Hi all,
Would really appreciate any technical or experiential knowledge from you all. Have spent hours flogging google to find this out but haven't found anyone I trust…
I have to install a DVD or Blu-Ray player into an a/v system (with data projector & sound board) that only has a VGA port available for video (actually, I'm splitting 1 VGA port into 2 already - long story!). Sound will go into the sound board, can use almost any plug as long as the device I'm connecting from has an audio out port.
Don't want to buy a computer just to play movies, but finding a player with VGA output isn't easy.
Option 1 - Buy a player with HDMI output and use a HDMI-VGA converter for video, also needing to split that output for audio out.
Option 2 - Buy a player with RGB output and audio output and try to use an RGB-VGA converter for video
Option 3 - Buy a player with component output and audio output and try to use a component-VGA converter for video
Option 4 - Some other masterly plan??
The easiest converters to get seem to be the option 1 ones, but I haven't found anyone who's used them from a DVD player - they're mainly from computers/xboxes etc.
Hmmm….
First of all note that in many of these cases with long and/or split VGA runs the video quality is terrible. Run the display with a laptop first and see if it is even workable (at 1960x1080 or whatever resolution you intend to run).
This is the obvious solution. Check that the converter can take the resolution (ie: 1080) that you are running and that the VGA output is run at the same resolution. Also cheap devices may have a very poor (noisy) output. Also it is possible that some players may not use their audio out when using HDMI because they assume the audio is being used from the HDMI signal.
What do you mean with 'RGB output'? Typically this means either VGA or SCART. Assuming you don't mean VGA SCART RGB should be simpler in theory to convert to VGA. Not easy to come by these days though.
This is not a great idea. Component video uses a different signal type than VGA so the converter will have to process it and then reproduce it as a new analogue signal. This is twice as much work as the HDMI converter.
Possibly DVI. DVI comes in 3 forms (DVI-D, DVI-A and DVI-I). DVI-D is just HDMI with a different plug. DVI-A is just VGA with a different plug. DVI-I is both HDMI and VGA on the same plug. DVI-A and DVI-I would be great for you (just need a plug adapter) but be warned that most digitial players will only have DVI-D, which is of no use, but it does avoid the audio output issue.