Making VGA to TV adapters...

[GOTHCLAWZ]

I've been interested in making some of these myself, I've seen a few examples of already existing projects, but how can I make a converter for the VGA on my laptop to a video lead? not VGA to SCART as such, just VGA to that yellow video lead. I already have a lead that converts the computer speaker output to L & R on the TV.

 

Here's a picture of the VGA socket on my laptop & the video lead I'm talking about:

-IMAGE DELETED, at bottom of the page...

 

I've seen this pretty helpful tutorial as I'm hoping to play my video games on a monitor (monitors are cheaper than TVs) but it was in German.

 

So basically, I want to change this:

 

Into this:

Edited May 15, 2009 by GOTHCLAWZ

[+batari]

Converting VGA to TV is not trivial. The basic issue is that the horizontal frequencies of VGA are many times faster than that of TV, so it's not going to happen with a handful of passive components that you can place on a PC board. I'd just buy an adapter - they aren't too hard to find.

 

The only adapter I've seen that is even remotely practical to build yourself is one that requires a VGA card that is capable of outputting 640x480 interlaced video. Most VGA drivers will not output less than 640x480 non-interlaced, which is around 30 kHz, while 640x480i requires around 15.

 

Well, I should throw in a disclaimer. If using Linux, with many cards you can use Xfree86 to display frequencies this low. Or DOS, there is a TSR driver available that hijacks INT 10 to trick your card into outputting 640x480i. However, I see you're using Windows, so this doesn't apply to you.

Edited May 16, 2009 by batari

[Rybags]

I think "VGA to SCART" adaptor is the more correct term here.

 

And even then, your TV needs to be able to receive the pure RGB. Just because something has a SCART port, doesn't mean it includes all of the possible features that it can offer.

[+batari]

I think "VGA to SCART" adaptor is the more correct term here.

 

And even then, your TV needs to be able to receive the pure RGB. Just because something has a SCART port, doesn't mean it includes all of the possible features that it can offer.

He wanted to convert VGA to NTSC composite video. The VGA to SCART was something he found that he hoped was similar - it's not.

[GOTHCLAWZ]

I think "VGA to SCART" adaptor is the more correct term here.

 

And even then, your TV needs to be able to receive the pure RGB. Just because something has a SCART port, doesn't mean it includes all of the possible features that it can offer.

He wanted to convert VGA to NTSC composite video. The VGA to SCART was something he found that he hoped was similar - it's not.

 

That's right.

 

Because I have a lead that can plug into my computer & then connect to both the Left & Right audio ports on a scart lead, all I need to add to that is a yellow, video lead from my monitor output.

 

How could I achieve a 1280×800 resolution on the TV?

[+poobah]

Should be trivial to it with an NTSC encoder IC.

[GOTHCLAWZ]

Should be trivial to it with an NTSC encoder IC.

 

Where do I get that, my good sir?

[keilbaca]

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15524

 

They make them already, and I really don't know if it would be worth the hassle to save a few bucks on parts.

 

That's just me though. I like tackling things, but eh, this might be one of those where its best to just buy them.

Edited May 16, 2009 by keilbaca

[GOTHCLAWZ]

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15524

 

They make them already, and I really don't know if it would be worth the hassle to save a few bucks on parts.

 

That's just me though. I like tackling things, but eh, this might be one of those where its best to just buy them.

 

That's a lot of useful & expensive shit there, but I just need a VGA to single video lead... I'll ask around for how it could be made.

[Wickeycolumbus]

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15524

 

They make them already, and I really don't know if it would be worth the hassle to save a few bucks on parts.

 

That's just me though. I like tackling things, but eh, this might be one of those where its best to just buy them.

 

That's a lot of useful & expensive shit there, but I just need a VGA to single video lead... I'll ask around for how it could be made.

 

It is not just a wire, there are ICs involved in converting the signal. That seems like a fair price to me.

[GOTHCLAWZ]

It is not just a wire, there are ICs involved in converting the signal. That seems like a fair price to me.

 

True, but I'd rather the resolution to be that of my laptop's.

1280×800

[CPUWIZ]

It is not just a wire, there are ICs involved in converting the signal. That seems like a fair price to me.

 

True, but I'd rather the resolution to be that of my laptop's.

1280×800

 

Buy a modern TV then.

[+batari]

Should be trivial to it with an NTSC encoder IC.

Only if your video card is capable of outputting a horizontal frequency that a TV can display. As I discussed above, that can usually only be done in Linux or DOS.

 

The OP apparently wants to convert 1280x800 to TV. The VGA card, at 1280x800, would be sending pixels about 7 times faster than the TV needed them. An encoder IC can't fix that problem.

[GOTHCLAWZ]

It is not just a wire, there are ICs involved in converting the signal. That seems like a fair price to me.

 

True, but I'd rather the resolution to be that of my laptop's.

1280×800

 

Buy a modern TV then.

 

Is there such a TV that can use Aerial, SCART & VGA?

[CPUWIZ]

Is there such a TV that can use Aerial, SCART & VGA?

