Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

I recently obtained an old (Win7) laptop. The BIOS did not have a "boot from USB" option so I loaded Xenialpup on it from a CD I had lying around and it worked well.
I was hoping to connect it up to my TV and watch DVD's on it, but it has no HDMI connector. I was hoping to buy a USB to HDMI adaptor but I was curious if anyone knew of one which works with Puppy?
Thanks for your great advice!

I googled "display connector adapters" and found quite a few. I don't know if a USB-to-HDMI adapter would work in such an old computer because the max data rate for USB1 is very slow, but perhaps a VGA-to-HDMI adapter would work. I have a HDMI-to-VGA adapter, so I'm fairly sure that a VGA-to-HDMI adapter must exist somewhere.

As for working with Puppy, don't worry. If it works at all, it will work with Puppy.

For such an old PC I see 2 options

• Get a cheap video card that has an HDMI connector (less headache).

• Get a VGA & audio combiner box that produces composite output to the TV or HDMI output to the TV (more complexity)

Simplest may be the PCI video card which can be found very cheap in local computer repair shops or online shopping.

P.S. Do not get confused in cards. DVI/VGA are NOT synonymous with HDMI as they DONT carry the audio component of signaling from the PC to the TV..

Hello @scraginagpup
There may be a much better solution that does not use wires at all. Do you have a smart TV? And is it either an Android TV or a Google TV?

if so, either of these 2 simple solutions will work if your TV and your laptop are on the same home network.

• use a modern browser on your PC and cast to your TV

• OR, you can use TVs "play store" to install an client app on the TV to play media files from your laptop using any one of the modern forum WoofCE PUPs.

Much better solutions without the sometimes headaches of wires.

Here's another solution discussed here on the forum, as well.

Use the one you feel is simplest for your needs.

Thanks very much for the wonderful solutions!!...unfortunately, I don't have a smart tv, and it doesn't even have ethernet capability, but I completely forgot that it does have a vga connection, and was able to connect the two with a cable. Obviously sound is separate, but it works well...much appreciated!

@scraginagpup :-

Our own early Panasonic "smart" TV dates from 2010, the date of the "digital switchover" here in the UK. We chose ours because it had built-in FreeSat, giving a far wider choice of programs than the more widely-spread Freeview, which works through the rooftop aerial. It doesn't have Ethernet, but it does have a bunch of HDMI and USB connectors. I was considering one of those Google Chromecast devices; it plugs into one of the HDMI ports, and allows you to "cast" from any Chromium-based browser.....the Chromecast automatically pairs, streams content from your router to the TV and displays it on the screen.

In the end, we went with an Amazon FireStick. Can't connect to the PC, but in all honesty the two main things I want to watch on the 'big screen' are Auntie Beeb's iPlayer and NetFlix....and the Firestick allows 'installing' both as apps, so it's a done job anyway.

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The items I want to 'share' between the main HP rig in the bedroom and the Latitude lappie in the front room are usually files.....and for this, I use Bill's packages he built for the Simple HTTP Python server. It's installed on both machines, and works in both directions, not only 'reading' from the other machine but also permitting 'upload' of files, too. Which does what I need, reading the local file-system thru the browser. Works well.

Mike.