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Mac VGA to Component for output to HDTV?

nagromme

nagromme

macrumors G5
Original poster
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
My parents' old iMac G4 has mini-VGA, and I can get an adapter to VGA. If I add ANOTHER adapter, VGA to component, would that give me a sharp (not HD but decent) picture on an HDTV?

The only other high-quality input the TV has is HDMI, and I don't think you can connect VGA to that, can you?

The iMac outputs 1024x768, and the TV is 13something by 768, so I'm thinking if the TV is set to "not stretch" we should get a pretty nice 1024x768 display in the middle, with black bars on the side. That's all we want.

Is miniVGA-to-VGA-to-Component a good solution? (Main purpose is presentations--and S-video has been disappointingly blurry. Ditto for burning to iDVD and using a DVD player.)

TIA
 
Why wouldn't component inputs give you HD signals? Until they started putting VGA and DVI/HDMI connectors onto HDTVs, that was the only way you could get get HDTV content onto an HDTV.

The only thing "wrong" with component cables is that decoding takes place outside of the unit...which only affects content creators and how they protect the content from copying. The extra foot or so of analog signal doesn't change the picture quality if you have decent cables. If you have a CRT or Plasma based TV, you still have to convert to analog at some point anyway...LCD based TVs and projectors of course will have a bit better quality without the conversion since it is all digital until it turns into light, but that's a fairly recent thing.

That said, I wouldn't mind finding out about this as well, since our HDTV only has component inputs. It'd be nice to get full 1080i resolutions on it :)
 
mmmcheese said:
Why wouldn't component inputs give you HD signals?
Click to expand...
Because the iMac only outputs 1024x768 or less. That's acceptable--the TV (like most HDTVs) has less than HD resolution anyway.

I'm just hoping it's as simple as it sounds, and would work the way I'm thinking.
 
mmmcheese said:
Until they started putting VGA and DVI/HDMI connectors onto HDTVs, that was the only way you could get get HDTV content onto an HDTV.
Click to expand...
Most models I see these days at least have HDMI (DVI maybe not, but they probably see that as redundant anyway).

From the sound of it the OP has an LCD TV (with the ultimately lame non-HD resolution of 1366x768), in which case a non-native resolution picture is going to look blurry. Don't expect to be able to read text!

I think it depends on the TV what resolutions it will accept from the different inputs. Don't see why component wouldn't support 1024x768 though. Check your manual.

I've hooked my PowerBook up to my CRT HDTV with S-video (which limits the resolution to 1024x768 on my TV at least) and I thought it looked really awful. But that's a bit different from what you're talking about doing.
 
nagromme said:
Because the iMac only outputs 1024x768 or less. That's acceptable--the TV (like most HDTVs) has less than HD resolution anyway.

I'm just hoping it's as simple as it sounds, and would work the way I'm thinking.
Click to expand...
FWIW one of my HDTVs will stretch 1024x768 and that's is maximum recommended resolution on VGA, while the other leaves it optional bust still can stretch 1024x768, but prefers 1320x768.

Dunno about component inputs as the only thing I've hooked up to them is a DVD player, and it needed to be told the TV was 16:9 to work OK w/widescreen movies...

B
 
Thanks for the tips. It may have to become an experiment!

Widescreen isn't needed, luckily.
 
apfhex said:
Most models I see these days at least have HDMI (DVI maybe not, but they probably see that as redundant anyway).

From the sound of it the OP has an LCD TV (with the ultimately lame non-HD resolution of 1366x768), in which case a non-native resolution picture is going to look blurry. Don't expect to be able to read text!

I think it depends on the TV what resolutions it will accept from the different inputs. Don't see why component wouldn't support 1024x768 though. Check your manual.

I've hooked my PowerBook up to my CRT HDTV with S-video (which limits the resolution to 1024x768 on my TV at least) and I thought it looked really awful. But that's a bit different from what you're talking about doing.
Click to expand...

Component will do whatever resolution you tell it to all the way up to 1080i. So if he sets it to the 720p resolution (or the above 1366x769), then it'll show. If you have the output of the computer set to the right resolution, it'll show up correctly.

Newer HDTVs have HDMI or DVI (basically the same thing, except HDMI also has audio lines in the cable), but until a year or so ago, many still had just component cables. Many TVs also have component in addition to HDMI, and if you're already using that for say your PS3, or HD-DVD player, you need something else so you're not always connecting and disconnecting cables. Makes it a bit of a pain otherwise.
 
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