VGA to HDMI cable is a lie

I am normally very happy to just sit by and not say a word as companies make and sell whatever products they want, even terribly conceived ones. Today, however, I feel like I need to say what's on my mind.

The Situation

For anyone who's experienced with computers and home theater systems, you know what VGA and HDMI connections are used for. Lots of people these days are hooking their computer to their TV in order to watch streaming video content on their big TV instead of their little monitor. This will often require you to connect the VGA output of the computer to the HDMI input of the TV.

The Lie

There are companies who are selling cables with a VGA connection on one end and an HDMI connection on the other. That may not seem like a problem to some, but let me explain. VGA is an analog signal and HDMI is a digital signal. In other words, they are absolutely, in no way, directly compatible. All this cable does is tether your computer to your TV and start sending your TV signals that it is not designed to interpret through that port.

These companies know that there are lots of people trying to connect the computer to the TV and they know that many of them don't know enough about the signals to understand why this won't work. In short, these companies are trying to get your money in exchange for something that they know won't work.

Fortunately, I'm not the only one out there who recognizes this and wants to warn people. VGAtoHDMIcable.info has a good article up about the VGA to HDMI cable.

The Correct Solution

The correct solution is to get an analog to digital converter that will take VGA as an input and output HDMI. I've already discussed this recently, so i won't go through it again. Just check out my hub on HDMI Converters.