Advise, please? laptop, with NO HDMI..

[rosalynsam]

I am considering purchasing a new lap top, and it doesn't have the HDMI - and I really have no idea if I need it. I'd like to have the capability of projection from my laptop for my photographs/presentations. Do I need the HDMI? I've searched the forum and saw what seems to be a solution (an extra cable for some applications, which I'm not sure I understood), but it also comes with warnings that it isn't really recommended. The laptop monitor is widescreen - is that a problem? I am illiterate when it comes to much of the connections, what is needed, what is good, what is bad....any help is appreciated - thank you!

[cdwise]

Sort of depends where you will be presenting. I've never used HDMI for presentations though I've used it for watching movies on my HDTV and from my tablet's dock for my computer monitor.

A lot of laptops have a display port that you can get a cable to connect to an HDMI if you need it but you'll only find HDMI on higher end laptops.

For presentations I've always used projectors that use a standard monitor port.

[brap]

Does the laptop have a dvi-out? If so, you can just buy a dvi - hdmi cable on ebay for about $5 and you'll be sorted.
HDMI sends same video signal as DVI except HDMI also includes audio. So you can send DVI-to-HDMI with no loss of quality. Just buy something like http://cgi.ebay.com/3-FT-HDMI-To-DVI...item3353c747f6