Connecting Internet to PC to AVR to TV

Question:
I, rather my wife, would like to view internet offerings on our home theater system, particularly the larger screen. I can find any number of articles on the physical connection to PCs/laptops (directly) to a TV but find little or nothing even in the AVR manuals on how to make physical connections to an AVR as well as what setup of the computer, AVR and TV needs to be done or what buttons to push to make the process happen.

My specific situation is more unusual than most given my TV is a LOEWE CRT which only has VGA/Audio and component video connections, i.e., no HDMIS and an older laptop which only has VGA/Audio outputs, i.e., again no HDMIS. The AVR is a Pioneer Elite VSX-50 which does have HDMIS, component video, etc.connectivity. The CRT is connected to the AVR via component video as are the DVR and DVD sources with all of this working just fine if, admittedly, not the highest resolution.

I have found the Sewell “Hammerhead” (active) adapter which will take the laptop VGA/Audio and convert to HDMIS which in turn can be fed to the AVR.

Assuming the Hammerhead does its thing, I still need to understand how to get the AVR to “see” the computer and communicate programming to the CRT.

Perhaps an article for people with less than SOTA (state-of-the-art) equipment would be of interest to readership.

Any thoughts on my particular situation would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

– Frank Z
Connecticut

Answer:
There is no easy way to do this on a display without HDMI now. The most direct method, but possibly not the best, is to convert the VGA (DSub) output from the laptop to Component video using an adapter like this one from Monoprice.

However, VGA to Component adapters are fairly flaky. They also usually have overscan or under scan problems so your image won’t be perfect. There are USB to HDMI adapters available so you can output the audio and video over a single cable, but then you can only get it to the receiver and not to the TV. Moving from the receiver with HDMI to the TV without HDMI requires you to convert from HDMI to Component video.

That could be done with another adapter.

This will connect to the HDMI output of the receiver and then go to the video input on the TV. Then a USB to HDMI adapter can be used to get the video and audio from the PC, to the receiver, and then to the adapter that will convert HDMI to Component for the TV.

These HDMI to Component adapters sometimes have issues (overscan, artifacts) but I’ve used them and they usually work OK. That’s the easiest way I can come up with to solve this issue.