By: Stephen M

Stephen M — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:33:56 +0000

I am highly suspicious of any one size fits all answer for questions like this and I think you are at risk of buying into Lucus’s answer and especially since you did not tell us what sort of content would try to go over this connection.

There are two basic issues here.

1. HDMI is digital whereas VGA is an analog connection

2. HDCP (high bandwidth digital copy protection)

While it is possible to convert between a digital signal and an analog one (sort of), in other cases it isn’t going to work and here is why:

The following quote is taken directly from the HDCP spec:

… high-definition digital video sources must not transmit protected content to non-HDCP-compliant receivers…

In this case, your computer is the source and the projector is the non-HDCP-compliant receiver.

Now… if you are going to just do a Power Point presentation on the projector, it is possible this may work, depending on the peculiarities of how the connection is implemented in your Dell plus how good the design is for the device you are apparently going to buy.

However, I know lots of people are reading this and so even if this works in this particular case for you, I wish to clarify for everyone else out there who then logically thinks “Hey… if he can do this, why can’t I hook my computer up to my and play blu ray movies on it?”

Any Blu-Ray movie is going to have HDCP built into it and thus you will almost certainly have a blank screen, if you should ever try this.

By: Lucas

Lucas — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 03:00:21 +0000

Hey brian, i had the same problem on the laptop for a customer, all i did was

go to ebay

and bought him a adapter

That’s US only…so it’s faster to get to you, but more expensive, dont worry you’ll get a good one for under $50..Good being nice looking.. the cheap ones are just bulkly made, and not much thought in it just that they work

Have a good day

Best answer please

Comments on: HDMI to VGA on Dell Studio 14z?

By: Stephen M

By: Lucas