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I got a cable which has a USB point on one side and an HDMI point on the other side. I was under an impression that I could watch movies from my computer if I connect my computer to the TV using this cable. But looks like I was wrong.

Does anyone know if such cable need some driver to make it work? Thanks for any input.

(My computer is a Dell All-in-one PC which cannot take an extra graphic card. That's why I am trying my luck with such a cable.)

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Pics or it didn't happen. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Jan 12 '11 at 15:57
Nothing happened. The Windows 7 did not detect the TV at all. – Nirmal Jan 12 '11 at 16:23
... Of the cable. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Jan 12 '11 at 16:33
Oh OK. I have added a photograph of the cable. Thank you for your time. – Nirmal Jan 12 '11 at 16:52
Usb to HDMI? What's next an Ethernet to audio cable?!? – Jeff F. Feb 1 '11 at 21:49
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4 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

HDMI is a completely different signal from USB. Unless there's a sophisticated converter somewhere on the line which does downsampling, re-encoding, and so forth, you can't just plug one into the other. (For one thing, HDMI is 10.2 GB/s, while USB is only 1.5-625 MB/s.)

My guess is this cable was built for a specific device, and they 'borrowed' some of the unused HDMI pins to send a USB signal over. If you don't have that device, it's of no use.

I don't know of a HDMI-to-USB converter, but I've seen many USB-to-HDMI converters. On newegg, they tend to run $80-100.

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Thank you, Ken. – Nirmal Jan 13 '11 at 3:37
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up vote 5 down vote

You most definitely certainly absolutely can not watch video from your PC this way.

What you have here is likely a management cable for a TV or something. TVs these days have their own firmware that needs updated from time to time, as well as calibration and what not. If they didn't feel like putting a USB or serial jack on the TV for this purpose, they probably just hooked it up to the same plug as the HDMI. The TV would detect then if it were attached via USB or HDMI and act appropriately.

Either that, or you have a brilliant example of some Chinese plant selling thousands of these cables to people who don't know better.

In any case, what you have is proprietary, and won't work like you are thinking.

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LOL! Thanks. Luckily, I can return the cable to the same shop where I bought it, defeating the efforts of that Chinese plant ;) – Nirmal Jan 13 '11 at 3:34
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up vote 1 down vote

Most likely, this is a DisplayLink cable. That is, a USB-based video card with an HDMI output. Performance for video will not be stellar, but since you already have the cable, you might as well give it a try.

Download DisplayLink drivers here

Note, however, that HDMI does also support the USB protocol, so I suppose it is also possible that this could be a management cable rather than a DisplayLink device.

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I don't have a USB based video card. So, ended up confirming that it's a management cable. Thanks for your answer. – Nirmal Jan 13 '11 at 3:36
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up vote 0 down vote

That cable was not from Displaylink. You need a USB to HDMI adaptor which you can find at www.displaylink.com/shop.

The performance for video is 30FPS for 720p full-screen.

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