VGA to HDMI over the counter

[OlDog 10]

I can pick this up on ebay for a couple of quid -

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/130884268563?hlpht=true&ops=true&viphx=1&limghlpsr=true&lpid=101&device=c&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=101

 

- but could do with something in the next 24hours and dont really want to pay a small fortune for next day delivery if it can be avoided. Does anyone know anywhere in Sheffield that stocks this at a reasonable price i.e. not the 20 quid currys, maplins etc are likely to charge?

[altus 538]

I can pick this up on ebay for a couple of quid -

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/130884268563?hlpht=true&ops=true&viphx=1&limghlpsr=true&lpid=101&device=c&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=101

 

- but could do with something in the next 24hours and dont really want to pay a small fortune for next day delivery if it can be avoided. Does anyone know anywhere in Sheffield that stocks this at a reasonable price i.e. not the 20 quid currys, maplins etc are likely to charge?

 

Will a passive cable, which all the cheap ones like the one you linked to are, do what you want? From here:

HDMI can only be used with older analog-only devices (using connections such as SCART, VGA, RCA, etc.) by means of a digital-to-analog converter or AV receiver, as the interface does not carry any analog signals (unlike DVI, where devices with DVI-I ports accept or provide either digital or analog signals). Cables are available that contain the necessary electronics, but it is important to distinguish these active converter cables from passive HDMI to VGA cables (which are typically cheaper as they don't include any electronics). The passive cables are only useful if you have a device that is generating or expecting HDMI signals on a VGA connector, or VGA signals on an HDMI connector; this is a non-standard feature, not supported by most devices.

 

There's no point in buying something that isn't going to work.

[OlDog 10]

Thanks for that you are spot on and I didn't realise, I'm not the techiest person in the world

 

I'm not bothered about the HD to be honest it's only for a short term fix so VGA to scart or AV would probably be mores sensible. Thanks again

[speleo1 10]

bardwells

 

http://goo.gl/maps/32TDD

 

Address: 288 Abbeydale Rd, Sheffield, South Yorkshire S7 1FL

Phone:0114 255 2886

Hours:

 

Monday 9:30 am – 5:00 p

[anywebsite 10]

You're going to need to pay 20 or £30 minimum, online price, for a converter that works to convert VGA into anything else. Converting VGA into a different type of analogue signal is probably more costly than converting it to HDMI. DVI to HDMI will work with a cheap passive cable, but vga -> dvi -> hdmi or vga -> hdmi wont unless your device is outputting digital signals on it's vga connector - which is non-standard.

 

You might be lucky & have some non-standard features on your equipment that allow you to use a cheap weird cable that shouldn't work, but you should check before buying.

Edited November 25, 2013 by anywebsite

[altus 538]

Thanks for that you are spot on and I didn't realise, I'm not the techiest person in the world

 

I'm not bothered about the HD to be honest it's only for a short term fix so VGA to scart or AV would probably be mores sensible. Thanks again

 

You're welcome. I suspect most of those passive cables are sold to people who don't realise they need an active cable - understandable, after all why would anyone pay 10 times as much for something that, at first glance, appears to do the same thing. If it's only a short term thing, sticking to something like scart makes sense.

[geared 303]

They are generally just made to con people out of abit of money.

 

HDMI signal on a VGA connector isn't just 'non-standard' is practically non-existant, it'd require the active converter to be built-in to the piece of kit - you might get some in the professional AV industry but on the consumer market???

[OlDog 10]

Thanks very much everyone! Not only have I learned something I've also saved a few quid and a deal of frustration had I had ordered this...

[anywebsite 10]

You'd need something more like this: http://www.maplin.co.uk/vga-to-hdmi-convertor-with-audio-support-388962 No doubt you can find it for half the price elsewhere, but it's more than just a simple cable, you need a powered box to do the conversion.

 

Many TVs have VGA input or newer PCs have HDMI and/or DVI output, if you're trying to connect a PC to a TV. If you don't have either of those then it's probably not worth the expense and/or frustration. If it's a desktop PC then you could buy a graphics card with HDMI.

 

HDMI is a common feature on PCs & graphics cards made in the last 2 or 3 years, DVI was fairly common for a few years before that & can easily be converted to HDMI (without audio). A new PC might be your best option, if you were thinking about buying one anyway, just make sure it has HDMI. You could get a Raspberry Pi or an Android HDMI dongle for the price of a video converter box, maybe that's a better solution.

 

There are non-standard vga to scart cables that possibly work on some (ati) graphics cards if you manually set them to non-standard low resolution interlaced modes, but it'd be a huge pain to set up & the picture quality would be really poor on a modern tv even if you could get it to work.

Edited November 25, 2013 by anywebsite