S/VGA or RCA connection

loofer

I'm looking to connect my laptop to my LCD TV (to look at some photos and watch a bit of BBC iPlayer)

My Lappy has the 15 pin (female) connection that can be connected to a display device.

My LG TV has the same kind of connection but also has the 3 RCA (red/white/yellow) connections.

Looking on eBay, you can get a S/VGA male to S/VGA male lead and also a S/VGA to RCA lead. Both costs are negligible. Which will give me best viewing quality. Anything else I should know?
Thanks

bonzer

15 pin VGA to VGA should give you the best viewing quality of those two options. This should be able to do HD quality.

The RCA connectors on your TV from the colours sounds like it's a composite video (yellow) and a pair of stereo audio connectors (red and white). Composite can't usually do HD very well so I'd only use it as a last resort.

If the the cable you have found has 3 RCA connectors it could be a VGA to component cable. This won't work with those three RCA connectors on your TV. Often the RCA connectors on a component cable are green,blue and red colours.

Also don't forget to consider how you are going to send the audio to the TV as laptop speakers aren't usually that great.

loofer

bonzer wrote: »

15 pin VGA to VGA should give you the best viewing quality of those two options. This should be able to do HD quality.

The RCA connectors on your TV from the colours sounds like it's a composite video (yellow) and a pair of stereo audio connectors (red and white). Composite can't usually do HD very well so I'd only use it as a last resort.

If the the cable you have found has 3 RCA connectors it could be a VGA to component cable. This won't work with those three RCA connectors on your TV. Often the RCA connectors on a component cable are green,blue and red colours.

Also don't forget to consider how you are going to send the audio to the TV as laptop speakers aren't usually that great.

Taa for that...
I've just checked the TV again and aswell as the connections I mentioned earlier (yellow,red, white), the TV also has those connectiones you mentioned. They are labelled Component, with blue Y, green P, red P,white L,red R. I assume the L and R are for stero audio.

Whoops... I assumed the VGA cable aslo transmitted sound. I have some desktop speakers/subwoofer but I rather wouldn't use them as that's just more wires trailing around.

Will the VGA and component cable give me good pic quality aswell as sound or am I still better off using VGA to VGA for video quality? Again cost is negligble

EDIT: One of the listings for the VGA to YPbPr cable states that the laptop has to be able to be configured to send the data via the component connections. How would I do that? bearing in mind it is my work's laptop so I have limited user rights to change settings/configurations.

Thanks

bonzer

Yep you need a separate audio cable as the VGA output on your laptop will not do sound.

I'd probably stick with the VGA to VGA option for video. I've never tried VGA to component, I don't know how well it will work or if you have to fiddle with any settings. The VGA to VGA should be reasonably certain to work without too much trouble and should give you a good picture.

For audio, probably one of the audio inputs on your TV will work at the same time as the VGA. However I can't tell you which one. Could be one of the RCA pairs or could be a separate 3.5mm jack. You'll have to check the manual. You should be able to take the headphone output (probably a 3.5mm jack) on your laptop into whichever audio input it is on your TV.