What's the benefit of DVI cable over analog for LCD?

robx46

Distinguished
Sep 28, 2006
115
0
18,680
Bought a 22" LCD. I have an 8800GTS as well. The monitor didn't come with a DVI cable, I ordered one that got here today but for the last few days I've just been using the analog cable with the adapter.

When I hooked up the DVI-D dual link cable, I was expecting to see some differences in the picture, from what I hear. Although I can't compare analog vs digital side by side (I only have this one LCD), I wasn't able to detect any real difference between using the DVI or the Analog.

Maybe I don't know what to look for, I was expecting something obvious to pop out at me and it didn't.
I should note that I am using the latest nvidia drivers (brand new just released yesterday) and I did notice that the scaling option is now available and working, which is nice.
Other than that, I'm wondering why its worth buying a DVI-D cable.

Can somebody tell me what to look for as far as what improvements I should be seeing with the DVI cable? Obviously, it is working, and it is detected since I have the flat panel scaling option now. Is there something else I might need to do with some settings? I just don't know.
Maybe the truth is all that it is good for is the scaling option, and maybe an increase in picture quality that may or may not be noticeable?
I don't know.
 

tonyp12

Distinguished
Dec 19, 2006
94
0
18,630
Slight gosting when using analog.
Look at the letters you should see it, unless your monitor
is really good even in DB15 mode.
 

chocobocorey

Distinguished
Jan 8, 2006
327
0
18,780
text looks a bit sharper at high resolutions. also, you need dvi with HDCP to show blu ray and hd content, i believe.

plus, there is no manually or auto adjusting screen size, since the image is exactly as it should be displayed. the signal is allowed to be sent all digitally, rather than be converted to analog, and then back to digital.
 

cleeve

Illustrious
The difference is overrated. An analog VGA cable can display high resolutions without ghosting, including HDTV resolutions.

If you have DVI, great, but it's far from a must-have.

Chocobocorey: you can currently watch current HD DVDs and Blu-ray disks on an analog signal. Someday they may implement the the digital protected content flag, and that's when you will need DVI or HDMI connectivity - and an HDCP enabled videocard - to view protected HD DVD or Blu-ray content.
 

DXsocko007

Distinguished
Feb 22, 2006
82
0
18,630
Look for a cheap DVI-D you will tell the difference, i did and now i cant go back to analog. When you have the image how its ment to be seen in its clarity and perfection. Trust me one you go to dvi you will never use vga again
 

randomizer

Champion
Moderator

I have to disagree. I thought that until I saw the difference on my dad's NEC 20WGX2. The text was MUCH blurrier on analog, and there was a noticeable rippling effect on the screen, probably from EMI. The colour was slightly more blue with analog also.
 

Ignatowski

Distinguished
Feb 23, 2009
133
0
18,690
composite video ( red green blue) caps at 1080i it doesnt have the bandwidth to do 1080p
with good sheilded composite cables its hard to tell the difference between composite and digital.
with crappy unsheilded cables the differences are very noticable.

composite doesnt support hdcp. ( both a good and bad thing)
good - no copy protection across the analog signal
bad - HD content might decide not to work.

VGA ( dsub 15) is analog but will display 2000xsomething at 60 hz. a better choice than composite but doesnt have the super high resolutions of dvi-d or hdmi.


 

Kari

Splendid
http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/
do a little test/calibration with both cables, if you still can't see a difference then your screen is either really good with analog or rather poor with dvi :p

edit: oh, 1,5year old thread...