Out Vga

Can you run a VGA out to a HDTV?

I want to hook my IBM Thinkpad T42 to my HDTV, but all the Thinkpad has is a VGA out. If I brought cables to connect the VGA to the HDMI on my TV would it display a picture? I thank you for the help.

No, sorry. The VGA out provides analog signals. The HDMI input carries only digital. You can't go from one to the other with just cables or adapters.

If your TV doesn't have VGA in, then your best bet would be to get a converter from VGA to component. The technical name for this is a "transcoder", but most people just call it a "converter." This is in theory a lossless conversion (it's just simple "arithmetic"). There's one shown here for $124 :

http://www.pacificcable.com/More_Pages/VGA_Component_Converters/VGA-Component-Transcoder.html

Or, for about the same price, here is a converter that goes from VGA (or component) to DVI. You can then get a DVI to HDMI cable (HDMI is the same signal as single-link DVI, just different connectors)
.

http://www.digitalconnection.com/Products/Video/dcp261.ASP

I would rather convert to VGA component, though, as the transcoder is very easy to get right - it's just a few op-amps and the signal stays in the analog domain. The VGA to DVI converter is not so easy to get right: it needs very high speed analog to digital converters. Your TV already has a set of those; why buy another set?

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