Monitor connectors (VGA, DVI, HDMI, Display Port). What cable and adapter is needed to connect the monitor to a laptop or PC. What are DVI and VGA - features and differences Vga interface description

VGA pinout. The VGA monitor connector is currently the most famous and popular monitor interface, which was developed by IBM more than thirty years ago. But even despite this, the VGA video standard can be found installed on most modern computer equipment. Especially on computers where it is necessary to display video in a simplified graphic mode, with a resolution of 640x480.

Everything graphic cards produced in the world are compatible with this regime. The process of outputting high-resolution video information occurs exclusively after the graphics adapter drivers are loaded during the operating system startup.

VGA pinout wires according to their color coding is very helpful in some cases, for example: When performing independent testing of conductors for breaks or, if necessary, increasing the length of the wire. For your information: The industry produces VGA cables with a length of about thirty meters.

A fifteen-pin VGA connector, the design of which is a trapezoid shape with pins arranged in a three-row pattern, each row having five pins. To ensure correct connection of complementary connectors, the contacts in the block are installed in an asymmetrical order. Such a device, due to its shape, guarantees correct cable connection. The numbering sequence of the output contacts should be designated as shown in the picture below:

VGA pinout according to color coding

Mini VGA connector pinout

Abbreviated VGA, Video Graphics Array is a standard connection type for video devices such as monitors and projectors.

Typically, VGA refers to the types of cables, ports, and connectors used to connect
monitors for video cards.

Although VGA is still used today, it is quickly being replaced by new interfaces such as DVI and HDMI.

VGA Specifications

Below are some specifications VGA useful for identifying VGA cables and VGA ports:

VGA pins

VGA cables have 15-pin connectors: 5 pins at the top, 5 in the middle, and the remaining 5 at the very bottom.

VGA port on desktop computer or laptop naturally has the same number of pin holes so that the VGA cable can connect directly to it.

Each pin has its own function. For example, the first pin is designed to carry red, and the second and third pins are for green and blue, respectively.

Dad and Mom - VGA connections

All types of computer cables are gender specific - male or female. A male cable is one that has its connections protruding or protruding from the cable. Plug connections are reverse-faced, with internal holes that allow the male cable to fit perfectly into the socket connection.

VGA cables are no different. This cable runs from the monitor to the computer, where it meets the female connection from the video card.

VGA Converters: HDMI and DVI

With VGA, DVI and HDMI video cards and monitors mixed together in real world, you will definitely want a VGA converter if you have a VGA monitor or VGA video card.

For example, if your computer has a video card that only supports VGA, but you just bought new monitor that only has DVI and/or HDMI ports, you must either replace your graphics card to get one with new ports, get another monitor that supports VGA, or buy a VGA converter.

The same thing happens if your graphics card only supports HDMI and/or DVI, but all you have is a monitor that accepts a VGA cable.

You may find it difficult to know what type of converter you need. Do you need VGA-DVI or DVI-VGA converter? HDMI-DVI converter, or is it called DVI-HDMI? Keep reading for some clarification.

VGA and HDMI converters

A VGA to HDMI converter is what you need to convert the VGA signal from your computer to the HDMI port on your monitor or TV. Get this if your computer has a VGA port on your graphics card but want to use hdmi monitor or TV as a display.

Some VGA to HDMI converters even have USB cable, a built-in converter that carries audio along with the video signal (since VGA doesn't carry audio), so you can play sounds through a display with built-in speakers, like an HDMI TV.

An HDMI to VGA converter does just the opposite: it connects a video card with an HDMI output to a monitor or TV equipped with a VGA input jack.

Since HDMI is newer than VGA, this type of converter is useful when you're connecting a new desktop or laptop to an older display.

Both of these converters are easily available online and in electronic stores.

VGA and DVI converters

You probably need a DVI to VGA converter if you need to connect a DVI video card to a display with a VGA port.

