Laptop to Receiver - what's my best option?

[socalrider]

Done a search, and couldn't quite find what I need...

I've got an HK AVR-254 coming shortly, and I'd like to use an 2yr old Lenovo T61 I have lying around as a HTPC to watch Hulu and stream Rhapsody. Not willing to spend much money on this, it's mostly a nice-to-have. I have a separate Bluray player. I'm running 720p.

What's my best bet? I have a VGA output and headphone outs only on the T61 last time I checked. Can I do VGA-Component for video and a 1/8-RCA for the audio and be okay? Obviously, video quality does not have to be stupendous, but decent audio quality would be nice.

Thanks!

 

[TLS Guy]

Done a search, and couldn't quite find what I need...

I've got an HK AVR-254 coming shortly, and I'd like to use an 2yr old Lenovo T61 I have lying around as a HTPC to watch Hulu and stream Rhapsody. Not willing to spend much money on this, it's mostly a nice-to-have. I have a separate Bluray player. I'm running 720p.



What's my best bet? I have a VGA output and headphone outs only on the T61 last time I checked. Can I do VGA-Component for video and a 1/8-RCA for the audio and be okay? Obviously, video quality does not have to be stupendous, but decent audio quality would be nice.

Thanks!

You can use the headphone socket for audio, but you can not send VGA to your receiver, or your TV unless it is the rare TV that has a VGA input.

 

[socalrider]

I was afraid of that -- something do to with synching... so I need some kind of transcoder or another way to get digital video out of my laptop, like a video card...

Anyone have any good suggestions? If I need a separate box, it'd be nice to go ahead and output everything digitally via HDMI. Is there a PC card or something that does this cheaply? This must be a pretty common problem, right? I'm amazed at how tough this stuff is to figure out! And I'm an engineer!

 

[TLS Guy]

I was afraid of that -- something do to with synching... so I need some kind of transcoder or another way to get digital video out of my laptop, like a video card...

Anyone have any good suggestions? If I need a separate box, it'd be nice to go ahead and output everything digitally via HDMI. Is there a PC card or something that does this cheaply? This must be a pretty common problem, right? I'm amazed at how tough this stuff is to figure out! And I'm an engineer!

You can convert the picture to HDMI. But that series laptop does not have a digital out from the CPU.

So I would convert the VGA with this unit.

Use the analog headphone output for audio.

 

[allargon]

Done a search, and couldn't quite find what I need...

I've got an HK AVR-254 coming shortly, and I'd like to use an 2yr old Lenovo T61 I have lying around as a HTPC to watch Hulu and stream Rhapsody. Not willing to spend much money on this, it's mostly a nice-to-have. I have a separate Bluray player. I'm running 720p.

What's my best bet? I have a VGA output and headphone outs only on the T61 last time I checked. Can I do VGA-Component for video and a 1/8-RCA for the audio and be okay? Obviously, video quality does not have to be stupendous, but decent audio quality would be nice.

Thanks!

The audio will be crap unless you have a way to send digital audio to your receier.

You can get an external video card for HDMI. However, for 720p, it's easier just to do component. You're not trying to do Blu-Ray, so you do't have those headache.

For audio, you want either an external sound car or a notebook sound card that has SPDIF out to your receiver. If you want decent audio quality, that's the way to do it, as consumer grade sound cards have less than stellar DAC's.

 

[socalrider]

Thanks a lot, folks. So I'm grabbing the VGA-HDMI scaler as well as a USB S/PDIF soundcard for audio from Turtle Beach for $30. Now with the wireless keyboard I should be good to go! I'll let you know how it works.

 

[RV Trax]

Sling Box

I recently purchased a Sling Box from best Buy for $120.00. It works great for complete digital audio and S-video as well as standard RCA video. It also has HDMI. They also make a Sling catcher to display TV to your computer.