Calling all techies

I have a new 32 inch LED 1080p 60 mhz Phillips television, purchased to double as a computer monitor.

It does not have a VGA male to connect to the vga male on my computer. Most televisions do have the vga male. In spite of what Best Buy told me, this one does not have the vga male.

There are HDMI male to VGA male cables online from $1.99 to $39.00. They all say the same thing other than the length of the cable. I'm afraid I'll plug in the cheaper one and it won't have the conversion insides to convert the vga to hdmi.

Any suggestions? In the meantime, I still only have this netbook and I think I'm getting carpel tunnel from it....

And as I type this, I'm not sure about the two males - maybe one is male and the other female since the output is from the computer and the input is to the television. The television is definitely hdmi.

!!!!! and I can't get any of the genius's at Radio Shack, Best Buy, tech support for Sam's etc. to give me a clear answer.

Many thank you's.......desperate to use new "monitor." The television is grand, but I need to write, not watch....:-)

I don't know anything about VGA connections. But I noticed you said you were getting carpal tunnel from your netbook. Are you using a wireless mouse with it? If not, get one! It really helps. I can't use a laptop myself without it.

You're right, that'll help with the netbook. I have a great setup if I can get the computer hooked up to the Phillips tv.

DK, Go to the Phillips web site find their FAQ on your model.

Thanks. It says to use an HDMI to DVI connector or adapter. Since I have VGA and not DVI; their recommendation misses the main issue!

3/20/2011


DK..

If you bought it at Best Buy I would go back to
them and get a straight answer, I've always heard their
the worst...

Cheers..Joe

"...did you say that you liked goblins..." went the goblin adding a stream

You could add a wireless connector:

http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=pc+to+tv+wireless

dkchristi wrote:

Thanks. It says to use an HDMI to DVI connector or adapter. Since I have VGA and not DVI; their recommendation misses the main issue!

The DVI end is usually connected to an apple mac computer. If you do not have an apple computer you will need to get a small DVI to VGA adapter and use the HDMI to DVI adapter as well.
This is a double adaptation but should work provided you have the correct DVI.
There are three types of DVI connectors DVI-A(Analog only), DVI-I(Analog & Digital), and DVI-D(D Meaning Digital). You can run a VGA output into a DVI-A device or a DVI-I device as long as it's expecting an analog signal but to run a VGA output into a digital device (your TV) requires the output to be converted to Digital using a converter box as in the video above. These things are not cheap though.
It would be better to get a straight VGA converter box like in the video but you will need two leads plus an audio lead.

"...I have a computer port in my television..." mentioned the goblin, explaining "...therefore I opted for a docking station instead of the signal converter, meaning that I just place the laptop in the docking station and everything becomes connected, where releasing it from the docking station, it becomes a laptop again, no fiddling with spaghetti each time, actually the laptop only has vga output that the docking station converts to the television signal..."

Neat!

It's getting more and more expensive....from $74 to $139 plus cables. Geez....but I appreciate all the potential solutions. Now, I just need a less expensive option or a source less expensive.

"...ah the fun of second hand shop near you..." replied the goblin knowing that, as it stands, something had to be bought since the signal coming out of the computer still needed to be converted to that which the television can display, then asking "...have a look at this picture below, note that near next the blue vga port, anther port that is often on computer meant for televisions, the dvi port, does your television have one, if so, life becomes easier because that means no conversion is needed, but then again, few laptops have dvi ports, they are mostly on desktops..."