DVI-VGA converters are usually DVI-male to VGA adapters. This means that the DVI end of the converter connects directly to the DVI port on your graphics card, and the VGA end of the converter is used with a VGA male to male cable to connect the converter to the female end of the display device.

These types of converters are easy to find and relatively inexpensive.

VGA and DVI converters also exist, but can be quite expensive and hard to find. This type of converter is necessary if you need to move video from VGA video cards to a DVI monitor.

DVI to VGA converters work because the signal goes from digital to analog, which is simply a translation in the DVI pins since DVI supports both analog and digital signals. VGA is only analog, so going from VGA to DVI requires a converter to change those analog signals to digital.

Upgrading your graphics card to support a newer monitor will likely be less expensive and make more sense in the long run.

More about VGA converters

Some VGA converters require you to have a VGA cable in addition to the converter, something to keep in mind if you're shopping around.

For example, this is a common occurrence with HDMI to VGA converters. The converter may consist of HDMI cable with VGA converter in one cable, but the VGA box has a female connection like your monitor or TV, so you will need a male to female VGA cable to complete the connection,

More about cable converters

If all the talk about this converter is confusing and you're still not sure which cable to buy for your particular setup, just look at the ports themselves to see if you need male or female ends, and then find a converter that matches this.

For example, if your monitor and graphics card use female ports, you'll want to get a cable with connectors on both ends.

The only other distinction that needs to be made is to determine the type of connection at both ends; be it VGA, DVI or HDMI, but it shouldn't be difficult considering they are very different from each other.

VGA and Mini-VGA

Instead of the standard VGA connector, some laptops and other devices may use what is called mini-VGA, although it has never been as popular on the standard VGA connector.

Mini-VGA is more like USB port than the VGA port, but it is still used for video, just like the standard VGA port.

There are also mini-VGA to VGA adapters that will allow a standard VGA display device to connect to a computer with a mini-VGA port.

Like DVI replacing VGA, mini-DVI is now more widely used than mini-VGA.

More information about VGA

If your display settings are not configured correctly, causing your monitor to display nothing, you may boot into Windows with a lower video resolution.

Windows 10 and Windows 8 users can do this through Startup Settings using the Enable low resolution video option.

In Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP, this option is located in the advanced boot options menu (" Extra options downloads" in XP). It is listed as Enable VGA Mode in Windows XP.

Greetings to my readers, and we continue to discuss Various types connectors used to transmit video signals. The subject of our conversation today will be the VGA connector, which is well known to many for its memorable blue color.

Some consider IBM to be the inventor of this connector, which in 1987 proposed using it to connect monitors to its PS/2 computers.

Then, with the help of such a connector, called the Video Graphics Array, an image of 640x480 pixels in size (which also became known as the VGA format) was transmitted.

But in fact, the progenitor of connectors of this type is a division of ITT Corporation. In 1952, she proposed the concept of compact connectors with a large number of pin contacts located inside the shield.

Its shape resembled an inverted beech D, ensuring connection in just the right way. Thanks to the letter, these connectors began to be labeled D-sub (subminiature).

Fifteen important contacts

But let's go back 30 years ago, when the VGA connector became widespread in the computer industry (video cards, monitors). Its feature was line-by-line transmission of analog video. Each of his 15 contacts was responsible for certain parameters:

Separate RGB signals;
Synchronization methods;
Other control channels

In more detail, the standard pinout looks like this:

Brightness indicators were determined by changing the signal voltage within 0.7-1 V.

This layout, together with a stable component video interface, provided fairly decent image quality with a fast refresh rate. The potential inherent in this system, allowed tasks to be reassigned for individual contacts. And also provide signal transmission for more advanced equipment. An additional advantage of the connector was its fixation system using two screws, ensuring high reliability of the connection.

High potential connector

If at first the VGA connector was used to connect CRT monitors, then over time it began to be used in modern liquid crystal screens with a resolution of 1280 × 1024 and frame rates up to 75 Hz. In fact, with the help of such a cable it was transmitted digital signal. Which underwent double conversion (to analog and back). Given the appropriate quality of the connecting wire, the presence of a shielding braid and a short connection length, the transmitted picture was quite good.

