Hey guys, I could use a little help and figured combined you all know everything about everything.

Sapphyre bought a new tv last weekend and I helped her set it up. One of the things she asked when she bought it was whether she could hook her laptop up to it. The salesman said SURE!

So after much set up of wall units and stereo equipment we got the big bastard up at which point I realized that it doesn't have a VGA input. I've now spent many many hours trying to find the right way to convert her VGA signal to HDMI and while I know it is possible I'm having trouble figuring out where to get cables/adapters/scan converters from.

Most of the advice I've found involves replacing one or more of the items she already has.

Things to keep in mind.

The TV is otherwise fantastic and as such will not be returned for another model with a VGA input
The laptop(s) are top of the line but unfortunately do not have DVI outputs
S-Video sucks

There it is guys. Any advice anyone could offer would be greatly appreciated!

http://www.gefen.com/kvm/product.jsp?prod_id=1310

Expensive. But I don't remember seeing anything much cheaper.

What other inputs does the TV have? HDMI? RGB?

Best advice I can give you: Pack up the TV (very carefully), and ship it to me!!

Problem solved.

Wow... that IS expensive. I don't mind spending a couple hundred bucks but $300 plus shipping is a little more than I had anticipated. I guess I could always try eBay!

No it doesn't have RGB. Would have been much easier if it did as I could just use a breakout cable.

And ya, it has two HDMI inputs. One of which is in use by the PVR.

Ok. Sadly, VGA to HDMI isn't possible. At least not that I've seen. I had the same problem with my new tv. I just stuck to S-Video, since I didn't want to drop $300 either.

Found a couple similar boxes on ebay for much less. Thanks for the help Gleja!

Here's some stuff ~$200
http://www.hdtvsupply.com/vgatococo.html

If your video card doesn't have any sort of digital output, you will have to use a converter or get a video card that supports it. Either way, you are gonna have to drop $300. I would go for the new card.

My first thought was s-video. Your TV does have that?

I know that that's the easiest solution. But both of our cards are in our Alienware laptops. Not easily replaced :(
(Though if I had had any forsight I would have got one with DVI out)

And s-video just doesn't do her TV justice.

You might want to see if your particular laptop has a Docking Station available; most docking stations have far more outputs than the default laptop itself does, and that would actually make life even easier because you could keep the docking station by the TV and simply snap the laptop into it whenever you want to use the TV. I haven't checked Alienware lately, so I don't know if that's a possibility with them or not.