bruce Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 So, following on from timsabre's search for a decent VGA to HDMI converter/scaler I'd like to ask the opposite question. Can someone suggest a decent, reliable, simple and cheap converter that takes hdmi in and gives VGA out. This may seem like a counter-intuitive thing to do - why downgrade from HDMI to cruddy old analogue VGA? These days if you were doing a new installation it'd be digital end to end. However, many venues - in particular educational institutions - will have dozens or even hundreds of "legacy" classrooms with VGA installations. While most recent projectors will have HDMI (etc) inputs, the "plumbing" installed in the room - the switching, cabling, faceplates etc - may well be VGA. Upgrading these is by necessity a rolling programme. But an ever-increasing number of laptops these days do not have VGA ports. So what devices have you found to enable newer hdmi-equipped laptops to use legacy infrastructures? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 I've found the cheapo ebay ones are fine if you're just going into a projector. Everything with a VGA input seems to be a lot more forgiving of dodgy resolutions and frame rates than hdmi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce Posted November 24, 2014 Author Share Posted November 24, 2014 Yes, I meant to say we had tried a few, and some of the cheapest ones seem to be not too bad. Just wondered if anyone had done any more detailed testing. In fact - what would be really useful would be a box with 2 inputs - vga and hdmi - and a single vga output, with auto-switching - so that you can just leave 2 cables available on the lectern to plug in whatever source is available.. But I suppose that's perhaps a bit of a niche market.... although if there was a good one available at a reasonable price, I'd probably buy a hundred... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judge Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 I recently had to get one of these as I bought a new laptop that only has HDMI out and I frequently need to be able to connect other monitors of various flavours. The one I chose was this: linky to Amazon page Its a bit more expensive than the others but it works and seems really well made, plus got loads of good reviews.Sorted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Mawer Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 Yes, I meant to say we had tried a few, and some of the cheapest ones seem to be not too bad. Just wondered if anyone had done any more detailed testing. In fact - what would be really useful would be a box with 2 inputs - vga and hdmi - and a single vga output, with auto-switching - so that you can just leave 2 cables available on the lectern to plug in whatever source is available.. But I suppose that's perhaps a bit of a niche market.... although if there was a good one available at a reasonable price, I'd probably buy a hundred... Hi Bruce, you could look at the Kramer VP-461 http://www.kramerelectronics.co.uk/products/model.asp?pid=2619 It lists at £899 so is not what you might term cheap, but it does have, thanks to recently introduced firmware, an autoswitching capability. Please remember that if you have an HDCP encrypted source, then Kramer and other manufacturers in good standing with HDMI and HDCP orgs will not allow an analogue output. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AHYoung Posted November 25, 2014 Share Posted November 25, 2014 im not entirely sure that such a thing exists, ive used a number of the plasticy dongle style devices and allthough you cant complain at the minimal cost, they fall apart pretty easily and the image on the last one I had was somewhat soft and wavery. Ive used a number of different manufacturers switcher scalers and it works after a fashion taking into account the fact that theres allways going to be a drop in quality, the vga output has a habit of turning off due to the way that hdcp works , or when an apple unit is connected doesnt... its clear that in laptop land, the vga connector is definitely a thing of the past and its an area where apples use of the dp port makes sense as with the right dongle you have vga . from an installed infrastructure point of view, its probably going to be just as cheap to run new cable than instal a half decent scaler that by design wont actually work some of the time, or look at one of the hdmi wireless systems.but obviously that relies on the projector having a digital in. In reality its going to be a sticking plaster at best as its all part of the fact the until recently everybody installed analogue 4by3 systems often without audio and these days whats needed is widescreen digital systems with audio as everyones got embedded video etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Fernand Posted November 27, 2014 Share Posted November 27, 2014 I guess you need to be clear on what you are trying to achieve! HDMI to VGA – describes a connector and an analogue video signal :) Digital RGB to Analogue RGB may be a better descriptor!!! If you are dealing with HDCP protected Source content then there is only one 'decent' option (see Bruce's notes re HDCP) which will cost you around £120 and can Output Analogue RGB or Analogue YPbPr without any image loss. We often have to supply this type of solution to customers with 'legacy' gear which is HD capable (often high end CRT Home Theatre nuts or clients with large PDP's which are still going strong in AV land)– drop me a note if you want further info. Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sleepytom Posted November 29, 2014 Share Posted November 29, 2014 Joe is of course talking about the HDFury - it is an ok digital to analog converter which has some control over scaling and position it also spoofs an HDCP sink which is technically illegal, but quite useful in certain circumstances. Personally I use the TVOne 1tdvi-VGA box, it works for hdmi as well as dvi, but it is not an HDCP sink. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the kid Posted November 29, 2014 Share Posted November 29, 2014 Just thinking do the cat5 ends work when not paired together I am thinking a HDMI-cat5 - cat 5 line - cat5-VGA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave m Posted November 29, 2014 Share Posted November 29, 2014 If you are suggesting that "normal" baluns can be swapped out to act as transcodes so that you merely chuck one format on one end and another on the second, then not to my knowledge. Otherwise lots of companies making expensive boxes would be out of business Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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