difference between DVI and VGA

[Agent]

Is one of us reading that wrong Agent?

Badass is saying analogue is better on a CRT and digital is better on a LCD.

Isn't he?

Yes, but better than what?. The only options for every CRT that I know of / can find are D-sub and BNC (aprt from the one I previously mentioned, which uses the analogue part of the DVI connection anyway)

Just seems like a strange way of putting it. There isn't a "better" involved really, D-sub is for CRT and DVI is for digital panels (excluding DVI-A for legacy of course), unless you have a cheap screen with no DVI input, then you don't have much choice

As Webby said above - as far as I know they are both mutually exclusive. If there is a CRT out there with DVI-I/D, Google isn't being helpful in finding it

[Pob255]

Well not quite as dvi can carry analog or digital.

I don't know of any dvi-d crt monitors, I don't think they exist only dvi-a (now that's opened myself up to be proved wrong)

having dvi on lcd screens is a good idea, so you don't have that digital to analog to digital step (although why is it that lcd monitors with d-sub only are cheaper?)

[Agent]

Well not quite as dvi can carry analog or digital.

At which point, using DVI-A has no advantage over D-sub.

[Funkstar]

Yes, but better than what?. The only options for every CRT that I know of / can find are D-sub and BNC (aprt from the one I previously mentioned, which uses the analogue part of the DVI connection anyway)

You are right. I wasn't thinking

[Fraz]

DVI is better than VGA in every way I can think of

Anything you had in mind?

Agreed. The is obvious and visible noise on VGA. Of course, some people could interpret this noise as a softer more pleasant image. But for reading text/working etc, then VGA clearly belongs in the bin as far as flat panels are concerned.

[Pob255]

At which point, using DVI-A has no advantage over D-sub.

except for when the monitor has no d-sub input or if the graphics card doesn't and doubly so if nether do.

Ok I admit I'm being picky but there are always exceptions to the "rule" and general sweeping statement. (but wait, that's a general sweeping statement so there must be an exception to it which doesn't have an exception, which would mean . . . Arrrrggh!)

EDIT; had to help a friend a few years back, he'd picked up a sony flat faced crt and it only had a single dvi-a port on it. as he wanted to use it with a d-sub KVM it turned into a right mess of cables and adaptors

[Agent]

except for when the monitor has no d-sub input or if the graphics card doesn't and doubly so if nether do.

That's not an advantage though - it's a requirement to use the equipment (sorry to be picky, but it's an important point).

Don't both ATi and nVidia specify that the DVI port must output an analogue signal too? (so one the the dongles like this can be used?).
They certainly used to when DVI first hit the market, I can't see why they could have changed it?

This will change with display port though and I'm not looking forward to that becoming mainstream (I use a lot of CRT's)

[vmong]

That's not an advantage though - it's a requirement to use the equipment (sorry to be picky, but it's an important point).

Don't both ATi and nVidia specify that the DVI port must output an analogue signal too? (so one the the dongles like this can be used?).
They certainly used to when DVI first hit the market, I can't see why they could have changed it?

This will change with display port though and I'm not looking forward to that becoming mainstream (I use a lot of CRT's)

What? people still use CRTs? i though they stopped their production? i have a LG Flatron with great quality but its just too big and not enough space!

[Agent]

What? people still use CRTs? i though they stopped their production? i have a LG Flatron with great quality but its just too big and not enough space!

Yup, I prefer a good (ie. above £300 when they were freely available) CRT over a TFT. I have never found a TFT that I have been happy with response time wise alone. Also a lot of TFT's have a very limited colour gamut, although this has rapidly getting better (like the Dell HC range). Essentially, a TFTs colour gamut is limited by the backlights spectrum, assuming it's a CCFL based one.

As for production - AFAIK you're right, they are no longer produced which is why the good CRTs can fetch silly prices on eBay

They kick out some bloody heat though. My room is like a sauna in summer

[Kumagoro]

I use the D-sub rather than DVI on my monitor as for some reason it comes out better.

Also I run my 22 inch screen not at its native resolution of 1680x1050 but at 1440 x 900. I like the
text to be bigger and in XP changing the DPI just looks fugly.

[Pob255]

That's not an advantage though - it's a requirement to use the equipment (sorry to be picky, but it's an important point).

well yes it is an advantage in the situation I mentioned as it's connectors that tend to generate the most noise.
ie
dvi-a output > dvi to dusub dongle > d-sub cable > d-sub to dvi dongle > dvi-a input
is generally not going to be as clean as
dvi-a putput > dvi cable > dvi-a input

Like I said when I helped set up my firends KVM it was a mess, not helped but not being able to get the correct dongles
It was something like this
monitor dvi-a > dvi cable > dvi to d-sub dongle > d-sub cable > KVM d-usb output
KVM d-sub input1 > d-sub > pc output
KVM d-sub input2 > d-sub > d-sub to dvi-a > dvi cable > special comp dvi output (cannot remember off hand, some old silicon graphics computer.)

In general I do fully agree with you Agent, just there are always some cases where standard advice is not always best.

[Az00123]

I run VGA on my sm245b as the DVI input seem broken and i cbf RMAing it (dont want to be like 2 weeks without a monitor) It just about manages to fit 1920x1200 using VGA, however the right of the image is cut off a little, also a little noise is seen when looking @ darker images (e.g my desktop, in css etc.)

[Main]

I've used my current and previous monitors in a setup that uses the D-sub and DVI connectors to run two computers at the same time, and the only real difference I've noticed is that analogue signals produce images with a very slight softness, whereas digital is perfectly sharp.

Other than that analogue video quality seems to be mostly dependent on the signal processor - I used to use a cheap panel that distorted at certain refresh rates - and sometimes the graphics drivers - sometimes they like to be a bit thick and send out a signal that the monitor interprets as being off-centre. They can probably have the same effect on digital signals but then I've not used a cheap monitor with a DVI connection so I've not seen that

[Bugbait]

I've used my current and previous monitors in a setup that uses the D-sub and DVI connectors to run two computers at the same time, and the only real difference I've noticed is that analogue signals produce images with a very slight softness, whereas digital is perfectly sharp.

Which is exactly why I only use DVI by choice for LCD monitors. If you spend most of you time playing games then you probably won't care. I spend a fair amount if time staring at code and documents in small font so sharpness is critical. The rest of the time it's WoW so crisp text is handy there too.