Summary: Depending on what you're doing, you may or may not need digital video output for your LCD monitor.
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I'm thinking of buying a TFT (LCD) screen. The model which I can afford only has analogue inputs, what do I lose out on if I don't have digital inputs? |
I love my LCD monitor. I highly recommend them. Not only are they clearer than their older CRT counterparts, but in general they use less power and take up less space.
But what's the difference between an analog or digital input?
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In a nutshell, the difference is sharpness.
An analog signal will be somewhat less sharp and has the possibility of some small amount of ghosting depending on the quality of the cable and connection to your computer.
Because there's no digital to analog and back to digital conversion - a digital signal avoids all that. The images will generally be much crisper and clearer.
If you're stuck with only an analog connection, either because your computer has no digital output or because your monitor has no digital connection, you may or may not notice. It depends on what you're doing, the quality of your video card, cable, and specific monitor.
Either way, it'll still be much better than a regular glass monitor.
Article C2251 - December 31, 2004
SOrry I forgot to say that my old graphics card didn't need and dvi connection, but the geforce 6800 GS does and thats why i ask....thanks again!
Posted by: J-Spartan at September 9, 2006 3:24 PMI have a computer, an LCD monitor and Direct TV satellite. I want to either use my current monitor to somehow watch TV via the satellite, ot I want to buy a new LCD that willserver both purposes. What is the best way to go about this without having a whole nother LCD sucking down power?
Posted by: Frantz at November 19, 2006 8:37 PMMost newer PC video cards have:
- a standard 15-pin sub-D VGA connector which outputs an analog signal
- a DVI-D connector which outputs a digital signal
If your LCD TV has a VGA connector, then you're all set to go. If it has an HDMI connector, you can buy a DVI-D Male to HDMI Male cable and use it connect your video card to your LCD TV. You'll have to tinker with the video card display properties in Windows in order to set the output resolution to one that is as close as possible to the native resolution supported by your LCD TV.
Conversely, you can also hookup an HDMI source (such as digital set top boxes & DVD players) to a PC LCD monitor using the same cable mentioned above, provided the monitor has a DVI-D connector which accepts digital signals. Since DVI does not carry the audio signals from the HDMI source, you'll have to connect your speakers directly to the audio output of your HDMI source to get sound.
There are other solutions for converting composite/S-video/component signals to standard VGA - many video game retailers have converters that will do the trick.
Posted by: Ivan at December 13, 2006 12:51 AMI would like to connect from my LCD Monitor to my Panasonic Tv so that i can view the videos which are in my pc at the tv? But the only problem is that my tv does not have a dvi output, so is there any way i can connect from my lcd to my tv?
Posted by: Bala at March 16, 2007 5:45 AMi have connected my samsung lcd tv to my computer via VGA connection. but there is nothing coming up on my tv any ideas whynot
Posted by: nicisard at June 5, 2007 9:25 AMI have a GeForce2 video card with an S-Video out. I'm trying to get an image on both my lcd monitor AND my tv, but everytime i plug the S-vid in, my monitor cuts out and i have to restart. Any help?
Posted by: Sarah at June 17, 2007 3:09 PMHi Leo.
Posted by: Peter Vo at August 8, 2007 4:39 AMI have a Dell desktop computer (Dememssion E510) and I like to use a monitor to hook up with my DVD player only. What is a accesory can i buy to use with? or I want to buy a LVD TV then I can use them both for regular TV and computer. I do not want to have 2 of them in my studio room (TV and Monitor)Thank you very much
Hi.
I have a graphics card with both one analog and one digital outputs.
I also have two analog TFT monitors ahd have attached both to the same graphics card, with a simple DDI to D-Sub converter on the Graphics card digital output.
I have also configured the OS (WIN XP) to allow the two monitors to act as one large extended workspace.
Now the problem.
Every now and again I get a problem where one of the screens will become distorted. Then it fixes itself after some minutes / hours.
I swapped the connections around and the other monitor then showed signs of the problem.
Any ideas please? Do I need a more clever DVI to D-Sub converter?
Regards, Dave
Posted by: Dave Green at October 16, 2007 6:57 AMI have a HP a1129n which I bought a approx. 3 years ago. I just bought a samsung 2333. The HP only has an anslog output not a digital. How can I convert it to digital. Looks like I have 3 more horizontal slots on the back of the CPU that are not used. Do I have to add a digital output, or is there another way?
Posted by: jeff at May 4, 2009 12:07 AMI just upgraded my computer so that I have a better graphics card that has a DVI connection port along with the regular VGA connection port. So my flatscreen monitor has a DVI connector also. What's confusing me is that the card did not come with DVI to DVI cable and I don't see one for sale on the local microcenter web page? (but all kinds of DVI to everything but DVI cables.
Posted by: Randy at July 21, 2009 10:29 AM