Over time, a smaller version appeared - mini VGA, which was used in compact equipment and laptops.

And the main standard size of the connector, due to its high reliability, has become in demand in industrial automation systems. Numerous adapters have also appeared for VGA connections plug to other types of connectors (RCA DVI-I, HDMI).

In addition, the analog signal allows you to simultaneously broadcast images to two monitors. What does the cable look like? VGA splitter, for such switching you can see in the picture.

Of course, today for video with maximum resolution, the capabilities of analog VGA are no longer enough and you need to switch to digital broadcasting of the stream using, and also better than HDMI or , which has the highest data transfer speed. This idea is actively promoted by Intel and AMD. Officially stated that from 2015 their products will not support VGA.

That's all the information about VGA connectors. Finally, I would like to recommend that you conduct an audit of the monitor and TV you are using to ensure that you abandon analog cables in favor of digital ones. And I am sure that such an opportunity will exist.

That's all, see you soon on the pages of my new articles.

Every PC user sooner or later encounters connecting their laptop or personal computer to the monitor using various cables and connectors. All of them differ from each other in structure, picture quality and maximum permissible cable length. In the 90s, a 15-pin VGA connector was used to connect CRT monitors, which produced a good image for that time. Over time, the resolution provided by VGA became insufficient and was replaced by a new 17 (17-29) pin DVI interface with the ability to display a much higher resolution due to its higher throughput.

DVI connector

To develop the Digital Visual Interface (DVI), large companies joined forces. It was jointly decided that it was inappropriate to convert the signal twice. As a result, the developers came to the decision to create a single digital interface that can display the original image without unnecessary changes or loss of quality.

Basic operating principle interface is new technology TMDS data encoding protocol. Information previously implemented by the protocol is sequentially transmitted to the device.

The interface allows you to achieve a resolution of 1920x1080 at a frequency of 60 Hz. These parameters allow you to achieve throughput 1.65 Gb/s and this is using a single TMDS connection. If two connections are used, the speed will increase to 2 Gb/s. With such high performance, DVI is head and shoulders above its predecessors.

To explain to the average user why Digital Visual Interface is so good, we can only say that it is a digital video interface. It is not difficult to distinguish it from its analog predecessor - the connectors are always white, which makes it impossible to confuse it with others. Shape and large quantity pins are also a characteristic feature of the interface.

The interface cable is limited in length, like other connectors, its maximum length is no more than 10 m, which is 7 meters more than VGA.

Main types and differences

In addition to the characteristic differences from other interfaces, the Digital Visual Interface also differs from each other. The main differences between them are the number of channels and the ability to transmit an analog signal. Let's take a closer look at the popular variations:

The difference between the connectors can be summarized simply - the letter D indicates the presence of only a digital signal, the letter A indicates only an analog signal, the letter I indicates the presence of both types of signals.

In the case where the video card has a Digital Visual Interface output, but the monitor only has VGA, adapters are suitable. When purchasing adapters, you need to understand the difference between DVI-I and DVI-D; the former will be able to transmit the signal to VGA because present analog channel, but the second one does not have an analog communication channel and it will not be possible to transmit an image through it through an adapter; special expensive converters are used for this.

In addition to DVI-VGA and VGA-DVI adapters, there are other DVI-HDMI, HDMI-DVI, DVI-DisplayPort, DisplayPort-DVI, they all transmit a digital signal between themselves and there should be no connection problems.

Disadvantages of technology

The only significant drawback of the technology is cable length limitation. For example, when using a 15 m cable, the maximum resolution that can be achieved is 1280x1024, but if you use only a 5 meter cable, the resolution will increase to 1920x1200. If you need to connect a device over a long distance without losing the signal, you will have to use additional repeaters, which will strengthen the signal.

