Customer Reviews

Component video (YPbPr) / VGA To HDMI Converter With Auto Up-scale

5 star:		(95)
4 star:		(48)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(34)

 

 

We just dumped satellite and went pc to tv to save money. At first we tried a vga to component converter, which was good, but it didn't make use of our tv's high-def so the picture was a bit fuzzy. Then I saw this converter and at the price, just had to try it. The difference was night and day. We now have access to our tv's native widescreen resolution, and the HD picture quality is as crisp as on the laptop screen. I wish we had tried this first!

We have a Philips 42PFL5332D 42" plasma and a 2006 Dell laptop running XP. Our connection is vga to hdmi (this is the connection needed for HD quality). It took literally a minute to get the picture up, and it appeared at the right resolution without us needing to do a thing.

The sound was a different matter, due to our inexperience. With our old converter we ran a stereo cable out of the laptop headphone port to the audio-in on the tv. We left that as it was and got no sound. We unplugged it and got sound - from the laptop's speakers. I'm ashamed to say it took me half an hour to figure out that we had to use the audio cable that came with this converter, connected between the laptop headphone port and the converter itself so it could feed the sound through the HDMI cable to the tv. Hey, live and learn, right?

As other reviewers have helpfully noted, this converter comes with everything you need except an HDMI cable. So I also ordered an HDMI (2 meter) 6 foot cable HQ 1080P 1.3b, and it works fine with our setup.

There are just two small negatives that led to me giving it only 4 stars. First, as others have said, it doesn't have an on/off switch, which seems an incredible oversight. And that leads to the second negative: this converter runs hot. To allow a little airflow underneath it I put it on top of the two small plastic endcaps that came with the HDMI cable. We'll see if the heat this thing produces impacts its performance in future, but for now, we're very impressed with it.

I wanted to connect our PC, which has only VGA out, to the LCD TV (720P), which does have VGA input, only coaxial, component or HDMI. My IT co-worker recommended going VGA to HDMI rather than VGA to component because analog to analog conversion is more "messy" and requires a higher end device to work well. I took his advice and after some research, I decided on this unit over cheaper alternatives because of the auto-upscale function (to 720P, which matches our TV), and the price is very affordable. (A note: since I purchased this a month ago from CE Compass, the price has dropped by $10. Wished I had waited just a little - but the new price makes this a even better value.)

My setup: PC(VGA) to VGA Splitter (w/ amplifier) to converter to TV(HDMI), plus audio from PC to the converter - this way I won't have to connect and reconnect the PC's VGA output all the time. (I also have audio going from the PC to the stereo system directly for watching movies.) As soon as we have the unit connected and the resolution on the PC changed, it started to work with no problem at all. Video quality is great and everything we have played fit the TV screen perfectly, always making maximum use of the screen. Some videos are darker on the TV than the monitor, which could be caused by the VGA splitter, but it can easily be fixed by adjusting the TV's brightness level.

The only con, if you can call it that, is the lack of an on/off button. There is no reason the unit should be drawing power even when not in use (light is on and body feels warm to touch). I may get a plug-in switch so
I can turn it off individually from the surge protector.

With this converter my family is able to enjoy streaming movies, TV shows and sports on the TV without buying a new computer with HDMI output. The video quality on the TV looks amazing when playing HD content, and with non-HD resolution videos it sometimes look better on TV, probably thanks to the auto-scaling.

This gadget is just what we wanted. It conveys good picture & sound from my laptop to a Big Flat Screen.
All cables (except HDMI) are included; worked the first time.

The ETA was Aug 4th - Aug 19th and I received it on the 4th. Delivery was great. The item was exactly like described. A very quick, easy set up. Comes with all the wires except the hdmi cable. No off switch. The item got warm pretty quickly.

Now for the downside. It did not work. I can see the my desktop picture but it was blurry and it continually ran from left to right. I have a 47in rear projector 1080i Panasonic TV. I called customer service and they answered quickly. He was real helpful. Im pretty electronically savy but I let him run through protocol. He had me try several different troubleshooting issues. It still did not work. I asked him since my TV was 1080i not 1080p was that a problem. He said no that it should be fine because 1080i should be equivalent to 720p. He then gave me my options. He said I could send it back and I could get a full refund or they could send a new one. I asked him about the shipping costs for sending it back. He said they would refund it if the item if it was found nonfunctional. I then asked him what if the next one you guys send me doesn't work either. He said to call back and they would still refund the item but not for the shipping cost.

So, a week later I get the item and it had the same exact issue. I call customer service and they had me run through the same troubleshooting procedures. They then asked if I can take to another TV that has an HDMI in. So I had to take it to my in-laws. It worked on there TV. I then called back and told them it worked but it just doesn't work on mine. I asked for my options again. They said I can return it and they will send me one of there other more expensive convertors or that I could just get a refund. They didn't give me andy hassle about the product or any hassle about getting there other item.

There customer service was totally awesome. I just wish it would of worked. On the trail again. So theres no need to worry about what if it doesn't work on my TV because they have great customer service and refund policy.

