VGA => TV (S-Video or RCA?) cable

[Zambini]

I want to plug my lappy386 (also known as my Sony Vaio Laptop) into a TV so I can play Frets on Fire with a bigger screen.

What should I use? S-Video or RCA or something else?

Should I get something like this

or what?

My laptop has a VGA plug (the female end I believe, its this one)

What's the best for cheapest? Or is there really no comparison between the two?

I think VGA -> RCA would be best because all TV's have an RCA port, but not all have an S-Video, is that correct?

[Panda Man]

Depends on what ports your lappy has and what the TV has. If they both have s-video, the go that route. If your laptop has a composite port, use that.

If you don't have either, then go that route:

Originally Posted by Zambini

Should I get something like this

I actually use an s-video to composite converter then hook my PC up via composite. What kind of TV is it? And what model Vaio?

Just as a side note, the 3 typical forms of video in on a TV is RCA (composite), Y'PbPr (RGB), and S-video.

[polobunny]

To get the best quality, you would go from VGA (lappy) to Component on your TV (green blue red).
If you don't have a component input on your TV then the best is S-video.
If you don't have S-video then it's RCA video (yellow aka composite)

[gvblake22]

I agree with both Panda Man and polobunny, they both have the right idea in that composite video is at the bottom the food chain here...

[Zambini]

Hmm.....
Is there a cable combo thing (thats cheap, like less than 20 bucks...hopefully) thats VGA => all 3 of them?

cuz I want to be able to use it on any TV I come across.


ps: its a VAIO PCG-7D2L

[Lead Head]

Try to go S-Video is you can, Composite combines the brightness and color signals, which can make the image quite nasty at times, usually around things with sharp lines and text. Also, if your using a standard definition TV, try to set the resolution to as low you can get it

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by Zambini

Hmm.....
Is there a cable combo thing (thats cheap, like less than 20 bucks...hopefully) thats VGA => all 3 of them?

cuz I want to be able to use it on any TV I come across.


ps: its a VAIO PCG-7D2L

I really doubt it. Not even video cards have such connectors! You're best off buying the single adapters as needed.

[Zambini]

That's what I meant, like a VGA -> RGB -> S-Video -> RCA series of adaptors or stuff.

[Panda Man]

Originally Posted by Zambini

That's what I meant, like a VGA -> RGB -> S-Video -> RCA series of adaptors or stuff.

Probably the best you are going to be able to do is buy them all off of newegg at one time to save on shipping :O

[gvblake22]

Well, what video outputs do you have available on your laptop?