Customer Reviews

Videosecu PC to TV Converter VGA to RCA S-Video Mac Computer Laptop to Composite Video Switcher VGA2TV 1L7

5 star:		(186)
4 star:		(107)
3 star:		(30)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(38)

 

 

~ INTRODUCTION ~
I got this product to be able to watch video from my computer on my tv. After a bunch of research, this product seemed to get the best reviews, esp for the price, and overall I agree. Once I finally put it together and tried to use it, I found a few nuisances that you should be aware of, especially if you are a NTSC (e.g., U.S.A. users).

------------------------------------------------------------------------
~ PRODUCT DETAILS ~

First off, just to be clear, the item that shipped is a Manhattan PC TV Converter Model #150095 (UPC 766623150095)

The product is shipped decently packaged but there's nothing in there that can't handle a little rough and tumble anyway. It includes:
- the converter, which is just slightly larger than a cigarette pack
- 1 yellow video rca cable
- 1 usb power cord
- 1 vga cord
- 1 instruction manual, which is alright. It's not 100% clear on everything but the essentials are there.
- Note: there is NO S-video cable provided.

On one of the short end of the converter, there is a VGA-in port.

On the other short end, there is the plug for the USB power cable plus a pair of jumper switches labeled 1 & 2.

On one long end, there are all the output ports. You have one each of video out, s-video out, and VGA-out.

On the opposite long end, there are buttons to adjust settings for the converter. There are buttons for "LEFT", "RIGHT", "DOWN", "UP", "MENU", and "ZOOM".

------------------------------------------------------------------------
~ SETUP NOTES ~

I recommend that the first thing to do is to check that the jumpers are set for your needs (noted very simply in the instruction manual). If you are an NTSC (e.g., U.S.A.) user, be sure that both jumpers 1 & 2 are both down.

Next, plugging in the wires is pretty straightforward. The long side contains all the output ports and the single vga end is the input. I don't think it matters but I plugged in the black vga head to the converter and the blue end to the computer.

Once it's all in, turn on your components and check that it works. It didn't take me long to get up and running but be sure that the jumpers are set properly.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
~ IMAGE QUALITY ~

The image quality isn't too bad but it seems that it might depend partly on your computer and the TV.

Please note that it is UN-LIKELY that you will be able to do things like edit documents or surf the web unless you drop the resolution from your computer quite a bit. At 1024x768 (the setting I have on my computer), the image projected onto the TV is too unclear with the text way too small for you to be able to do any kind of reading. If you really want to use your TV for reading such find details, then it's more likely you'll need to buy a TV that can take regular VGA signals without conversion.

You can play around with image quality with the on-screen preferences but it doesn't seem to improve the quality too much. The menu that comes up provides options to adjust horizontal/vertical size, brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, sharpness, and onscreen display background. In reality playing with these won't affect image quality clarity too much and it's difficult to know where along a 0% - 100% scale that you are adjusting a setting since there is no bar to indicate that for each of the settings. For example, I can't tell whether I've hit 30% or 80% saturation. I just have to guess where along that scale I am at.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reminder of the most important point...

!!!! For NTSC (U.S.A. users), be sure that the jumpers 1 & 2 are both down. My converter came set by the factory with both jumpers up, which won't work on US TV's. !!!!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Recommendation: This product works for my goal of watching videos/movies on my TV. Just be sure to check your setup before thinking it won't work. I got a few scrambled screens before I finally got the thing to show up properly but since then, the product works like a charm. Don't expect perfect image quality. I'd estimate the quality compared to my computer monitor is probably around 75%. The conversion from regular VGA to a TV is not an easy or perfect conversion. Nonetheless, if you just want something that simply works, this will do and as such I can recommend this product.

