VGA to Component video

[bigbert]

Hello

 

I am wanting to operate my projector from the sound desk at the back of my hall rather than having an operator sitting beside the projector with a laptop.

 

Laptop in to multicore as Component (3 Phonos) ----------->>>>>> Projector as Component (3 Phonos)

 

I was considering making a VGA to Component lead with spare parts I have kicking about by wiring

 

Pin 1 & 6 to Red Phono

Pin 2 &7 to Green Phono

Pin 3 & 8 to Blue Phono

 

My question is will this work? Has anyone done this before?

 

Cheers

[kitlane]

RGB component video also requires a sync signal. Tyically, on VGA this will be RGBHV (Red, Green, Blue, Horizontal and Vertical) Does your projector have RGBHV input or is it YPbPr where the sync will be on the luma (Y) channel? If your projector will take RGBHV you need to add two more cables. Make sure the cables are all the same length, too.

[bigbert]

The input is YPbPr, is the wiring just

 

Pin 1 & 6 to Red Phono

Pin 2 &7 to Green Phono

Pin 3 & 8 to Blue Phono

 

or are the connections different?

[Peter F]

The input is YPbPr...

 

 

...or are the connections different?

 

It's a different sort of component!

 

The clearest explanation is helpfully provided on Wikipedia.

Component Video

 

Even if the VGA output and the component input on your projector were compatible you would probably run into problems with the picture quality due to differing cable lengths (as mentioned by Kit Lane).

 

You don't give any indication of the distances involved but you might be better off buying a long VGA cable. A search on the Blue Room will turn up a whole range of opinions on price versus quality options. A quick search on the internet came up with 25m lengths priced between £35 and £75.

 

An alternative method if you are a bit network savvy and have a spare laptop and a network switcher/router could be to keep one laptop next to the projector and access it using remote desktop or RealVNC. That way the link could be a length of cat5 cable, 25m terminated will cost you about £5 on ebay. If your budget is really tight and you like a good gamble you could use a wireless network connection. It saves running a length of cat5 but it's not a risk I'd want to take on a show.

 

Cheers,

 

Peter

[KevinE]

VGA and component-video scan at different frequencies so it's not a case of just getting the right lead. This has been discussed many times in BR!

 

You can get VGA to RGBS leads (usually with BNC connectors) but then the display device must be multi-syncable through the BNCs to whatever the source (laptop) is scanning at (which can vary between software applications). This facility is optional rather than standard and most displays (projectors etc) won't have VGA inputs on RGBS bnc's unless they're for pro use.

[JazzAV]

If all you want to do is have the Laptop a fair distance from the projector, then have you considered just extending the VGA? Perhaps with a decent cat5 extender, I know it means running a cable in but probably much better results. Do you have a BNC multicore? or are you thinking of using your audio one?

 

Also unless your Laptop out-puts component video via its VGA-out then it wont work anyway as discussed above you would need to break the VGA out to RGBHV then send that down the video lines.

[Nick Mawer]

You didn't say why you wanted to run down 3 cores - if we knew that, we could all recommend alternative solutions.

 

Just supposing that you only have 3 cores available to you, and you can't run another cable, then a simple but more expensive solution is to use a scaler to convert the VGA to YPrPb, then you can run down the 3 cores.

 

Such a product is the Kramer VP-420 http://www.kramerelectronics.co.uk/product...el.asp?pid=1390 coupled with a breakout cable adaptor http://www.kramerelectronics.co.uk/product...el.asp?pid=1839

[bigbert]

thanks for all your replies guys, very helpful as always

 

I knew that a scaler/converter was required to go to composite video but I never knew if it was needed for component.

 

Basically the venue has an audio multicore which was installed when the building was being built itself and makes it almost impossible to run other cables easily. I thought it may have been possible to run the component video down the multicoreto get round this problem

[KevinE]

I knew that a scaler/converter was required to go to composite video but I never knew if it was needed for component.

 

Yes, because component video and composite video scan at the same rates, VGA does not..it's usually at least double with sync polarity change to signal screen modes to VGA monitors.

 

 

You can try the component video down your multicore, of course you'll have to come out of the component video of the laptop and into same at the projector. Since component video scans at a slow rate, it's less bothered by reflections and cable characteristics than is VGA which will look awful.

It wont hurt to try, alot depends on the distance and the quality and electrical characteristics of your cable.

 

The professional way would be to get a VGA balanced-line sender-receiver but it will be dear-ish.