Did your flat panel come with a digital cable?

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05-28-2008, 03:46 AM
Taosaur

Did your flat panel come with a digital cable?

If you know the difference between DVI and VGA, skip the first two paragraphs.

I knew nothing about this issue until I got a 22" LCD monitor about a week ago. As I glanced over the documentation, I noticed it listed two cables and had two different ports, but there was only one cable in the box.

Included was a VGA analog cable, the old standard for translating digital data from your graphics card or mother board to an analog image on CRT monitors. Early digital, flat panel displays just translated the signal back, adding latency and causing some degradation, but at the common resolutions at the time, you wouldn't even notice. Still, it didn't take long to come up with DVI--a digital interface eliminating the extra steps and minimizing degradation.

Fast forward to 2008. Walk into an electronics store. Is there a CRT monitor anywhere in sight? Turn your computer around. I'm not sure about motherboards, but if you have a graphics card manufactured in the last five years, it will have a port that looks like this:
http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/m.../th_dvi_id.gif or at least this: http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/m.../th_dvi_ds.gif

Yet I drop three bills on a digital monitor, and they let me walk out of the store with an analog cable, and when I call back they tell me if I want THE PROPER CABLE FOR CONNECTING MY DEVICE, it's another $20-30 bucks.

I got the cable today (it's still not exactly the right one--single channel instead of dual channel, but that makes zero difference on my current system), and at 1680x1050 it's a very noticeable improvement.

So is this Best Buy being shady, or is it not yet standard to package LCDs with a DVI cable?
05-28-2008, 04:52 AM
Idec Sdawkminn

I don't know. I bought my monitor at Circuit City. They had the same one at Best Buy, but the guy wasn't very helpful and tried to get rid of me. Mine was about $600 from what I remember. It came with a DVI cable and it also has HD inputs. I went from having 2 19" CRTs side-by-side to a 24" widescreen, glossy one.
05-28-2008, 05:05 AM
ninja9578

Most devices do not come with cables in my experience. Aren't most monitors using HDMI hookups now? I know that mine does.
05-28-2008, 06:41 AM
Taosaur

Quote:

Originally Posted by ninja9578

Most devices do not come with cables in my experience. Aren't most monitors using HDMI hookups now? I know that mine does.

My understanding so far (mostly based on web research into DVI) is that HDMI is prevalent in home electronics and is making inroads on media-focused computing, whereas DVI dominates GPUs and gaming. What HDMI adds to DVI are audio channels and content protection--or on a dedicated computer monitor, nothing.

Does your monitor also have a VGA input, and did it come with any cabling (assuming you purchased it in a retail box)? I've never seen a computer component, internal or external, packaged for retail sale without means to connect it to the system.

EDIT: Reconsidering Idec's post, I'm thinking the idea with HDMI in the larger monitors is to make them marketable as home theater components...again, the only benefit of HDMI for a video-only device is that both ends of the cable will look the same if you plug it into your high-end camcorder or DVD player.
05-28-2008, 05:30 PM
ninja9578

Computer monitors and televisions are becoming one in the same. My monitor has a S-Video input and I can connect it to my cable. It also has HDMI, component (HD), composite, coaxial RF, and VGA inputs.
05-28-2008, 10:23 PM
Taosaur

Quote:

Originally Posted by ninja9578

Computer monitors and televisions are becoming one in the same. My monitor has a S-Video input and I can connect it to my cable. It also has HDMI, component (HD), composite, coaxial RF, and VGA inputs.

The distinction is definitely getting less meaningful--my computer has been my only tv for years, and it was mostly superior to broadcast/cable even 3-4 years ago. It will be nice when they really became a single standard, but right now it seems like the slow merge of the previously separate markets is actually confusing the PC market and perpetuating the obsolete VGA standard.