, 2007
  13. ipmark

    ipmark Member

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    Yea, I know my TV sucks :) in hindsight, I should have gone with something else... but I just finished paying it off and I don't have any plans to drop 2k for another one.

    Anyway, you're right, I've been trying other resolutions and I have found others that work... but a lot of them have a habit of staying on, the flipping off for a second then staying on for a while.

    And since its an RPTV I have more issues with getting the projection to focus just right. More tweaking.

    Back to my original post, the VGA to HDMI thing didn't work at all. I don't know if it needs a very specific resolution fed to it, but a standard 720p feed just gives a black screen.
     
  14. ipmark

    ipmark Member

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    Success!

    The Startek box worked. I was almost ready to just accept the input from my TV's vga port with the slight blurriness, but it's night and day when I found the sweet spot with my HDMI settings and it all popped into focus. Its razor sharp now.

    Anyway, don't listen to the PR that comes with the VGA to HDMI box... its not really all that plug n' play UNLESS your TV supports it. I had to use powerstrip to find a set of specific timings that worked. Of the 6 or so 1280x720 resolutions available, only one worked and didn't produce a black screen. IE when I say specific, a refresh rate of 59.99 didn't work, but 60.047 did work and above that it didn't work again.

    Unfortunately, I still have some overscan, but its bearable. Its about 1/2 the height of the taskbar at the bottom and about the full height of the title bar/status bar thing at the top. Sides are about the same.
     
  15. durks

    durks Member

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    Great news Ipmark,

    so just to recap;

    did you go from HDMI out to the startek to VGA?

    as thats what i want to do, only not froma pc, but from a cable box.

    phil
     
  16. ipmark

    ipmark Member

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    Oops sorry, I should have been more specific. I'm going from VGA out to HDMI in. Not the other way around.

    I think its more straightforward to go the other way around though, since computer monitors are a lot more forgiving of refresh rates and resolutions.
     
  17. ipmark

    ipmark Member

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    Ugh, sorry I need to read more carefully. You're going from a cable box to a TV. I think you should be ok with the box since they're both using standard TV frequencies. Its more complicated going from computer to TV because the computer and TV use different frequencies, colorspaces etc etc.
     
  18. dampav

    dampav Member

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    I just bought myself a Sony KDL46W2000, which has a full 1080 and, which I was specifically looking for, a VGA input.

    To my disbelief and 2500€ worth of disappointment, the VGA input supports resolutions only up to 1360x768. Why is it impossible to support the full resolution is beyond my comprehension. My MM PC I have supports 1920x1080 at 60Hz. Adding or replacing the graphics card is not an option, that would mean replacing the whole box (Aopen xCube).

    I am now researching alternative ways to get 1920x1080 from my PC. Support for VGA input was apparently sand in my eyes. Will a VGA to HDMI converter get me the full resolution? Anyone actually tried this before?
     
  19. ipmark

    ipmark Member

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    You should be able to convert your output to whatever your tv's native resolution is for the hdmi port. For me, it was 720p. You'll definitely have to use powerstrip, but once you set it up its pretty easy.
     
  20. taltamir

    taltamir Guest

    sony is a peice of shit. Get something better. You MIGHT Still be able to return it and get something better...

    Both my parent's sony's (different models and sizes) have overscan issues and horrible problems with PC input... (one of them has a VGA but it doesn't help)
     

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