Video Cable Information

This page contains information that intends to clarify some of the differences between the options out there for video cables to run between your display appliance and your display. The three primary options are VGA, DVI and HDMI.

What's the difference?

DVI - Information goes directly from your video card to your screen. The color of each pixel on your monitor is calculated by your video card and then sent as digital information to your screen so that no conversion is necessary. An LCD simply reads this information and displays it directly.

VGA - Information is converted from digital to RGB format. Some accuracy is lost in this conversion. How much is lost depends on the screen's conversion hardware.

What is HDMI?

HDMI is a video format that is found on newer plasma or LCD TVs and some newer computers. HDMI and DVI carry the same high quality digital signal.

A DVI signal is electrically compatible with an HDMI video signal; no signal conversion needs to take place when an adapter is used, and consequently no loss in video quality occurs. As such HDMI is backward compatible with DVI This means that a DVI source can drive an HDMI monitor, or vice versa, by means of a suitable adapter or cable. However, unlike HDMI, DVI usually carries no audio data.

Which should I use for my display?

If you're using a CRT monitor, there is no real image quality difference between DVI or VGA. This is because a CRT is based on the RGB format VGA uses for displaying each pixel. On an LCD, you will notice a difference between the 2 formats. You may start to see dithering, banding, "dancing pixels" and blander/incorrect colors when using VGA on an LCD. The larger the LCD and the higher the resolution the more you will notice these differences.

Also, we have experienced some issues with VGA cables that don't recognize 16:9 resolutions. This seems to be an issue referred to as The Pin 12 Problem. In instances where pin 12 is missing from the VGA connector itself plug and play functionality is disabled. This means 16:9 resolutions aren't automatically recognized. Be sure to use a VGA cable which included all 15 pins

What's the maximum length of each?

DVI and HDMI aren't as capable as VGA when transmitting signals over long distances. The maximum length of an HDMI or DVI cable depends on the construction quality and materials that were used, however signal degradation may start to occur in excess of 50 feet. With VGA, degradation shouldn't be noticable until approximately 100 feet. Once again, how much distance you can run depends on the quality of the cable.

What is the cheapest option?

VGA tends to be the cheapest option, followed by DVI with HDMI being the most expensive.

What do you recommend?

We recommend using HDMI or DVI due to the increased quality.