DVI/HDMI to S-Video Cable?

So I'm getting a new laptop without an S-video out (only DVI and HDMI), but my TV only has S-Video In. A google search didn't give me any results, so my question is, is there a way to output video from laptop to TV?

 

There are dvi to RCA adapters available on sites like amazon. Honestly, it will still look bad on a CRT tv due to the low resolution.

 

I'm OK with having S-Video quality. I just want to be able to output from my laptop to the TV.

 

Hi mjt1987. Do you know if the DVI on your new laptop is DVI-I (both digital and analog signals) or DVI-D (digital signal only)?

Here's a DVI-D dual link connector.


And here's a DVI-I dual link connector.

 

Hi WackyT,

Thanks for your reply. It looks like DVI-I as it has the 4 inputs on the left.

 

Then you are good to go. It'll cost you 5-10$ for a DVI-I adapter to output to your TV.

 

Just like Tijo said, if it is a DVI-I then it is carrying an analog video signal which is what you need for S-Video.

You could try a DVI-I to VGA adapter to a VGA to S-Video adapter.

Of course, your video card has to be capable of outputting an NTSC or PAL TV video signal for this to work.

 

Is there a card incapable of outputting to a tv? I never came across one... Usually, they can output in whatever video format you need, at least that's the case with nVidia and ATI GPUs.

 

I've run across some without an actual TV out that wouldn't put out a TV compatible signal.

 

I'm not sure if newer cards still can do S-Video out over VGA (or analog DVI). I think that older cards generally supported TV out but I can't find a good definitive answer for newer ones. I'm going to guess you are going to need a VGA to S-Video converter box.