Price paid: ~$45 + shipping

I just purchased one of these VGA to NTSC >("Never-Twice-Same-Color") "scan converters" to set up a secondary computer system for home theater VIDEO internet streaming. I'm a well seasoned electronics engineering tech and do a fair amount of experimenting with audio/video, etc. I've tried several different (and MORE expensive) brands and types of scan converters on the market in the interest of obtaining the best overall VIDEO picture quality. This unit works EXCELLENT!
PROS: this unit has ALL the "necessary" setting adjustments to allow scan size, posistioning, color intensity (saturation), tint (hue), anti-flutter (flick) and sharpness control. Overall the unit (and I imagine it's "clones") performs excellent especially for VIDEO usage. Using an "S-Video" hookup with a decent TV receiver renders the best overall picture quality although the 75 ohm "composite" RCA output works as well as expected for any composite video signal. ALL adjustments have decent and usable range--better than many others on the market. If used for fine computer graphics/text it performs ok if computer resolution is set at it's lowest settings and/or DPI is increased. NONE of "any" these so called VGA to TV "scan converters" on the market will ever approach HI-DEF or the fine resolutions obtained from a real computer monitor due to the frame timing/scan rate conversions from VGA necessary to properly feed an NTSC signal to a typically slow "interlaced" TV receiver/monitor, however this unit DOES work "very acceptably". This unit (and most others) power from the 5 volt source of the computer's USB port which makes for a neat, quick and easy hook-up.
CONS: when the computer shuts down so does the 5 volt source to the scan converter thus losing the "touchy" flick & sharpness settings which are probably the most important settings of any--at least in my situation. Depending on where these settings need to be on the individual users TV's and computers and where the scan converters default settings end up at power up/down, may or may not be of issue. The best and easiest approach to remedy this "pesky" problem is to "constant" feed the scan converter's power source with a separate,small, 5 VDC/500mA plug in AC "cube" type power supply such as found with many common consumer items. Be "certain" it is 5 volts DC @ 500mA, of proper polarity and well filtered. I'd rate the overall performance of THIS scan converter of *8 out of score of 1-10.

I'm quite happy with this product. It did everything promised, and is great if you want to play PC games on a TV screen or watch movies or TV shows from Netflix or Amazon Unbox. It doesn't provide sound, so a good purchase to use with this is something like this, which will allow you to play sound from the computer over your TV's speakers.
It is lacking in documentation, with only one fold-out sheet in barely-English, and when I first plugged it in the picture was terrible, but using the buttons on the unit I was able to drastically improve the picture; it's actually so good now that I can almost read a Word document at normal size from my couch. (I basically just cranked the sharpness as far up as possible and fiddled with the "Flick", whatever that means, until it was good.) It includes a VGA cable, so you can connect the computer to the box and the box to your monitor, and a way-too-short composite video cable, which is basically useless unless your computer happens to be less than 2 feet from your TV; I couldn't find a composite video extension cable anywhere, and S-video gives a better picture anyway. I eventually used an S-video cable, but that will run you about another $20 at RadioShack. Other than those two things, this is a very good product for an excellent price.

This product does everything it claims at a small price. I am using my non digital/non HDTV television as a monitor in just a few minutes. Unless mentioned otherwise all cables are included with converter unit.

First, plug the USB connection into the PC for power to the unit. Then, plug the VGA cable into the PC. Lastly, plug either the standard video or S-video cable into an input on the television. I opted for the S-video (purchased separately). I have also tried the standard video cable that comes with the unit. For me there was virtually no difference in quality. I am using a Sony 27" television. If I had it do over again, I would probably not get the S-video cable. However, if you need a cable longer than a couple of feet, you will most likely end up getting another cable, as one supplied isn't very long.

You will also need sound if you plan to watch videos or movies. Please note this device does not come with any cabling or adapters for audio. To accomplish this I use a MP3 stereo adapter (I use a 6 foot cable, I bought it at Fred Meyer for about $3.50, I am sure you can get one on amazon for less than a dollar). This is basically a cable with a standard size headphone jack on one end (to plug into the pc headphone jack) and standard red and white RCA audio plugs on the other (for plugging into your tv or stereo). I plug my audio into my stereo for movie purposes.

Other than what I mentioned so far, you may have to adjust a couple of the buttons on the converter unit. Basically, these are for centering your picture. I put about 30 seconds worth of time into this procedure the very first time I used the device, and that is all that it required.

