Quote:
Originally posted by The Kiwi
Anyway, Mr. TV Tech, *which* of these various connections CAN be converted in which direction without a lot of difficulty? |
The answer is that none of them can easily (well I guess S-Video can be converted to composite with just an adapter).
The thing is DVI-D, DVI-A/VGA/RGBHV, Component (YPbPr), S-Video (Y/C), Composite (Y+C for lack of a better term) are all fundamentally different signals and it is not trivial to convert from one to another. I think you are getting confused by two common adapters: the DVI-I->VGA adapter, and the ATI HDTV adapter (DVI-I -> VGA). What you need to realize is that neither of those "adapters" converts the signal:
DVI-I->VGA
Note the DVI-I, that means the connector (like on a video card) supports both DVI-D, which is digital - what most people think of as DVI, and DVI-A, which is analog - essentially VGA via a different connector. All a DVI-I -> VGA adapter does is change the DVI-I plug (DVI-A signal) into a VGA (HD-15) plug.
HDTV adapter
This is the same thing as the DVI-I -> VGA, but with a twist. All the adapter does is convert the DVI-I plug into Component plugs. But as I said there's a twist, it actually does something else, it tells the card it's connected (probably grounds a pin or two) which tells the card to output YPbPr instead of RGB (VGA) via the DVI-A part. Again, it doesn't convert the signal (that's done on the video card) it just changes the connection.
The VGA-S-Video cable is almost certainly the same thing, a special cable that when plugged into a card that supports it (like some Matrox cards IIRC) it tells the card to output S-Video instead of VGA, and the cable just changes the connection.