weewaa Posted May 28, 2008 Posted May 28, 2008 Hi guys, i just have a question about my new setup i am getting a pana 42" plasma. probably the 42PX8A it has 2x HDMI 2x component 2x s-video and a vga input. i am wanting to connect it up to a spare laptop i have - hp nx7010 which only has vga and s-video out. THis laptop will be networked to my htpc. what would be the best option for me? VGA or S-Video? if it is better, i might be able to invest in either a better pc, or some other device (like popcorn hour) which only needs to access network. all this really laptop needs to do is access my htpc for the recodrings there. Are there better things to use than a laptop? please advise. Much appreciated g
mtv Posted May 28, 2008 Posted May 28, 2008 what would be the best option for me? VGA or S-Video? Absolutely no contest.... VGA is a clear winner.
weewaa Posted May 28, 2008 Author Posted May 28, 2008 Absolutely no contest.... VGA is a clear winner. ok no worries how good is vga? will it give a clear pic? Is it good enough, or should i look at something else? thanks
mtv Posted May 29, 2008 Posted May 29, 2008 It will just depend on how the screen deals with VGA, as it's not designed as a computer monitor. There are several people on this forum who have had great success. By all means, try both s-video and VGA, but I have no doubt that you will stay with VGA.
jakes Posted May 29, 2008 Posted May 29, 2008 (edited) ok no worrieshow good is vga? will it give a clear pic? Is it good enough, or should i look at something else? thanks VGA will give you an excellent picture. It's definitely good enough. Try it and see if you're happy with the results, since the only other option is to spend significantly more to get a new pc or media player with DVI/HDMI out and I would suggest that you'd be hard pressed to see the difference between VGA and HDMI anyway. The only reason you might want to get a new pc or media player like the popcorn hour is if the laptop you're planning on using is a but old and it doesn't have the grunt to play back hi def material. If you're not watching things like 720p or 1080p h264 videos, though, you may not need to upgrade at all. Edited May 29, 2008 by jakes
weewaa Posted May 29, 2008 Author Posted May 29, 2008 VGA will give you an excellent picture. It's definitely good enough. Try it and see if you're happy with the results, since the only other option is to spend significantly more to get a new pc or media player with DVI/HDMI out and I would suggest that you'd be hard pressed to see the difference between VGA and HDMI anyway. The only reason you might want to get a new pc or media player like the popcorn hour is if the laptop you're planning on using is a but old and it doesn't have the grunt to play back hi def material. If you're not watching things like 720p or 1080p h264 videos, though, you may not need to upgrade at all. ok great, thanks that is what i wanted to know. i am happy to save the money. thanks
Colin 2905 Posted May 29, 2008 Posted May 29, 2008 That panel, like my '7A, has 1024x768 (rectangular) pixels, so depending on what you're displaying, and the notebook's capabilities, you may need to fiddle and hack to get the aspect ratio right.
weewaa Posted May 29, 2008 Author Posted May 29, 2008 That panel, like my '7A, has 1024x768 (rectangular) pixels, so depending on what you're displaying, and the notebook's capabilities, you may need to fiddle and hack to get the aspect ratio right. ok, sounds right. is that just mucking around with display properties?
Colin 2905 Posted May 29, 2008 Posted May 29, 2008 is that just mucking around with display properties? What's the notebook's display adapter capable of?
weewaa Posted May 29, 2008 Author Posted May 29, 2008 What's the notebook's display adapter capable of? 1680 by 1050 pixels i can also get it to be 1024 by 768, which is what the tv is does this help?
Colin 2905 Posted May 29, 2008 Posted May 29, 2008 1680 by 1050 pixels Not supported by the TV (according to page 44 of the online manual). i can also get it to be 1024 by 768, which is what the tv isdoes this help? It'll look nice and crisp in 16:9 mode (1:1 pixel mapping), but the aspect ratio will be wrong. For text, it usually doesn't matter. For video, you might be able to get your software player to over-ride the aspect ratio, so that two wrongs make a right, so to speak. The '8A (and '7A) will also accept 1366x768, according to the manual. I've never tried it myself (the old PC that I have connected to my '7A can't do it), so I don't know how it'd look. Crappy for text, but probably OK otherwise, would be my guess. If the video card in your notebook allows custom resolutions to be created (for output on its VGA port), you could always give it a try. Or maybe there's a video driver available that can do the necessary compensation, depending on the card of course. There's already a few threads on the subject. Have a read of those, perhaps.
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