Ask the Experts: How do I connect a PC to my older projector?

Question: I have a Compaq Presario CQ70 laptop PC, running Vista, which I wish to connect to a Sharp XV-PN300 LCD projector in order to project video from the PC. The PC has a female VGA socket in addition to the usual USB ports. The projector has a female S-Video input socket, a yellow jackplug socket labelled "Video Input," and white and red sockets labeled "Audio Input." I have been told that I need a digital to analog converter with the appropriate cables. Is this true? Do you know where I can buy the correct connection equipment? Do I need to change the resolution on the PC?

Answer:

Connecting a PC to an older projector isn't really any different than connecting a PC to an older, analog television. I wrote a guide on some ways to do this years ago, which you can find here.

To summarize for your specific situation and address one of your specific questions, you do not need a "digital to analog converter" to make a connection to your older projector. The signal coming out of your laptop's VGA jack is already analog, but not in a format that your television can understand. The jacks on your old projector (or any older TV) look for chroma/luma signals, where as your laptop outputs 5 channel RGBHV. The adapter you need accepts video in the RGB format, then usually runs it through a TV encoder so it can spit out something that's compatible with TVs.

In your case, you'll need an adapter that can output PAL compatible signals, as that's what your Sharp XV-PN300 projector accepts. There are tons to choose from, like this one sold at Amazon. Shop around, and consider buying local so that you can return it to try another one if one doesn't work for you.

If your only goal is to watch video, you should be okay, but you'll need to set the resolution of your desktop pretty low to do things like read text.

Good luck.

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