Hey all,

So I'm getting this new laptop for the holidays from ibuypower,

Battalion 101 CZ-9 Ultra 15.4" WXGA 1280x800 Widescreen LCD TFT Notebook
Intel® Montevina Core 2 Duo Mobile P9500 Dual-Core Processor (2x 2.53GHz/6MB Cache/1066FSB)
4 GB(2 GB X2) DDR2-800 PC6400
Mobility 512MB NVIDIA GeForce GO 9600M GT PCI-Express 3D Video
200 GB 7200rpm Serial-ATA-150

nothing super top end but a huge upgrade for me none the less, so here's my current issue/only concern

my last laptop had svideo out which I used an svideo to RCA composite cable as well as stereo->RCA composite cable for when I dragged it out to my friends houses to watch movies on (must of saved me a few hundo in blank dvdrs alone to be honest).

Now with my new one, it only has VGA out, and after a bit of research I've been able to find they make vga->component cables, so now while I won't be able to output to old tv's like I used to, at least I have some form of video output.

I'm aware VGA supports even higher then HD resolutions, but everything I seem to read points me to people opting for DVI and HDMI solutions to output from their laptop (which I don't have the option of) for maximum image quality. Now my current HDTV (sharp aquos 52") supports component fine (thats how I have my xbox 360 hooked up at the moment) even at a full 1080p (the set does *not* have a vga port).

My main question to the gallery is ... what kind of image quality should I expect from a vga->component cable when the laptop is set to output to that screen at 1080p and will the cables have enough bandwidth to be able to play/output a full 1080p (i can settle for 720p if that's what i'm stuck with) to hdtv sets? (i'm aware some hdtv's only support up to 1080i on component, this tv does support 1080p on it though).

Everything I've googled seems to have conflicting statements or people lobbying for one or another standard as the best for their solution and I'm just trying to find real world examples where this setup has worked/hasn't worked, to know if I should even bother. My main concern is basically being able to play movies without them looking shitty or sub-par if I can help it, secondly gaming would be real nice if I could achieve it, thanks for anyone's input as I'm totally lost ;p

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VGA (RGB) and Component (YPbPr) are entirely different color formats and signals. The only way to PROPERLY do it requires a transcoder box which costs a decent amount of money (for a non-shitty one). Theres tons of ways to push it through with adaptors, cords, mini boxes but in the end you end up with terrible picture quality and a light(er) wallet.

The above is true when switching from signal to signal. On a computer it might be different as some cards can output 720p/1080i over the VGA port and send the proper signals. So an adaptor might be all you need. DO some googling on your specific video card and see what success other people have had. Im not 100% sure what I said is true but I seem to remember nVidia adding HD resolutions over their VGA/"svideo" ports on certain cards. I quote svideo because some use a 7 or 9 pin rather than a standard 4pin which allows a dongle to route component signals.

Last edited by Bakkoda on 12-24-2008 at 09:23 PM

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can you use a vga to dvi adapter,and run a dvi cord from there? http://www.cablestogo.com/product.a...=2811&sku=26956

danimal39 has attached this image:

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thanks for the replies, got it today, good luck on my part ... it has hdmi out! (made no mention of it on the page when i ordered it) so I'm happy now, makes things real simple.

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