[SWLUG] What's the difference between a VGA & DVI cable?

[Steve Hill]

On Wed, 15 Jul 2009, Mark Summerfield wrote:

> The last time I bought a monitor was so long ago I can't remember
> whether I have a VGA or a DVI port, and I don't know what the difference
> is.

VGA is analogue and is carried in a 15 pin high density D connector 
looking something like:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/VGA_Stecker.jpg

DVI comes in 3 flavours: DVI-A (analogue, carries the same signals as VGA 
but in a different connector), DVI-D (digital) and more commonly DVI-I 
(both digital and analogue).  Looks like:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/DVI_Connector.jpg

> I don't have the manual to my monitor and the manual for my PC
> doesn't say. I want to buy a new monitor (24" 1910x1200 so any
> recommendations appreciated:-) and I'm looking at a Samsung but there
> are two different versions and the only difference appears to be the
> cable.

I'm very happy with my 24" Dell that does 1920x1200.  It has VGA, DVI, 
Svideo, Composite and Component inputs.  Be aware that some older graphics 
cards are unable to do 1920x1200 on DVI (I run my monitor off the VGA 
port because my nVidia FX5200 can't do high resolutions over DVI even 
though it can over VGA).

  - Steve
    xmpp:steve at nexusuk.org   sip:steve at nexusuk.org   http://www.nexusuk.org/

      Servatis a periculum, servatis a maleficum - Whisper, Evanescence