was just on ebay looking for some cheap alternatives to buy HDMI cables… found some, quality was questionable… then I stumbled upon some people selling “HDMI to VGA/RCA” cables.

I was surprised for a moment. How’s that possible??

I should state that, it sure is possible to fabricate such a cable. It’s easy to just take any wire and put any sort of connectors at both ends. But watch out!! They are likely not to work.

The engineer in me knows that HDMI and VGA/RCA connections carry completely different type of signals. HDMI is pure digital and VGA/RCA are pure analog. There’s no way you can just take a cable, hook up the components and they will work.

For a start, if your equipment doesn’t get fried, you should already be lucky!

In reality, what you really need is a coverter box. A dedicated piece of equipment that converts HDMI signals to RCA or VGA.

So, be warned, don’t get suckered by simple cables that appear to do the trick. No such thing!!