Have a computer question, a friend has an ASUS desk top computer...rest in details?

VGA is analog while HDMI is digital, the signals are different, and monitors are not equipped to handle translation; they only receive signals. If you wanted to do something like that, you would need an actual VGA to HDMI converter. However, that one is $300, so lets find a cheaper way.

There are certain TVs like mine that have VGA and HDMI inputs, though using the VGA input results in degraded image quality and lack of sound. But that would require extra cabling to get sound (I use a Sony 5.1 receiver hooked to my PC’s Audio Out for sound), so if you want sound from the TV, then we are left with only one viable option; upgrading the video card to something from this century. Literally. They started moving to DVI+VGA or straight DVI in 1999.

The fact that he lacks the DVI port that normally gets hooked to HDMI input via adapter cable makes me doubt his his computer (or rather, the video card) is new enough to even handle online movies anyways, at least at HD resolutions. As there are two VGA ports, it seems he already has a “video card” (I use the term loosely, due to it vintage) since machines without cards have only one VGA port on the motherboard. But the video cards I can think of old enough to lack DVI are old/weak enough that they don’t handle 720p video well, and 1080p just won’t happen. Trust me, I still have a Pentium 4 with the best AGP card I could find, and it can’t do YouTube; even 480p makes it choke if I try to go full-screen.

If his system can take PCIe cards (I could tell if I had a model number, or guess if I knew it’s age) and all he wants is online movies, he doesn’t need a $100+ gaming card like mine; he could get away with a cheap card like this one with one of these cables. And they are really simple to put in, not much different from putting a book on a bookshelf, or a pop-tart in the toaster. If his system is old enough to have an AGP slot though, then it’s best to just remove the hard drive (to not lose old pictures and such), and get a new computer.