I bought this product after having substandard results with the Mayflash YPbPr to VGA converter HTTP://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001ERQQJ2/ref=cm_cr_rev_prod_title. In fact, before buying this unit, I was resigned to settling for composit output from the iPhone, which was a bit blurry, but at least got the scan lines right.

Before buying this product, I was a bit leery because, because competing products were selling for 4x as much. But it works flawlessly! My connections are:

[ iPhone -> YPbPr (component) Cable -> converter -> 25' HDMI Cable -> Optoma projector ]

I A-B tested this connection with the

[ iPhone->Composit Cable->Optoma projector ]

and found the HDMI version to offer crisper lines and higher dynamic range for colors - as well it should!

An added bonus is that this converter came with 4 cables to make it work with both VGA and Component input (the Mayfair product didn't come with a VGA cable). You will still need to get a HDMI cable.

We had foolishly purchased an HDTV for my business's conference room that did not have a PC(VGA) input. I had researched many different adapters but noticed that you not only needed an adapter to get the signal to convert, but one of these converter boxes. Purchased this as it was very reasonably priced.

Received it a few days later, tested it out, worked great.

We ended up taking the TV back and getting a new one with PC ports on it, but we still used this device anyways. The forced resolution that it displays actually made it much easier to read text on a 50" HDTV by default without changing your laptop's resolution settings (which is asking a lot for some people).

Looks like something somebody put together in their basement but it gets the job done and at a reasonable price. Also has a red light that is always on when the device is on, if you're in to that sort of thing.

I saw 2 reviews in here that this converter doesn't work with the WII, but I couldn't believe the review and actually bought them to try out.
Why I couldn't believe the 2 reviews on here? because many reviews were saying this works with other computers, games, and hdtv flawlessly and Amazon has great return policy :)

The KEY is the Video Component cable people!
regular video output from the WII will not work with this converter. You gotta buy those upgraded video component cable at nearest Gamestop or on here. ( I bought it for $5.00 on Amazon and it works very good)

There are 2 cons to be fixed in my opinion.
One.. This thing gets heat like boiling pot.
there is no switch to turn off so I just unplugged the power cord while I am not using it.
Two! the space in between converter's ports are just too narrow. one of my gaming system's components are fat ended, and those can't be fit into the ports. I had to buy VGA FEmale to Female converter for that..........

other than that, this is great product.
It works as it advertise and this let me play my wii on my new HD Monitor.

I was frustrated by the lack of a PC input on my Panasonic S1, and wanted a way to use my Toshiba laptop on the big screen to watch Netflix and Hulu. I took a chance on this little gem and I am very impressed with the quality and value of this device.

In the box are all the cables needed to plug in a laptop or desktop with VGA output, except an HDMI cable, which I also ordered here for around eight bucks shipped. The setup took less than ten minutes. The picture is an accurate representation of my computer screen, although slightly darker looking on my plasma TV. I am using a wireless-G connection and can stream SD Netflix without lag, with excellent picture, and the sound is perfect.

This is a low cost, high quality solution for my needs. Highly recommended!

When connecting a Hewlett-Packard notebook computer* to a Samsung high-definition television* with the provided video-graphics-array (VGA) cable, and with a separately purchased high-definition-multimedia-interface (HDMI) cable (that another review recommends), this converter transmits the computer's image to the TV only when the computer's video resolution is set to the lowest possible level (800 by 600). However, the resulting image is not stable (it "jumps around", and a horizontal white line appears and disappears). Further, this converter does not transmit the computer's image at all when the computer's video resolution is set to higher levels (1024 by 768, or 1280 by 800). Instead, the resulting image on the TV is just solid blue. Since this customer already owns a cable that displays low-resolution computer images on the TV without needing a converter, and since this converter does not work as intended or advertised at higher resolutions with this customer's equipment, hopefully Amazon will agree to a return of this converter.

* HP EliteBook 2530p
** Samsung LN-S4092D

I recently purchased this item for the specific purpose of connecting my Playstation 2 (PS2) to my monitor through HDMI. For that specific purpose, it works great.

The only major problems I have with this product are that it does not have audio inputs. This was not an issue with my particular setup, because I intended to use a separate sound system anyway. Other than this, the line doubling effect did not produce as great an increase in visual quality as I expected. I think that the line doubler algorithm probably is not a complex one that considers both the line above and below. This merely takes the line and literally doubles it. Don't expect a fancy box either. The box is very simple and generic. The instruction aren't going to help you much either.

Okay now for the accolades. First off I am able to play Playstation with a set of component cables in wide screen. I was worried initially because the VGA to HDMI is limited to 4:3 screen ratios that wide screen video would not be supported, but I am happy to say that is not the case. One commenter said the unit got extremely hot, that has not been the case at all. The unit does not get hot, but also does not have an internal fan which means its quiet. To my surprise, I was also able to use my Playstation Portable (PSP) with this device (with component cables of course). I was ready to spend a lot more money for this type of product, but this works great and is easy to use.

I took a picture with my cell phone of the screen. [...]