How do you connect your Computer to your TV?
Recently there is a lot of commotion about people dropping their cable companies and just plugging in their TV's into their computers and watching cable through their computers via Netflicks, Hulu, and about a thousand other providers out there. personally, I only watch a few shows and have no reason to pay for TV all day long if I only watch a couple hours a week. So the idea of plugging my computer into my TV is awesome. However, If people are anything like me, then they don't have nice fancy TV's that natively take the VGA or DVI connection from the computer.
When I looked at the back of my TV I found that my TV didnt have the connections I needed. All I have on my computer is that useless VGA connection (useless for my TV anyways...). Then the only connections I got on my television are Composite (RCA) or Component (YPrpb). A majority of people just give up at this point, but there are some of us that don't want to accept the reality of our situation, I wanted to connect my computer to my TV, and didn't care what I had to do.
Upon doing a little research I found you can get some little conversion boxes that turn that pre-assumed useless VGA connection into something useful. However, I found myself at a cross roads. On one hand there were the VGA to Composite converters. On the other hand there was the VGA to Component converters. Sure there are lots of little features on each that seem nice, but the major thing I noticed up front was, the price. Component is like, five times as expensive! It can't possible be worth it right?
If I must choose, which is best?
Upon doing a bunch of research, checking with friends, and a bunch of other stuff I was able to get the low down on these mysterious converters. What it really boils down to what you need it for. If you only wanted to watch YouTube videos or simple things like PowerPoint presentations where its all standard video or large text, then by all means get the VGA to Composite converter. I found that the VGA to Composite's quality is going to be somewhere around a nice VHS which is just fine for most applications. The reason it drops in quality so much is simply your going from a VGA connection which is a type of High-Def connection down to a composite which maxes out at a screen resolution of 480i. (Example: Your Nintendo Wii maxes out at this unless you have component connections)
To put that in perspective, on your computer screen, if you change that to 1024x768 (which is relatively low for most new computers) that resolution is going to be rather close to 720p. So that conversion to your TV is going to be a very large jump, going from 720p to 480i. For a lot of people this is like a night and day difference. Regardless on how nice your RCA converter is, it just wont look as great as the VGA connection. A lot of times you will see on pages saying that one is better then the other, but in reality, they are all the same, you just get some extra bells and whistles sometimes.
If you are wanting to surf the Internet, check your email, and pretty much do everything you do on your computer, on the television, then your going to want to go for a better connection like Component, HDMI, DVI, or a direct VGA connection. There are converters for each of these, and DVI can be natively converted right into HDMI if you got the connections. (Side note: You can get single link and dual link DVI to HDMI, little known secret is that, they are exactly the same despite what they may tell you.)
In my case, I don't have a fancy TV with those connections so I was mostly looking into VGA to Component. With component your going to get a very clear picture that you can usually set up to 720p or 1080i (people debate on which looks better so I list both). You will be able to surf the Internet and do whatever you would like to do on your computer on your TV just fine. Of course its not going to look as good if you were natively viewing a VGA to VGA or HDMI to HDMI connection but it will look way good. So depending on what you would like to use it for would be which one you would purchase.
If you're strapped for cash and all you want to do is watch YouTube or simple slide shows in a classroom, then composite would work great. If you want a high quality picture and you got a few extra dollars then by all means, go for component or better. You will be much more happy with the better connection, even though it does cost a bit more.
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