How to connect Laptop to TV using VGA?

Can I connect my laptop to my tv using a vga to rgb cable?

• Hey well i ordered a VGA to RGB cable a few weeks ago and well I thought it would work no prob, but when i connected my tv to my laptop my tv doesn't show the laptop display. Ive got the RGB cables plugged into the back of my tv under "component 2". When i hit Fn+F8 the tv screen flashes and the laptop screen turns black as if the tv was connected and receiving the signal. Is there something im doing wrong or is it just my tv? its a bit older its a panasonic hdtv 1080i my brother bought it about 4yrs ago( im guessing) when it first came out. thanks for the help! :)

• Answer:

  There are cable adapters that will connect VGA to Y-Pr-Pb (component video, or the red, green, and blue connectors), but these two video formats are not compatible. In VGA, red, green, and blue analog signals, and two digital sync signals are sent over separate lines. In component video, sync and luminance are sent over the "green" line, and the other two lines carry differential color information that isn't exactly the same as red and blue. The reason these cables exist is that some computers are able to generate a component (720p/i or 1080p/i) signal, output through the VGA port. If your computer is not capable of doing this, the best you can do is to display a black-and-white image by connecting the green output to the Y (green) input of the TV, and setting the computer to a mode that your TV can receive (usually 480 or 720 lines), with what's called "composite sync," where the two sync signals are overlaid on the green signal. The resulting image won't be true monochrome, because the red and blue channels will be missing.