Intel and AMD sign death warrant for VGA port

[Colonel Travis]

good riddance. Might as well be using a rotary telephone.

 

[Trucidation]

Monitors are chicken feed compared to projectors. Like many other companies we have more than a dozen here and I would describe them as exactly the opposite of cheap. If PCs aren't going to have any VGA-outs anymore then each and every single one of those several-thousand-dollar projectors are going to be rendered into very expensive paperweights.

 

[imeem]

good riddance. Might as well be using a rotary telephone.

my grandfather still uses them. I like them.

 

[Prof Kerfuffle]

Correct me if am wrong DVI is an analog signal whilst HDMI uses a digital signal, thus it provides audio. I cannot see a quality difference at all between VGA, DVI and HDMI. VGA is not dead to me but does seem out dated not having hdcp support.

I may be wrong but that's what I have read in the past

 

[imeem]

Correct me if am wrong DVI is an analog signal whilst HDMI uses a digital signal, thus it provides audio. I cannot see a quality difference at all between VGA, DVI and HDMI. VGA is not dead to me but does seem out dated not having hdcp support.

I may be wrong but that's what I have read in the past

DVi stands for Digital Visual Interface

 

[Everlong]

Correct me if am wrong DVI is an analog signal whilst HDMI uses a digital signal, thus it provides audio. I cannot see a quality difference at all between VGA, DVI and HDMI. VGA is not dead to me but does seem out dated not having hdcp support.

I may be wrong but that's what I have read in the past

DVI and HDMI are practically the same, just HDMI supports audio as well. I'm all for phasing out analogue and having digital. Even though DVI isn't mentioned, I don't think they're going to phase that out. Though if they do, then a simple HDMI-to-DVI converter is all that's needed. Not so simple doing VGA-to-HDMI as HDMI doesn't support analogue at all, unlike DVI.

 

[Prof Kerfuffle]

Correct me if am wrong DVI is an analog signal whilst HDMI uses a digital signal, thus it provides audio. I cannot see a quality difference at all between VGA, DVI and HDMI. VGA is not dead to me but does seem out dated not having hdcp support.

I may be wrong but that's what I have read in the past

DVi stands for Digital Visual Interface

Thanks, I knew that.

 

[Lordbob75]

Am I the only one that pictures 3 guys in a dark room, one wearing an Intel shirt, one a AMD shirt, and the third guy handing them a paper saying KILL VGA?

~Lordbob

 

[alphanumeric]

Correct me if am wrong DVI is an analog signal whilst HDMI uses a digital signal, thus it provides audio. I cannot see a quality difference at all between VGA, DVI and HDMI. VGA is not dead to me but does seem out dated not having hdcp support.

I may be wrong but that's what I have read in the past

DVI can provide digital and analog signals, thats why you can use a DVI to VGA adapter on some video cards. There is DVI-I, integrated, analog and digital. DVI-D, digital only. And DVI-A, analog signal only. You won't see many DVI-A, analog only connectors. Up until recently most video cards had DVI-I outputs, and the monitors have a DVI-D and maybe a VGA input.

 

[Maxxwire]

I personally hate the way HDMI looks on HDTV. It looks... Off. I don't know, but I don't like it.

When I got my new Win 7 computer I was looking forward to using HDMI with my 32" Sony Bravia and so I bought a new high quality Belkin Pure AV Silver Series HDMI cable, but I was in for a big surprise!

When I connected my computer to the Bravia using the HDMI cable the image was so severely overscanned that I could barely even see the window controls in the upper right hand corner of the screen and no matter how I adjusted my AMD 5570 graphics card to return to the 1366 X 768 screen size the Bravia displayed hard to read text and distortion artifacts across the entire display. What I later discovered was that HDMI has been mandated to output only 720 or 1080 lines of resolution and correcting the overscannresultec in distortions that appeared no matter what method I used to adjust the resolution to to fit the 768 line screen resolution of the Bravia.

This distortion of the adjusted screen resolution manifests itself not only in difficult to read text, but also in a matrix of lines which look like cracks in the surface of every picture. I went back to using a DVI to VGA converter and now have a perfect 768 lines of resolution without the overscanning or the very distracting distortions created by using the mandated 720 line resolution of HDMI.

That said, if anyone has a solution for converting HDMI's manditory 720 line resolution HDMI into 768 distortion free lines of resolution that perfectly fits the screen using the Bravia's HDMI port I'd be more than happy to hear about how to do it because that fine Belkin Pure AV HDMI cable is currently just lying around unused...

~Maxx~
.

 

[Kit]

Nice information Lee, looks like most people will need to stay away from the VGA only monitors that will be on sale.

you can still use DP to VGA adapters to drive a VGA only monitor.

I sure hope so because while I have this old Dell monitor from like the early 2000 era, it gets 1600X1200 max resolution and looks friggin awesome while doing it even though its rather bulky, not even my uncle's 1650X1050 LCD monitor looks that good.

