DVI and VGA display help needed..

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Mattiethomas
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DVI and VGA display help needed..

Post by Mattiethomas »

Hey, time for another random "thing" topic I need advice with.

I was looking through the black friday ads on Thanksgiving and noticed a 22" Envision widescreen monitor for $199 in it. I was in need of a new monitor and being pretty cheap for a 22" I thought I'd pick it up. After the hassle of getting it the next morning I set it up and most was fine, I noticed though that it only supported VGA and there was no DVI port on it after opening it. And at the time I didn't seem to care as much, but now I feel like I got a cheap LCD and I'll regreat it later if I dont return this one and get a better LCD that also supports DVI.

Is there a big difference in the two displays? What are the pros and cons for me? I haven't decided yet if I want to return this. I'm building a nice gaming computer (around $1300) and I feel like I'll regreat only having VGA in the end.

Suggestions on what I should do?
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Re: DVI and VGA display help needed..

Post by melancholy »

If you're dropping $1300 on a computer, at least have a decent monitor to back it up. My monitor has both DVI and VGA, and when my laptop is hooked up through the VGA I can instantly tell the difference because the VGA is blurry on my LCD's. Just get a DVI monitor. You'll be happier.
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Re: DVI and VGA display help needed..

Post by stagg »

Seems like it must be a pretty shitty monitor to be only VGA. I would return it, I also think you would be best off with a 19" or a 20.1" Monitor, or go all the way to 24".
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Re: DVI and VGA display help needed..

Post by |darc| »

VGA is analog; DVI is digital.

That should be enough reason.
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Re: DVI and VGA display help needed..

Post by Mattiethomas »

stagg wrote:Seems like it must be a pretty shitty monitor to be only VGA. I would return it, I also think you would be best off with a 19" or a 20.1" Monitor, or go all the way to 24".
Why stick with those sizes? Do 22" have a weird max resolution (1680x1050)? Or something else?
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Re: DVI and VGA display help needed..

Post by nymus »

I don't notice any quality loss on my VGA vs DVI port and for some reason the vga port has a faster startup so I can see POST information and other stuff after a resolution change longer than the DVI.
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Re: DVI and VGA display help needed..

Post by MulletMan13 »

Mattiethomas wrote:
stagg wrote:Seems like it must be a pretty shitty monitor to be only VGA. I would return it, I also think you would be best off with a 19" or a 20.1" Monitor, or go all the way to 24".
Why stick with those sizes? Do 22" have a weird max resolution (1680x1050)? Or something else?
Most 22"s have the same res as 20" monitors, and tend to be 'budget line' monitors. I'm on an Acer 22", and I love it. Not as clear as the monitor on my 20" iMac, but clear... colors could be better, but for $220 it was worth it. I'm going to be moving up to a 24" external so I'll be putting this one up for sale.

Anyways, my 22" has both DVI and VGA.... to be honest I haven't been able to see a difference between the two different ports.
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Re: DVI and VGA display help needed..

Post by Calavera »

MulletMan13 wrote: Most 22"s have the same res as 20" monitors, and tend to be 'budget line' monitors. I'm on an Acer 22", and I love it. Not as clear as the monitor on my 20" iMac, but clear... colors could be better, but for $220 it was worth it. I'm going to be moving up to a 24" external so I'll be putting this one up for sale.
Your current 22" is an internal monitor?



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Re: DVI and VGA display help needed..

Post by |darc| »

Calavera wrote:
MulletMan13 wrote: Most 22"s have the same res as 20" monitors, and tend to be 'budget line' monitors. I'm on an Acer 22", and I love it. Not as clear as the monitor on my 20" iMac, but clear... colors could be better, but for $220 it was worth it. I'm going to be moving up to a 24" external so I'll be putting this one up for sale.
Your current 22" is an internal monitor?



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Re: DVI and VGA display help needed..

Post by Christuserloeser »

|darc| wrote:VGA is analog; DVI is digital.
Actually DVI-I is both, digital and analogue (which would be RGBHV = VGA).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvi#Connector

- You should be able to buy a cheap DVI-to-VGA cable and thus could use any DVI-A or DVI-I device with your monitor. In the long run it still might be better to have a monitor that supports both DVI-I and VGA.
melancholy wrote:when my laptop is hooked up through the VGA I can instantly tell the difference because the VGA is blurry on my LCD's.
I would assume that from what you describe, the resolution you're sending from your laptop isn't identical to the native resolution of your LCD. I once tried to play Dreamcast via one of my brothers LCD monitors and it looked terrible compared to that of my CRT.

