Thinkpads Forum

I know that the t60 has no dvi out. However, this can be solved by buying an advanced mini dock. I have also seen products online such as boxes which will convert the vga to dvi. http://www.gefen.com/kvm/product.jsp?prod_id=1209. However, both t the advanced dock and these after market converters are rather expensive. I want to be able to hook up my t60p to an hdtv. Are there any more affordable/viable options for this solution. Is there any possibility of lenovo adding a dvi port to the T60/t61 in the future?
Thanks.

There's a lot going on in your question.

The converter that you linked converts DVI to VGA. The usefullness of this product is VERY limited. The only time you would need this is when you have DVI-D (digital only) and need to drive an analog display. Most DVI outputs are DVI-I, which include both digital and analog signals. All that's needed is a simple adapter to drive VGA from DVI, and those adapters are commonly shipped free with video cards. I have a whole box of them sitting in the corner.

Besides, you want to go from VGA to DVI/HDTV. ATI has a VGA to HDTV adapter ( http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=2537968 , $29) that may do the trick. You should use the Catalyst Control Center to set it up (switches and mode). Be careful using these because they can damage your HDTV if you use the wrong settings. I don't know if this adapter will work with the mobility version of ATI's graphics chip, but it's worth a try.

Note that this is an adapter, not a converter. You should avoid converters that go from VGA to DVI. they must perform internal scaling and/or scan conversion and the output will be sub-par. Also, ATI doesn't support 16:9 aspect ratios in VGA mode, so you probably won't get the correct aspect ratio on your HDTV using a converter.

The only I know to get DVI output directly from a T60 without buying a dock is to get a PCMCIA or USB video adapter. But these will be too slow to drive an external HDTV. It's possible for someone to design a cable to hook up to the dock connector on the bottom of the T60 that gets DVI output without a dock, but until right now I don't think anyone's ever mentioned it.

If the $29 ATI part mentioned above doesn't work, your next best options (and most expensive, unfortunately) are to get an Advanced Mini Dock (AMD) or Advanced Dock (AD). AMD will give you DVI-I output, but it may not be compatible with many HDTV's. Broadcast video is very different from computer video, even in the HDTV world, and many TV's won't handle the computer signal very well. Your best bet is to get an AD and put a PCI-Express video card in the expansion bay that supports HDTV video output. There are many cards that do this (Matrox APVe, for example http://www.matrox.com/mga/workstation/v ... _apv_e.cfm). I have the APVe card and it fits in the AD just fine.

Thank you very much for your reply. Very insightful. Are computers with DVI ports built like the Macbook Pro much more easy to connect to HDTV's? I really want a t60p because I love thinkpads and my school has an amazing deal 2400 for loaded t60p with full warranty. But, I would also like to be able to hook it up to a tv to watch bittorrent shows off of it. I suppose I could always convert the files to divx and burn it to a dvd and just watch it that way. Thanks for the advice.

Assuming you don't have an HDTV yet, you could buy one that accepts a VGA input (my plasma takes VGA). Transmission medium is not as good as DVI, but that's not going to matter because the content (downloaded videos) will not even take full advantage of what VGA can do.

so can anyone confirm whether the ATI VGA to HDTV converter would work. I am looking for something to connect an older TV that doesn't have DVI as well as connect a new plasma that doesn't have VGA. You can get software that forces the external resolutions to be what you want, but I can't remember what it was called.

RonS wrote:There's a lot going on in your question.

The converter that you linked converts DVI to VGA. The usefullness of this product is VERY limited. The only time you would need this is when you have DVI-D (digital only) and need to drive an analog display. Most DVI outputs are DVI-I, which include both digital and analog signals. All that's needed is a simple adapter to drive VGA from DVI, and those adapters are commonly shipped free with video cards. I have a whole box of them sitting in the corner.

Besides, you want to go from VGA to DVI/HDTV. ATI has a VGA to HDTV adapter ( http://shop.ati.com/product.asp?sku=2537968 , $29) that may do the trick. You should use the Catalyst Control Center to set it up (switches and mode). Be careful using these because they can damage your HDTV if you use the wrong settings. I don't know if this adapter will work with the mobility version of ATI's graphics chip, but it's worth a try.

Note that this is an adapter, not a converter. You should avoid converters that go from VGA to DVI. they must perform internal scaling and/or scan conversion and the output will be sub-par. Also, ATI doesn't support 16:9 aspect ratios in VGA mode, so you probably won't get the correct aspect ratio on your HDTV using a converter.

The only I know to get DVI output directly from a T60 without buying a dock is to get a PCMCIA or USB video adapter. But these will be too slow to drive an external HDTV. It's possible for someone to design a cable to hook up to the dock connector on the bottom of the T60 that gets DVI output without a dock, but until right now I don't think anyone's ever mentioned it.

If the $29 ATI part mentioned above doesn't work, your next best options (and most expensive, unfortunately) are to get an Advanced Mini Dock (AMD) or Advanced Dock (AD). AMD will give you DVI-I output, but it may not be compatible with many HDTV's. Broadcast video is very different from computer video, even in the HDTV world, and many TV's won't handle the computer signal very well. Your best bet is to get an AD and put a PCI-Express video card in the expansion bay that supports HDTV video output. There are many cards that do this (Matrox APVe, for example http://www.matrox.com/mga/workstation/v ... _apv_e.cfm). I have the APVe card and it fits in the AD just fine.

i've recently bought a t61, with the NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M (128MB), in the past i've used s-video to scart cables to connect my computers/laptops to my tv. but as people know the t61 only having a VGA out. please excuse my ignorance but would this ATI adapter work with my NVIDA Quadro NVS 140M?
and also how could the adapter damage my TV?
finally does the adapter only work for HDTV that are NTSC or will it work for my HDTV thats is PAL ?