 

Both LCD TV's I have, can use VGA, component video, composite, HDMI and S-Video and both can handle resolutions up to 1920 x 1080. SCART is not used in the U.S. at all.

 

Here you can probably find a decent LCD TV that does 1280 x 720 for $300, dunno about the UK.

[deathtrappomegranate]

Is there such a TV that can use Aerial, SCART & VGA?

Yes, most modern LCD TVs sold in the UK.

Here you can probably find a decent LCD TV that does 1280 x 720 for $300, dunno about the UK.

Yes, £200 or so can buy the same kind of gear here, sometimes a little better.

[GOTHCLAWZ]

Hmm... three figures is a little steep as I am still a youth, poor student...

 

Where abouts on Ebay are there idiots that sell there stuff for well under what it's worth?

[+poobah]

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15524

 

They make them already, and I really don't know if it would be worth the hassle to save a few bucks on parts.

 

That's just me though. I like tackling things, but eh, this might be one of those where its best to just buy them.

 

It doesn't get much cheaper than that.

[awace]

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.15524

 

They make them already, and I really don't know if it would be worth the hassle to save a few bucks on parts.

 

That's just me though. I like tackling things, but eh, this might be one of those where its best to just buy them.

 

It doesn't get much cheaper than that.

I would just get one of these I already have one!!! they say they only go 1024x768 but thats a LIE they actually go 2048x1536 any hz on the TV they send the tv a 53Hz signal but work in dos windows and any mode sometimes it takes a couple of seconds for it to adjust to mode but it works I always use the usb to power it! now you probably couldnt read more than 800x600 or 1152x864 on youre tv anyway and of course 640x480 works great I paid like $79 for mine wanting to make a mame cabinet out of a arcade space invaders cabinet but then deciding to rip the color tv out and put the space invaders cocktail cabinet back to gether and restore it to original now i still have the scanbox for somereason the external ones work better than the internal ones! SO I SUGGEST not getting the internal ones but this exact one! I use it to play unreal tournament(torment) on my tv I put windows in 1152x864 and it works great you donot need any software for this one

and the price was decent here is a amazon link

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00...p;condition=new

 

so instead of settling for a crappy 640x480 or 1024x768 one that takes a irq or trying to make one just get one of these they also can hook to the keyboard input but i strongly suggest using the usb one I already stepped on mine and broke the keybaord connector once on a motherboard but the usb one just flys out and doesnt cause damage.. for the price they are defeinantly worth it only once and a while you will see a kind of split in the screen no more than 1 half a centimeter go up across screen this i think is the box catching up w video it only does it once and a while when playing unreal tournament it never locks up though and its a rare occasion also one thing i like to do w it is use it for TV viewing I can push the zoom button on the tvview and then put a tv tuner window in the right corner of windows and zoom the letterbox out of the way! then zoom the tv box and postistion the zoom window so the letterbox is in the overscan area so you cant even see it! this makes the tv look normal size also you can do this with power dvd and make a dvd not keep aspect ratio then make window bigger than tvview window making letterbox look full screen this is where the chop line appeirs it dosent actually lose any information it just skews it to the left 1/8 inch then it goes up the screen and it catches up its still rare and i never notice it in full screen I have had mine for more than 4 years and love it its starting to show signs of ware the cords are not grey but turning brown and are not see threw anymore and one orange wire came off inside the vga connector but seems to be nothing important since it still works.. the only other noticable thing you might not like is when you connect youre computer monitor to it the computer monitor goes a little fuzzy and dimmer but when you remove device it goes back to normal.

also if you do get one remember to note the HZ mode youre computer monitor is in cause mine cant do some of the modes like

640x480 200HZ my computer monitor shuts off but the tv stays on!!! this is because the HZ in the tvview device is always at the 53Hz composite output level and never goes to 200Hz the video card does but this just converts it to composite ALSO IT does have svideo out too!!! SO IF I WAS you i would just pick up one of these devices you will be so mutch happy...

 

 

I have had years of enjoyment with mine and still like it... I hope this helps ..

ps just to let you know it does any mode from dos modes all the way to 2048x1536 I havent found a mode it wont do so i would think it would do that mode youre laptop does probably in more Hz than it can even do mabie even bigger modes!!!.

as my laptop is in 1400x1050 32bit and it does that mode just fine i never tried the mode you use but I bet it would do that mode i see no reason it wouldnt do it.

Edited May 22, 2009 by awace

[+karri]

I've seen this pretty helpful tutorial as I'm hoping to play my video games on a monitor (monitors are cheaper than TVs) but it was in German.

 

Not German - Finnish. It says that this circuit will create RGB output for a SCART connector. It requires positive SYNC signals on the VGA output and you need to carefully adjust the sync frequencies by some external software like PowerStrip.

 

--

Karri

[supercat]

The only adapter I've seen that is even remotely practical to build yourself is one that requires a VGA card that is capable of outputting 640x480 interlaced video. Most VGA drivers will not output less than 640x480 non-interlaced, which is around 30 kHz, while 640x480i requires around 15.o you.

