Customer Reviews

ITV-900 PC to TV Converter

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

August 24, 2007
I was looking to play some video games from my laptop to my TV. I'm pretty computer and electronic savvy with things like this.... However, right when I got it, I set it up, turned it on and..... Nothing but the color lines of the converter... and flickering of my laptop screen (which was extremely hard to make out), The display is not good for the weak of stomach... I tried to adjust the screen on the converter to clear it up but that didn't make any difference... There was no software that came with this, suppose to be plug and play.... Well for me its plug and flicker... I can't believe I wasted my money on this thing. Maybe it's because it's a laptop. I'll try with my main PC and some other systems I have to see if it works there and do a 2nd review. So far for the LAPTOP, (which is what I wanted it to work on), this product and a complete waste of money, and may just sit in the closet as a dust collector.

UPDATE: September 05, 2007
****New rating 4 of 5****
I had an ealier low rating for this product, well I did finally get the product to work and it looks good on the television screen. Here's what you'll need to do. Set your laptop or PC to the 800X600 resolution next plug in the converter, make sure all other cables are pluged in as well (and definately remember to plug in the USB cable into the laptop or PC that you are using, otherwise it WON'T work), then reboot your laptop/PC. After your PC reboots the screen should display on your Television. Hope that helps all those that had tons of trouble with this. But that is what I did and it's working as designed. No software needed just do the things above and you will be set. Other wise goole "TV OUT" and your PC/laptop brand and it should give you some links on how to setup your PC to display out to a TV using a converter box.

I bought this device so I could use my 42" Plasma as a monitor in my front room. I hooked the unit up exactly as the easy to read instructions outlined using the provided S-Video cable and it worked the first time. I did have to make some adjustments to the screen setting for size and sharpness but that was to be expected. The only complaint I have is that when I change inputs on the TV and then come back to the input that the converter is attached to I have to adjust the screen size one tick on the converter so that the PC tool bar shows up at the bottom. The picture is good though. I did watched a movie from Netflix Watch it Now and it looked pretty good. It was not HD quality of course but it was clear and crisp with no wierd anomallies, or grainyness. I was looking at the more expensive converters, but thought I would give this one a chance first. So far it was a good choice.

It works. Iamge quality is acceptable. However, it took me a little bit time to figure out. The product design is not very ergonomic. VGA INPUT and VGA OUTPUT port look exactly the same. Be aware that the color of the VGA cord, which is inclued in the package, doesn't match. SUPPOSED TO BE BLUE (CORD) TO BLUE (VGA PORT). IN FACT, IT IS BLUE TO BLACK. Plus, for who wants to watch video on TV, your video card setting is crucial, especially the ATI users. This converter shoud work for any kind of video card if you get the right setting. Enjoy your big screen.

I was able to get the converter to work right out of the box ( I just had to restart my computer with the converter plugged in so my laptop computer would recognize that a VGA cable was plugged in to the back). The device works fine, I watch movies from netflix without a problem at at all. This product works as intended, it deserves 5 stars, but here's why people give it a low rating: This product converst your VGA image to TV standard (which can have 1/4 of the pixels of your monitor!!) So everything WILL LOOK LESS SHARP THAN YOUR MONITOR, INCLUDING WRITTING. I've played QUAKE, watched movies and looked at my wedding pictures on my TV. Letters on the screen are a problem though, on my internet explorer zoom (lower right corner of your window), I had to set it to 150% to be able to read the writing on the netflix website, this is expected though, based on the TV's image resolution, and not a defect of the product. If you expect better results, buy an HD tv, then your fonts will be legible at the normal size. Also, setting your resolution to 800x600 makes your screen the same aspect ration of your TV screen (4/3) and makes your images not distort distorted.

I bought this PC to TV convertor to watch DVD movies from my laptop and use my TV for occasional browsing. You would probably need an audio cable with this product to connect to your TV, otherwise use good Laptop speakers. This product delivers what it says. I bought a wireless keyboard immediately after this product. Will recommend this product to my friends

It is cheap and it works very well! Man if your computer does not have s-video output and you wanna use it with a tv this is a very good choice. Of course you need a tv with s-video input or other input jack that the coverter supports.

