Re: VGA out on n900
 

Makes me wonder why they bothered then ;) How many people have a CRT TV these days.

Re: VGA out on n900
 

I'm sorry but I disagree, HDMI would have been extremely useful.

For a start, HDMI would mean a 480p/576p pure digital signal, component is a 480i/576i very lossy (aka fuzzy, poor colours) analog signal. Its also a lot easier to plug HDMI in to modern TVs, my TV has HDMI on the left side but component is on the back REALLY hard to get to.

There would also be the possibility of switching the N900 into dual monitor mode (assuming it can support this in hardware) so you then could have 720p+ externally with the LCD still at 800x480, for presentations/slideshow (display photos taken on the N900 at full resolution), full desktop, or even single-monitor (external only) where you run a kiosk off an N900 instead of a PC, using the N900 screen as a touchpad to control the mouse pointer. It may even be possible to do this now, but with component the only option for output its kinda pointless as the picture quality is so poor.

Basically, it would have made the N900 more of the PC they claimed it to be.

The video encoders are pretty poor too. I have never seen composite look as good as on the PS2, it was amazing on my old 14" CRT which for most other devices composite looked quite poor on compared to RGB SCART. Even the Wii did not look very good on that TV which is when I decided not to bother keeping hold of it anymore, as it didn't really look much worse on my 42" 1080p LCD, just the naturally more rough picture from being blown up so large. But the point is, had the N900 supported digital output it needn't have output a SD signal, it may very well have been able to do at least 720p for picture viewing and web browsing, which would have been really useful.

Re: VGA out on n900
 

Using mplayer is possible to see a movie on TV and in the n900 use a different window.

Re: VGA out on n900
 

A mistake a lot of people make these days - SD does not imply CRT - there are high definition CRT TV's just like there are SD LCD's and Plasmas.

Dont confuse component (three plugs for video) with composite (one yellow plug for video). Most of the TV's I have seen have composite as the easiest to access.

Thats a big call - are you basing that on what you have seen on your TV or what you have seen on an instrument?

Re: VGA out on n900
 

That seems to be true, here in Sweden the most usual connector on the side is the three composite connectors. I've yet to see a TV with a HDMI input on the side.

BTW, isn't there a mini-HDMI port? I think I've seen some cameras with it... you use a special cable and get a normal HDMI male connector but the female connector in the camera is pretty small..

Re: VGA out on n900
 

Yes there is - although i hate linking wikkipedia I just dont have time to find a more revelant link (work you know :D) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hdmi#Connectors

There even is a specified micro hdmi plug, but lets not go down that road - imagine if we had to contend with micro HDMI plugs fallign off as well as micro USB :)

All that said remember that the plug on the N900 is not only video, it works with headphones and the FM antennae too. If there was a HDMI plug there would be a requirement for a seperate headphone plug.

Re: VGA out on n900
 

You mean composite.

Re: VGA out on n900
 

Yes I did mean composite (I am usually the first person to pull people for getting those two mixed up) but in actual fact component is also a lossy, nasty connection compared to HDMI. I personally consider component to be composite for HD (even though its inaccurate seeing as component can do SD) as it suffers ghosting just like composite does. (although to be fair, so does VGA in some circumstances)

It is also true that many TVs have composite readily accessible. But it stands to reason that with HD being the "big thing" that more TVs with a front/side HDMI port will be common. My TV is already over a year old and has HDMI on the side with the composite relegated to the back.

Supporting HDMI would not mean ditching composite. Surely the headphones port would remain the same as it is now, we would just have an additional connector for HD output. Or maybe a special microHDMI connector that can accept HDMI or composite adapters. Whatever, I think it was narrow minded for the N900 to only have composite output when it would have been a true PC replacement if you could output a full desktop over HDMI, we know its powerful enough CPU wise, its just if the GPU would handle it (but I would think so).

Personally I really wish they would have put the headphones port next to the USB port, for easier docking (would be particularly useful for in-car mounting). Or possibly a microHDMI port next to the USB. The N900 is by no means optimal IMO, heck I even would have liked answer/hangup buttons but now I am getting off topic.

Re: VGA out on n900
 

Hi everyone.
I have been looking for a thread like this for two weeks and finally come across this today, thanks god (or thank you actually.)
I am looking for a way to connect my N900 to digital LCDs too, those without composite ports. But it seems I haven't tried hard financially!
I bought a $10-composite-to-VGA adapter, the one with female red-white-yellow and S-Video ports and male VGA port. However I still can not make my LG monitor (W53 Series) recognize the signal from N900.
The LG monitor has HDMI, DVI-P and VGA ports.
The N900 connects fine with, I think, any TV -- LCD or CRT -- with a red-yellow-white composite port, but without the composite port, no signal -- hopefully only in my case.
I guess the converter I bought just simply convert the phisical pins from the composite pins to VGA pins, but what I expect it should do is converting the analog signal from N900 to RGB signal the monitor can recognize.
There are only PAL and NTSC option in the TV out setting. Wishing it has RGB option so I can try.
Anyone be better luck with connecting to VGA monitor?