[Gllug] TFT Monitors

[Richard Jones]

On Tue, May 30, 2006 at 02:53:42PM +0100, Dan Stevens (IAmAI) wrote:
> You can get converter cables for a reasonable price so there would
> be no that. [...] If your graphics adapter has a DVI port, I'd look
> into DVI monitors but it may be cheaper to buy a VGA monitor and an
> DVI to VGI adapter (DVI cards often come with a converter anyway).

There are various gotchas here.

A DVI plug/cable is capable of transmitting both analogue and digital
signals, but that doesn't mean that the monitor is capable of
displaying both sorts, nor that the computer will produce both signals
either.  I've seen one "hi def" TV which only displayed the analogue
signal from DVI, and I'm pretty sure that my computer monitor would
only display the digital signal, although I've not tried.  I tried an
Apple PowerBook with a DVI connector and it seemed to only produce the
digital part of the signal.

VGA (analogue) to DVI (digital) conversion isn't possible -- well, it
*is* but the conversion boxes are really expensive.  It's not
something you should do anyway because in effect you're converting
digital (graphics card memory) to analogue (VGA output) back to
digital.

So safest to get a graphics card with a DVI connector on it if you're
going to get a monitor with a DVI input.  A second hand GeForce 4
shouldn't be too expensive these days ...

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones, CTO Merjis Ltd.
Merjis - web marketing and technology - http://merjis.com
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