It does show the pc image on the tv, I mean to a composite or s-video connection.
But it could be a better image and it could give you more options, although one should not expect more from the cheapest item in its class.
The icons and text appear too small in the tv screen but I havent seen any other converter work, so I cant compare.
I got this to be able to play computer games on tv, and it does work for that.
it is not the best out there, but it gets the job done.

Ok im going to start with the pro's then go to the con's I bought this item to play [...] on my 40 inch TV since we cant afford cable any more and I don't wanna sign a 2 year contract with a dish service and after 7 months of no scifi channel or mtv was driving me insane this item works perfect as advertised I just got it today and it only took me 3 min to hook up if you have taken down a computer and put it back up you can set this thing up no problem and if not it includes directions that are very straight forward just so you know

NTSC is united states standard for video for those who don't know you may need to know that before setting this up

any way the worst part was moving my desk top closer to the tv had to rearrange my whole living room but thats my problem not yours if you have a lap top this will be much easier for you it converts the video from VGA to Svideo or composite no problem at all, I had no issues with a grainy or static picture at all and adjusting the video to fit the tv was very very simple a press of a couple arrows

The Bad: your monitor screen was never meant to be displayed so large so watching a video or [...] was no problem because the Hulu website software automatically adjusts to the screen size but the standard windows screen will not so the Icons or the Lettering is very very hard to read and unless you want to always be pressing the zoom feature on the VGA converter which for me was inconvenient because I had to walk all the way across the room this will not be sufficient in replacing your computer Monitor

On the plus side because I moved the my desktop closer to the tv there is also a VGA out which splits the VGA signal two ways so i was able to have the tv connected the same time as the computer and just run both off the same signal so it wasn't a complete loss it did what I needed it to do and at a great price so no complaints from me

so far it works nice ive tested it for a few hours I cant say how well it holds up yet with continuous use but I can definitely say it does what I need it to do they were quick with shipping and it arrived nice well packaged and never been opened in original packaging even and it seems sturdy as long as it isn't placed in a spot were it will get banged around a lot I see no reason why it wouldn't last for years

The Good:
It's affordable, small, light weight, simple, comes with everything you need for video (all video cables included. Note: you will need a headphone 1/8'' to red & white RCA cable to run your sound out to your TV - does not come with this). No power adapter needed (it gets USB power via your laptop or PC which is nice). High Quality AVI/MPEG full-screen video looks great (just keep in mind, the technology is RCA & S-Video so of course it's not going to look as good as Component and/or High Definition HDMI connections - it's going to look the same as if you hooked your DVD player to your television using an RCA (Yellow, Red, White) cable to it (pending the video quality you are playing on it)

The Bad:
This item does not do a great job displaying screen fonts, browsing files & folders, - and other basic computer stuff. Video looks great but if you are trying to work on your computer via your TV, this is not going to be an acceptable setup - again please keep in mind, you are converting a crisp clear VGA signal down to RCA cables... so you are going to lose a lot by nature of the technology. This really doesn't have anything to do with the unit's performance at all (as many reviewers on here seem to think).

Practical Uses:
The reason I purchased this unit is that it will be very convenient for watching movies in hotel rooms when I travel. I have a Micro-Laptop (Aspire One - great for travel) with tons of movies & TV shows I ripped/recorded to the 160GB hard drive. I was tired of packing a ton of DVDs and my portable DVD player for trips so I'm saving a ton of space & weight with this unit. Most hotel room TVs should have RCA jacks that you can plug this into and watch videos from your laptop. However, some hotel TVs only have single Coaxial jack on the back of the TV. In this case, you could use this unit to get video from your laptop to RCA cables, then just buy a cheap $10-$20 "RF Modulator" to convert the RCA to Coaxial signal. It's an additional gadget & cables to pack but it still might beat taking your portable DVD player + cases of DVDs.

Summary:
If you are a big gamer or want to play on your computer via the television, don't waste your money on this unit. However, if you want to watch movies or video from your laptop on your TV - this is totally worth the money.

Hope this helps.

I'm happy with this purchase. The picture quality over 800x600 resolution is not good, and even at 800x600 is not great for working on the PC. But it is fine for playing regular DVDs on the PC and displaying in on a large TV. I use it for playing my region 2 DVDs from the UK.