How to connect a toy with AV cables to a laptop that has HDMI?

September 9, 2018 6:36 PM

Apologies in advance for the lack of tech knowledge here! I got a Fisher Price Smart Cycle secondhand. It is basically a stationary bike for kids, that comes with game cartridges. You are supposed to connect it to a TV, so it has white and yellow audio and video output cables. I prefer to connect it to my laptop, which has HDMI and USB connections, not audio and video In jacks.

Is there a way I can do this? I have a lot of multi-ending cables around, but none of them have AV in/out on one end and HDMI on the other. Thanks!

posted by leslievictoria to Technology (7 answers total)

If you're referring to RCA cables, and I think you are, something like this might work:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/5Ft-1-5m-HDMI-Male-to-3-RCA-Video-Audio-AV-Cable-1080P-For-DVD-HDTV/932201377

or this:

https://www.amazon.com/MonkeyJack-Video-Television-Splitter-Adapter/dp/B07855Y8DX/

I'd go with HDMI over USB for this, but I'm far from an expert...

Make sure that the cable you order has the appropriate male vs. female ends for what you want to do.
posted by cgs06 at 6:46 PM on September 9, 2018

Most likely a larger barrier to this is that laptop HDMI's are generally meant to be outputs not inputs, and won't usually work the other way.

Some kind of USB tv tuner might work. They're the things you hook up to a USB to watch and record over the air tv. Maybe an adapter from the toy into one of those then into laptop USB?
posted by Wulfhere at 6:54 PM on September 9, 2018 [8 favorites]

Another term to search might be "USB video capture" (here's an example.)

The laptop will then have to run software to speak to the USB and show the image. It sounds like the software that comes with those cheap usb things aren't great, but there may be some free alternatives that can be downloaded.
posted by Wulfhere at 7:05 PM on September 9, 2018 [4 favorites]

Yeah, most laptops are not going to be well-equipped for video input. Do you have a monitor that you ever plug the laptop into? That would be much better.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:58 AM on September 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

Your laptop has an hdmi output, and the bike has a composite video output so the two will not naturally work. You will need to buy a video capture device with composite input that connects to the laptop via USB and hopefully it has software that allows real time viewing.

I just searched on amazon for “usb video capture device” and found a whole bunch ranging from $13 to $100

I would not try this and i suggest instead find a composite video standard def TV for free. Craigslist and curbsides abound with these tv’s. My experience is that anything having to do with composite video is so far away from the high end/current technology/high profit margin side of the business that the products are very cheaply made and often unreliable. You will probably be stuck with the bundled software that only works with your device and if that fails you the only option is to throw out the hardware and buy something else.
posted by sol at 8:47 AM on September 10, 2018 [3 favorites]

I would go to a charity shop and look for a small, cheap LCD monitor with AV inputs for $20.
posted by bonobothegreat at 9:41 AM on September 10, 2018 [1 favorite]

The yellow plug is the one carrying the video, called "composite video" because it crams all of the video signals onto one wire. It's low guality but it works.

So look for a used monitor that has a composite video input, with a yellow jack.
posted by intermod at 6:46 PM on September 10, 2018