Getting HD Video Out of My T400?

Since buying an HD TV, I've been discovering the joys of using my T400 for watching current movies and television from certain websites that offer them in HD quality. Currently, I just use a VGA cable from the TV to plug directly into the T400. I have a docking station, but it offer DVI (not HDMI, which my TV wants).

Are there any solutions I don't know about to get a digital signal out of the T400 that my TV will accept (HDMI, "component"?), and if so, will the signal be true HD (i.e., 720p)?

Thanks in advance,

Jon

 

They do make DVI to HDMI cable, but since you DVI doesn't do audio you'll need to get a cable for that.

 

Thanks--is it worth it? I.e., will it be significantly better than what I'm getting through my VGA cable (and seperate audio cable) now?

 

Can't VGA output support 1080p?

 

not really

 

I found that Lenovo now has a "USB Port Replicator with Digital Video" (~$95), and there are DVI to HDMI cables with audio patch cable bundled in. Of course, I suppose trying it is the only answer to the quality question....

 

Why would you want to do so when you have a docking station with DVI-out already? Just get a cheap (<$10, and often <$5) DVI-male to HDMI-male cable to connect your dock to the TV, and then get another cheap audio cable (definitely should be <$10) to transfer audio over to the TV.

 

Why do you say that VGA cannot really support 1080p? Plenty of people use VGA connection with their monitors at 1920x1200 or 1920x1080 resolutions.

 

its not impossible but vga doesn't really have enough bandwidth to transfer crisp proper images at that sort of resolution you start getting lower picture quality after 1400x900 from my experience

 

I'm in cahoots. 1080p over VGA has quite the fuzz factor vs DVI/HDMI/DP. The picture is noticeably degraded, which makes sense because it goes through a D/A->A/D conversion from graphics card to display.

 

I guess it is YMMV. I connect my monitor (1920x1200 @ 60Hz) to my ThinkPad with a VGA connection, and I have not noticed any image quality issues. Even individual pixels are crisp clear and stable.

 

I agree. Although VGA does not have any built-in resolution limits as far as I know, the effective bandwidth pretty much limits it to a max of 1680x1050 resolution.

Not wanting to buy an HDMI cable, I tested my HTPC desktop with a VGA cable to my HDTV, and the image quality was so crummy that some text was difficult to read. When I spent the few dollars on an HDMI cable and tried that out, it was much, much better.

 

Well am planning to buy a T500 within a month , ie by dec 25 .. using 20% coupon.. Does t500 support HDMI., well the specs tell i can't is there any way i cld use a cable or converter like something to make it support HDMI... ?

 

It uses displayport, and IIRC, there are adapters to go from displayport <-> HDMI (Video only though).