I just bought a notebook with a dvd player and was wondering how I can get A/V out of this thing into my home audio system? Is ist a pci card type thing or a cable of some sort? My notebook definatly doesnot have any traditional outputs on it. Thanks in advance for your help.

You have to get an external box called a scan converter. It converts the VGA signal into one that can be accepted by you'r TV. You can find them in most computer stores and they range in price from $100 to $300. They usually come with the necessary cables that go from you laptop's VGA out (monitor out) to the box, and cables from the box to the inputs on your TV. I have not used one of these so I cannot tell what the quality is like. I believe one brand is AITech, and another is ADS. Hope this helps.

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MY SHORT BUT SLOWLY EXPANDING DVD LIST

It would help to know what make and model notebook you have.

You can either use a VGA-NTSC scan converter as recommended by Cloud, or you may want to get a Margi DVD-To-Go PCMICIA card. If your laptop uses software decoding of the MPEG-2 video streams the DVD-To-Go card could improve the performance of your system as well as giving you traditional video outputs that you can connect to your TV.

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Ralph LaBarge
AlphaDVD
[email protected]

I have a compaq 1900 xl 163. It has a dvd player and a Rioport audio manager as a separate program. Using a pc card souds preferable as we will be traveling for a year. Thanks.

Thanks for adding the PCMCIA Card possibility. I forgot about that. I am pretty sure chillg8r's laptop uses software decoding, so I think the PCMCIA solution you mentioned is the better way to go.

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MY SHORT BUT SLOWLY EXPANDING DVD LIST

To Ralph LaBarge:

Need to know where to purchase the Margi DVD-To-Go PCMCIA card - know I have MPEG-2 decoding in my new Compaq laptop.

Thanks a lot.

Howard Knox

Howard, just do a search for the product and it'll turn up the manufacturer which will sell you direct for $299.

Does anyone know if there are any less expensive alternatives?

Howard Knox - If your notebook already has hardware MPEG-2 decoding I am not sure you really want to add a Margi DVD-To-Go card. It probably wont give you better DVD playback. Before you spend any money make sure that your system does not already have a video output connector on the back of the unit. In my experience most portable computers that have hardware MPEG-2 functions also include a video output connector. Look for an RCA connector on the back of the unit, probably yellow in color. If your system has one of these you can probably already connect it to a TV.

CDW.com has the Margi DVD-To-Go cards in stock, although they are charging $250 for them. I am sure you can find them somewhere else for less. Here is a link to the CDW.com page for the product.
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.asp?EDC=49847

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Ralph LaBarge
AlphaDVD
[email protected]