Need a video cable for my laptop

|tera|

|tera|

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Hi guys,

My Toshiba laptop doesn't have S-Video unfortunately and I want to connect my laptop to my television some way.

Are there VGA to AVI cables available? (don't know what you call the standard DVD-player cables, red, white and yellow).

Would appreciate a link or some suggestions, thanks :)
 
buy a sperate audio cable to plug into your laptops earphone port
 
if your TV has a HMDI input you could get a fairly well priced (Bout R150 i guess) DVI to HMDI cable. And then VGA to DVI converters are cheap.
 
BrokenLink said:
if your TV has a HMDI input you could get a fairly well priced (Bout R150 i guess) DVI to HMDI cable. And then VGA to DVI converters are cheap.
Click to expand...
I've got a normal 54cm CRT tv, nothing special. I'll get the HD tv and home theatre set one day, but for now my girlfriend and I are just setting up our own home, so it will still be a while before get the luxuries etc.

I just googled around for the remainder of the afternoon looking for a fairly priced media player enclosure. My aim is to get a DivX media player and a hard drive and use that on the television.

I've settled for this because of the price and the fact that I don't really need all the bells and whistles:
Media Player
HDD

If you can suggest something even more cheaper than the above, I'd appreciate it :)
 
@tera: There are many cheaper options. Personally I would rather look at something smaller. I am currently running my media player off a flash drive.

One of the cheapest media players (price includes SA shipping) - looks identical to the Merlin USB to TV which I am using at the moment. Quite happy with the Merlin ...
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10756
YouTube video of the player in action ...
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvR-8oDAx_s[/ame]
http://www.merlin-digital.com/product_info.php?products_id=54&osCsid=lppkaccr51beasejec0ar99jn2

Many others to choose from (white version of sku.10756 etc.) ...
http://www.dealextreme.com/search.dx/search.media players
I bought an Nbox locally last week off Bidorbuy (R300~R350) - can provide you with the seller's details if you are interested.
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.25604
http://www.nboxplayer.com/nbox_english/index.php?17a70f20

This is the locally available 2.5" HDD iSonic MP-405 model (~R350)
http://www.isonic.co.za/multimedia.htm
http://www.ikonicit.co.za/index.php?target=products&product_id=2374
http://www.prophecy.co.za/isonic-mp405-multmedia-player-sata-p-28511.html

HiFi Corporation are selling a GemSound DVD Divx player for R250. There are some pics of it here ...
http://www.hificorporation.co.za/uploads/specials/27102009/Glen.pdf
 
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Thank you Yotch.

My main concern however is to use the Media Player as an external hard drive as well. The options you showed me is cool, but it means I would need to transfer files across to flash memory more often than having a standard hard drive.

I do like the pricing though, especially of the DVD Player, but again, then I have write DVD's again.

I basically don't mind sticking a 2.5" drive into the player, so I guess I would definitely settle for the Isonic Player you quoted. I'll google for a few retailers and see their pricing.

Also are 2.5" drives not more expensive than 3.5"?

Thanks
 
@tera: That DVD player apparently has a USB port which can read Divx files off a flash drive. Shake&Bake bought one and is supposed to be giving us some feedback on the performance. It should also be possible to connect a USB hard drive to the port provided the hard drive is powered from its own power supply. This might be an option if you don't already have a DVD player.

You should be able to connect any external hard drive to the Nbox (2.5" or 3.5"). The difference in cost between 2.5" internals and externals is usually only about R50.

Here are some reasonably priced 2.5" drives ...

This 160GB 2.5" is selling for R290 if still available ...
http://superelectronics.co.za/
http://www.prophecy.co.za/-c-67_167_1123.html
http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/1692...l_ATA_SATA_1_5Gb_s_5400rpm_8MB_Cache_NCQ.html
http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/16864079/Samsung_Mobile_2_5_320GB_5400rpm_8MB_Cache_SATA_HM320JI.html
http://www.rebeltech.co.za/index.php?cPath=1180_1361
http://www.rebeltech.co.za/index.php?cPath=185_1175_1177&sort=2a&page=2

iSonic also sell some very cheap 2.5" external cases ...
http://www.prophecy.co.za/isonic-e100sata-external-hard-drive-enclosure-black-p-38636.html

Esquire is selling this media player for R499 excl. VAT.
http://www.kworld-global.com/main/prod_in.aspx?mnuid=1248&modid=6&prodid=246&flag=1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16815260025
http://twinseas.com/?p=47
They also have regular specials on Freecom 2.5" and 3.5" drives ...
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=197779
 
Thank you again for the resources and the effort Yotch. I appreciate it.

I've spoken with my girlfriend and we have sort of settled on the bundle I wanted in post 8.

That solution will just work better in the long term, as we will have external storage and not too extreme of a media solution.

All things considered, if I had large enough external storage already, I would probably settle for something like Nbox etc. but I don't, so that's an extra expense as well.

Thanks again :)
 
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