I have shown this device to a few friends, and all plan to get one. As a side note, I have mostly used my setup to watch online movies and tv episodes through hulu or through tv network websites. I hope this helps.

I didn't expect much from this little box, was quite uncertain which brand to buy, but this little box has everything I needed. The image quality isn't too shabby either.

Gotta be careful with some of the bad reviews out there. I know that most people who bought this is using it to pipe videos from their computer's VGA port onto their legacy, tube-based TV.

There was a reason why computers have monitors. You can't expect to read texts on a tube-based TV. Modern TVs have HDMI and Video ports because the line between monitors and TVs are blurring.

For most things like pictures, videos, presentation, this little box is exactly what you need to interface to those old legacy tube-based TVs.

The only thing I wished it came with was an S-Video cable, but at this price, even if it came with no cables other than the power, it would STILL BE WORTH IT.

Please people, don't give the product a bad review because your TV can't display texts and fonts from your computer, tube TVs were not designed to be able to display fine texts...

My wife and I have been watching streaming videos over the internet on my laptop for a long time and finally got sick of it. I ordered this so I could plug my laptop into the TV and watch it in much bigger size.
A couple of things to keep in mind:
- It didn't work well for me if my laptop was on battery power. There wasn't enough power going to the device thru the USB port. The picture looked weird. When I plugged in my computer, it was fine.
- You may want to figure out what you're going to do about the audio. If you're doing a setup like mine, you'll either have to listen to the audio thru your crappy laptop speakers, or do something else. I just used a standard adapter to plug it into the TV's audio inputs. That is, a 1/8" headphone jack to stereo RCA.
- The device comes with the yellow video cable you plug into your computer's video input, and then you can plug the stereo RCAs in next to it. Or you can use an S-video cable for the video input. I wondered if S-video would provide better video quality, so I bought a cheap S-video cable, but I don't think it makes any difference. Unfortunately, neither the yellow video cord nor s-video are really HD. I was sort of hoping I could find a device that converted a VGA output to the red/blue/green inputs on my TV, but this device does not do that.
- In my case, there are now a bunch of cords always hanging out of my TV. Luckily, my TV has space under it where I can shove all these cords, and then I can just close the entertainment center doors. If these options weren't available, I'd say all the cords would be kind of unsightly. If you only use it occasionally, you might just but the whole thing away and take it out when you need it. But if you use it with any frequency, you're not going to want to take it out and plug it all in every time you want to watch something.
Now that so much is available on network sites, hulu, youtube, etc., this device is very handy. Hopefully they'll come up with a wireless version someday.
Oh yeah, one more thing. One slight annoyance which has nothing to do with this device, is that many shows have commercials and then don't restore your show to full screen afterwards. You have to get up and do it manually after every commercial. Also, you'll want to turn off your screen saver so you don't have to get up and move the mouse every now and then.

This works very well as a solution for getting svhs / composite video out of a macbook pro unibody. If you have any problems make sure you check the dip switches.

After reading all the other reviews, I decided to try it out. When it arrived, I was able to set it up without a lot of hassle.

If you are not "tech savvy", you night want to read the instructions first, and be sure to pay attention to the dip switch settings if you run into problems.

I used the s-video (RGB) output when I connected it to my TV. Very happy with the product.

This product works as advertised. I love the small form factor and the fact that it is usb powered. I have purchased 4 total for several different projects. (2 Vehicles and One Yacht). There are plenty of adjustments that can be changed with the buttons on the side. (If you need to make adjustments. It was perfect every time I connected it.) Great design, ports are easily managed.

This arrived FAST...I turned my computer off (XP 4 years old)...plugged in the cables (all supplied) and turned my computer back on. I selected the input on my LCD TV and the picture was ON. Easy menu on the Tiny Module (cigarette pack) adjusts brightness etc. It has a Zoom button too. I can perform all mouse funtions on TV. I now watch all my web based video on a big screen. Not Hi Def, but very nice picture overall. Best Price, USB powered, foolproof, I love it. Since I dumped CATV and got broadband I can see ALL my cable shows on the Web for Free.