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

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.

I needed to connect my older Macbook Pro with a DVI output to my 10 year old Sony Picture in Picture.With the help of a small $3 adapter (DVI to VGA) this item works perfectly. Far superior to the Monoprice converter that flaked out on me after three months. The picture is better, the color adjusts easier and the item is not as cheap and flimsy as the Monoprice. I can stream netflix and hulu and the picture looks almost as good as the original 640X480 broadcast of some of the older shows (Like the X-files) I've only had it for a little over a month but my prediction is that it will last much longer as it's made better. The only negatives are the having to adjust the color every time you turn it on (your computer or the TV) If you are someone that leaves your computer on 24/7 and also leave the device plugged in this will not bother you. But I like to conserve electricity nor do I want my computer "out there" on the net all the time so it's a bit of a hassle. The only other issue is you can't get the colors perfect as much as you adjust hue and saturation. It will be close but definitely a little off. If you want a better picture choose 640X480 non-stretched on your Mac Mirror choices. (I had to google that to figure out exactly how to mirror) then hit zoom in on the converter button choices. This will only work on older TV's - otherwise you would have black bars on all four sides. My advice about the color issue is figure out exactly how many "clicks" it takes for the saturation and hue buttons to get to optimal color and remember or write it down. It may vary slightly by programming (a couple of clicks here and there) but it will save you a ton of time as you won't have to re-invent the wheel each time your power on. Enjoy!

Many people who are writing reviews for this thing, have never transferred video over to a tv screen before. As I have done this before, I already know about the quality one could expect. People always forget that a computer monitor has a screen resolution of up to 1680 * 1050, however standard CRT TV's can only handle up to 1024 * 768 at best, while most would handle 720 * 480. Because of this, you have to expect a quality loss, not even HD TV's can go beyond 1280 * 1204 yet!Now taking this into account, this is why I give this converter box 5-STARS. First of all, installation couldn't be anymore simpler, they provide all the cables that you are going to need. However, since my computer's video card has two outputs, I didn't have to worry about plugging the monitor into the converter box. I just connected the converter to the video card, connected its power source, and then connected the RCA component video cable.Now here is something you need to know, the image will most likely not be immediately transferred over to your TV. What you need to do is, go into your video card software, weather ATI Catylist or Nvidia Control Center, and set the display options to clone over to your TV screen. After you do this, you will need to lower your resolution down to 1024 * 768 or 720 * 480. After you apply these options, you should then see the image transferred over to your TV screen. :-)Now, one of the things I like about this box is, they provide buttons that allow you to alter, screen size and position, brightness and contrast, and sharpness of the image. This gives me some flexibility so that I can adjust the display properly on screen. To be perfectly honest, I think this converter displays images quite well on screen considering.I am able to watch movies, or news, or whatever I need to display, and I am quite satisfied. I mean, if thats all you need to do, there is no need to spend 100 bucks on something, when it can be had for only 20! Works as expected, 5 out of 5.

Did not work - screen flashed up briefly but then disappeared. Went through USB connection using a different adapter and that worked perfectly

It did the trick and I was able to watch films from my laptop on the TV in the sitting room.