This tend to be the general consensus on forums:
It won't work. VGA to DVI is possible, because there are two kinds of DVI signals:
- DVI-I, which has both analog and digital output, and
- DVI-A which has only the analog output
So if you hook in the VGA → DVI cable, the signal will be analog on the DVI-end of the cable. Since HDMI is digital, it doesn't support analog signals.
But there are signal converters that can convert digital to analog RGB, but they cost like 300$ at least. So you'll need a HDMI to DVI cable and a signal converter similar to this.
The adapter you found on eBay is a (minor) fraud. It cannot provide DVI-I. It can only provide DVI-D. DVI-I is a combined connector for both DVI-A (essentially VGA) and DVI-D. HDMI is only compatible with DVI-D. If you connect a DVI-VGA adapter to the one from eBay, you won’t get any picture at all.
So you need something else to convert HDMI to VGA, and that something is an active converter. For convenience, I’ll just copy the link from Chavez’ answer: https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Active-Adapter-Support/dp/B008O7RH5C
Best Answer
HDMI can easily be converted to digital DVI.
Analog DVI can easily be converted to analog VGA.
The step in the middle where you want to convert the digital DVI to analog DVI is not trivial and requires an active and relative expensive* adapter.
It might actually be cheaper to buy an USB graphical card with a VGA out and use that as a second display.
*Expensive as in the order of: £50 / US $76 / 4100Rp