I got the idea yesterday of creating a home media center, backing up our DVDs to a 250GB external HD I have in the basement collecting dust and planned on using my laptop as the controlling “brain” of the whole thing. Since I’m running Vista Ultimate, WMC (Windows Media Center) is already built in. The only caveat in my plan is that my laptop only has VGA output.
I went to Radio Shack and bought a VGA to DVI-A adapter and a DVI to HDMI cable (as well as a 1/8” to audio L-R cable). Of course, it doesn’t work because I’m trying to convert an analog signal (that’s what the “A” in DVI-A stands for) to a digital signal. Converter boxes exist, but they’re expensive and I really don’t want to spend a lot of money on what is basically just a fun little home project. If I did want to spend money for this, I’d just buy a computer with an HDMI output.
So, my next step is to return the cable and adapter to RadioShack and pick up a VGA to Component cable. This is much cheaper and should do the trick. Component cables can carry up to 1080p resolution, so the only limiting factor will be the video output capabilities of the laptop. It supports 1280×800 resolution, so I think I should be able to get at least 720i out of it (as opposed to 480i for a standard DVD player). We do have an upscaling DVD player that upscales to 1080i, so if I really wanted the best picture, that remains the way to go.
Posted by patgallant 