 

The standard VGA scan rate for 640x480 is almost precisely twice the standard NTSC horizontal scan rate. Some of the cheaper VGA-to-NTSC converter boxes from decades back would rely upon this, so they only had to buffer about a scan line of display. Basically, they would output a line, skip a line, output a line, skip a line, etc. If the total number of lines was programmed to 525, the resulting signal would work reasonably well for NTSC.

 

Some VGA cards could be programmed to operate at vaguely-NTSC'ish scan rates using interlacing. I did that with one of ATI's display cards in the early 1990's. That particular application drove an RGB display at NTSC'ish rates, but I would expect a chroma encoder would have allowed use of a composite monitor.

[Ian Primus]

This isn't a simple "adapter" that you are looking for. A VGA monitor signal is fundementally very, very different from a TV signal - and for good reason. If you are looking for a simple, passive components sort of adapter, you CAN actually do it. But... you won't get color, and you need special software to trick the video card into outputting a signal at a low resolution and a low sync frequency that the TV can actually display.

 

There are numerous standalone converter boxes that can do the conversion for you, and give you color, and require no software. But they're pretty expensive, because they are complicated devices.

 

The cheapest solution is to just get yourself a video card that can output composite video. For a few bucks, you can get an older GeForce card with TV-out. They work quite well.

 

But no matter what kind of adapter/video card you have, you're going to be limited to 640x480, or some weird interpolated higher resolution that will come out blurry. A TV set just plain can't display high resolution anything, unless it's HD, in which case, it would already have VGA or HDMI input that you could connect to.

 

-Ian

[awace]

If youre seriuos about converting VGA to Composite OR svideo! http://www.amazon.co...p;condition=new is what you want I would look on ebay I see them

once every once and a while.. this device allows you to even use dos it takes 5 seconds to switch modes but once it does it works great there is only a slight delay

sometimes the picture does this

___________

_____________

but it goes away its so slight you wont notice it once it rolls down the screen otherwise it looks great and can render 2048x1536 on the tv although you wont read more than 1152x864 and mostly 800x600 is better ALSO if you want 1200x800 then it will work w this device just select sony KLW7000 for youre monitor choice and select display modes youre monitor cant display! then force to this monitor choice and what ever choice windows in laptop will produce on its screen native it will show on TV in composite..

I use it on my regular tv mostly its in same mode as computer cause it picks mode from what ever mode youre video card is using you can not adjust mode on device..

I always use 1400x1050 or 1920x1050 I can goto 1920x1080 but my LCD monitor geeks in 1080 and 1050 looks just as good it looks like laptop mode so i assume its the native mode and i have selected 1024x1050 but had to use NVIDIA panel to select custom mode! anyway what ever mode you put to VGA plug this device follows..

if i goto c-mos after 5 seconds it switches and I can actualy go into the c-mos using that device on my tv its the best device I ever had It requires 5v and you can use ps2 keyboard connector or usb connector or you can just use a 5v power pack It makes the computer monitor plugged into its piggy back a little blury when plugged in but if youre watching the tv you wont care its great for UT or mame I even had a laptop and one in my arcade cabinet but decided to make the space invaders sit down cabinet back to original and did so removed the tv and the Zenith box rf mod I had hooked to a tv on ch3 witch worked great I just plug tvview into my vcr now! it is by far the best non hd vga to tv device avalible yet.. if also you can zoom in one spot on computer screen on the TV pushing ZOOM I use it to defeat letterbox I watch movie in small window over by the clock then i adjust window to over scan the letterbox below the clock and then the zoom box only sees the full screen witch is behind the box zoom window therby defeting the letterbox DVD im watching on the computer on the tv the zoom box only sees the full screen part of the DVD cause the letterbox window is bigger than the zoom window also when playing ut i choose some 1280 mode and watch on the tv and its great.. I hope you figure out what youre doing and have a soultion..

if failt you can just get a 22 inch lcd computer monitor like I did . someone gave me one he said it didnt work w hdmi and I said HMM I dont have hdmi ill take it I got it home and it worked great w vga! now its exactly as big as my 20 inch TV now i need a dual head pci card to make tV screen 1 and lcd screen2 GOOD LUCK AND WISH YOU figure out youre configuration. ALSO IF YOU NEED mame32 067.b skip game info skip discalimer I might bealble to find it for you ..

also I have mame 029b for asteroids and all nessesarry DKONG files then there are some other versions of mame for galaga it seems you need a differnt version of mame for every game. I did however use a mame file speed cheat file on my original arcade pacman motherboard and it LOADED AND WORKED!!!!! I was so happy.

[Silntdoogood]

I've got about a dozen CRTs in my basement, I've been looking for a use. Home brew or not, I think I need to look into these adapters. Currently, reconstructing the "Monitor Arch" is winning. (Other angles available via Google Images) I would think since they are keystone shaped, this would be rather stable. If not...well...it solves this clutter problem. Electrical Darwinism. The ones that survive, will become gaming TVs XD