However, he runs his two (identical) LCDs both via VGA and DVI right next to each other and they look absolutely identical. They only look blurry if you lower the resolution.
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Re: DVI and VGA display help needed..

Post by Calavera »

|darc| wrote:
Calavera wrote:
MulletMan13 wrote: Most 22"s have the same res as 20" monitors, and tend to be 'budget line' monitors. I'm on an Acer 22", and I love it. Not as clear as the monitor on my 20" iMac, but clear... colors could be better, but for $220 it was worth it. I'm going to be moving up to a 24" external so I'll be putting this one up for sale.
Your current 22" is an internal monitor?



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Yes but he also said it was an Acer 22"
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Re: DVI and VGA display help needed..

Post by Mattiethomas »

Alright, now for the next decision..Which monitor?

Here's the two I want to choose from, just not sure if I want to pay the extra for the 22". It seems a lot nicer though and has 3x the contrast ratio, if thats even important.. Suggestions?


19" Samsung Widescreen LCD - $199

22" Samsung Widescreen LCD - $329


EDIT: Actually I just noticed the 22" is also a 720p HD monitor which leans me more to buy it. But what would be some uses for an HD monitor..? If anything I'd say just go buy a HDTV.

..Bleh, let me know what you guys think.
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Re: DVI and VGA display help needed..

Post by nymus »

I would go for either a 19" or 24" NOT 22" because:

720p = 1280x720
1080p = 1920x1080

19" (1440x900) will fully display 720p but not 1080p.
22" (1680x1050) will fully display 720p not 1080p (30 lines short).
24" (1920x1200) will fully display 720p AND 1080p.

Most HD videos on the internet are distributed as 720p so they fill up a 19" very nicely plus you won't stretch them too much in full screen.

Since it's for gaming, a 19" might also be less stressful on a graphics card running at its native resolution (1440x900=1296000 pixels) which is less than the pixel count of (1280x1024=1310720 pixels).

Also, be sure you want a glossy finish.

Xbitlabs has a nice series on LCD monitors whose history you might want to check out.
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Re: DVI and VGA display help needed..

Post by melancholy »

Christuserloeser wrote:
melancholy wrote:when my laptop is hooked up through the VGA I can instantly tell the difference because the VGA is blurry on my LCD's.
I would assume that from what you describe, the resolution you're sending from your laptop isn't identical to the native resolution of your LCD. I once tried to play Dreamcast via one of my brothers LCD monitors and it looked terrible compared to that of my CRT.

However, he runs his two (identical) LCDs both via VGA and DVI right next to each other and they look absolutely identical. They only look blurry if you lower the resolution.
It is identical resolution. I know how to set up my laptop's resolution. But the image comes out darker than the DVI and has this overall haze to it. It has nothing to do with the laptop as it does the same thing with anything hooked up to it. Of course, my LCD monitor is about 3-4 years old now too, so perhaps the technology isn't up to par with today's offerings, but in my particular case, VGA is visibly different and looks terrible.
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Re: DVI and VGA display help needed..

Post by Mattiethomas »

nymus wrote:I would go for either a 19" or 24" NOT 22" because:

720p = 1280x720
1080p = 1920x1080

19" (1440x900) will fully display 720p but not 1080p.
22" (1680x1050) will fully display 720p not 1080p (30 lines short).
24" (1920x1200) will fully display 720p AND 1080p.

Most HD videos on the internet are distributed as 720p so they fill up a 19" very nicely plus you won't stretch them too much in full screen.

Since it's for gaming, a 19" might also be less stressful on a graphics card running at its native resolution (1440x900=1296000 pixels) which is less than the pixel count of (1280x1024=1310720 pixels).

Also, be sure you want a glossy finish.

Xbitlabs has a nice series on LCD monitors whose history you might want to check out.
Alright, I understand that. If I had the choice between a 19" or 24" I'd definately go with the 19" just because it's cheaper and 24" is just huge as a monitor. But at the end you said "be sure you want a glossy finish.", did you mean "Make sure to get a glossy finish"? Should I make sure it has the glossy finish on it?

Also, will it look strange using a widescreen monitor to play games on? Using 1440x900 soudns a lot different then 1280x1024. Thats only because it's widescreen thought right? Should look good still?
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Re: DVI and VGA display help needed..

Post by nymus »

The glossy finish might, depending on your lighting, cause undesired reflections on the screen. It does make the picture look sharper, though. It's all up to personal taste, I guess.

As for widescreen gaming, it looks like there's more horizontal field of view.... I don't notice much squishing when a standard aspect game is scaled to widescreen either.
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