 

[WolfSoul]

I don't really use VGA anymore and I don't recommend it to people I help with pcs.. however I do use/recommend DVI

 

[alphanumeric]

My current video card, a GT220, has a DVI and a VGA. My two 19 inch LCD's each have a DVI and a VGA connector. So I'm running one on DVI and the other on VGA. I think I'll be upgrading to a video card with dual DVI before too long. I'll grab one while they are still around. I likely won't upgrade to display port until I build a replacement for my current PC.

 

[toughbook]

There is still a huge # of people/organizations that still use devices that only have VGA ports. The automotive service industry being one of them. All the diagnostic tools, monitors, etc all have just that only port.

90% of all the Federal, State and Local Police use Panasonic Toughbooks that only have VGA. The latest fully rugged model has HDMI but they don't turn these laptops over every 2 or 3 years. They are made to last and some are still using 6 to 8 year old Toughbooks. They are not built to be the fastest computers with all the latest greatest options. Thier built for dependability & durability.

This is going to be a much larger problem than some people realize I believe.

 

[alphanumeric]

From what I have seen its already happening. I'm seeing less and less "new" video cards with VGA connectors on them. There is still some old stock of the low end video cards with them though. Seems to be the same deal with monitors. If you buy an inexpensive small screen LCD you may get a VGA connector. Odds are that will be the only input on it. Buy any decent sized good quality LCD and your odds of it having one go way down. Its only logical when you think about it. Screen prices are coming down so people are buying bigger screens with big resolutions. Plus if you go totally digital and ditch the VGA hardware on both ends, the video card and the monitor. I would think though that it will be years and years before VGA video cards etc, totally dry up. lol, at some point you'll probably pay a premium just to get one.

 

[toughbook]

I was just reading a review on a new top dollar 26" monitor and it had all 4.

 

[chev65]

I personally hate the way HDMI looks on HDTV. It looks... Off. I don't know, but I don't like it.

When I got my new Win 7 computer I was looking forward to using HDMI with my 32" Sony Bravia and so I bought a new high quality Belkin Pure AV Silver Series HDMI cable, but I was in for a big surprise!

When I connected my computer to the Bravia using the HDMI cable the image was so severely overscanned that I could barely even see the window controls in the upper right hand corner of the screen and no matter how I adjusted my AMD 5570 graphics card to return to the 1366 X 768 screen size the Bravia displayed hard to read text and distortion artifacts across the entire display. What I later discovered was that HDMI has been mandated to output only 720 or 1080 lines of resolution and correcting the overscannresultec in distortions that appeared no matter what method I used to adjust the resolution to to fit the 768 line screen resolution of the Bravia.

This distortion of the adjusted screen resolution manifests itself not only in difficult to read text, but also in a matrix of lines which look like cracks in the surface of every picture. I went back to using a DVI to VGA converter and now have a perfect 768 lines of resolution without the overscanning or the very distracting distortions created by using the mandated 720 line resolution of HDMI.

That said, if anyone has a solution for converting HDMI's manditory 720 line resolution HDMI into 768 distortion free lines of resolution that perfectly fits the screen using the Bravia's HDMI port I'd be more than happy to hear about how to do it because that fine Belkin Pure AV HDMI cable is currently just lying around unused...

~Maxx~
.

For my Bravia 52 inch I just had to go into the Nvidia drivers and selected HDMI and it worked perfectly, no other adjustments required. It looks much better than using the DVI. Although it may be different because of the bigger screen, it seems like the drivers should be able to make this adjustment.

 

[Maxxwire]

chev65- What is the screen resolution of your Bravia 52 inch? Did you need to compensate for overscan if it is not exactly 1080 lines of resolution when using resolution mandated HDMI?

~Maxx~
.

 

[Lee]

There is still a huge # of people/organizations that still use devices that only have VGA ports. The automotive service industry being one of them. All the diagnostic tools, monitors, etc all have just that only port.

90% of all the Federal, State and Local Police use Panasonic Toughbooks that only have VGA. The latest fully rugged model has HDMI but they don't turn these laptops over every 2 or 3 years. They are made to last and some are still using 6 to 8 year old Toughbooks. They are not built to be the fastest computers with all the latest greatest options. Thier built for dependability & durability.

This is going to be a much larger problem than some people realize I believe.

Your point is well made, albeit change is always just around the corner. I remember when USB first arrived on the scene everyone said it would never replace the parallel port. It did and it was a great move. Another simple was user ports for game controllers; USB replaced those. So business that are behind the bell will just had to break down and play catch up.

 

[chev65]

chev65- What is the screen resolution of your Bravia 52 inch? Did you need to compensate for overscan if it is not exactly 1080 lines of resolution when using resolution mandated HDMI?

~Maxx~
.

It's 1920x1080 so that might be the reason why it works with no adjustments required. I'm using the built in HDMI on my Intel board, I forgot that I took out the Nvidia card as it was only needed to boot up the board until I got the Intel drivers installed

It seems to me that if you are using the mini HDMI out from your ATI card that there should be a HDMI setting that should work.