VGA connector

In 1987, Canon introduced the world to a new VGA (Video Graphics Array) connector, which was installed on the video card of the same name. The capabilities of the technology were more than enough, because the original resolution was 640x480. The maximum possible resolution without loss of image quality that Video Graphics Array is capable of producing is 1280x1024. Despite the fact that more efficient interfaces have long appeared and are pushing VGA out of the market, many TVs and video devices are still equipped with this connector. The reason for the displacement was the emergence of new monitors that require higher resolution.

The connector has a 15-pin wiring and is marked blue (with rare exceptions), which makes it easy to distinguish it from DVI (white). Maximum cable length connection is limited to 3 m.

Due to the development of technology there has appeared new standard Super Video Graphics Array or SVGA, which uses the same 15-pin connection as the Video Graphics Array but is technically significantly superior. The main difference between SVGA and VGA is number of colors displayed, them in new version The interface has become 16 million, with 256 colors in the old one.

Main types

There are three main types of VGA connectors: DDC1, DDC2, E-DDC:

DDC1– allows the monitor to unilaterally transfer data with information about its characteristics to the computer. After which the video card determines this information on the cable and detects the DDC monitor connected to it
DDC2– a specification of this type allows for the exchange of information bilaterally. First, the monitor transmits its data to the computer, after which the computer adjusts the necessary parameters to the connected monitor.
E-DDC– represents the most effective specification. Information about the data of the connected monitor was saved in the device memory.

All 15 contacts are arranged in 3 rows of 5 contacts. First three contacts are responsible for transmitting analog video signals in three different colors (1,2,3). Each of them has its own land- 6,7,8 respectively. Pins 13 and 14 are responsible for horizontal and vertical synchronization. In addition to transmitting a video signal, the interface has two-way communication with the monitor.

Interface pinout:

If we are talking about a mini VGA connector (a smaller analogue with the same parameters), then the pinout will be as follows:

Extension Cords

There are situations when the computer and the connected monitor or TV are in different rooms and connecting them will require a cable of non-standard length. You can buy it at any computer store, but there are two problems:

too much high price cable - from $20 for 15 meters;
rigidity standard cable, which becomes a big problem for beautiful and correct installation in skirting boards. If, when installing the cable, you need to go through the wall, then the factory cable will obviously not help because... you will have to drill a hole with a diameter of 40 mm.

In such cases ideal solution will make the extension cord yourself. The usual will come to the rescue with this twisted pair 5 or 6 categories.

In terms of price, it significantly outperforms the factory Video Graphics Array extension cord; its price is about 15 rubles per meter, and its diameter is only 8 mm.

Using only 8 twisted pair pins, you can easily solder an extension cord, but you can do it even easier by purchasing a VGA to RJ-45 adapter at the store.

DIY DVI-D to VGA adapter

It is impossible to find such an adapter. The reason for this is that technologies use different ports and data types. If you look closely at the DVI-D pinout, you will notice that it no contacts to transmit the analog signal that VGA requires.

In this case it may help converter DVI-D – VGA, which converts the digital signal coming from the Digital Visual Interface into analog. This is the only connection option.

Worth noting, that if you break out 4 “extra contacts” due to which a regular adapter cannot be inserted into the connector, then nothing will work anyway, since they are the ones responsible for transmitting the analog signal.

Maximum cable length

All interfaces have a limitation on the maximum permissible cable length without loss of signal quality. The longer the cable, the worse signal, and accordingly the maximum resolution. The maximum length is different for each type, since the interfaces use different technologies and types of signals.

For DVI – 10, VGA – 3 m, HDMI – 10 m.

Difference between DVI and VGA

The main difference between these connectors is maximum resolution And picture quality. In addition, the Digital Visual Interface has from 17 to 29 pins, while VGA has only 15. Another difference is the type of signals with which the interfaces work: for VGA it is analog, and for Digital Visual Interface it is digital. It is for this reason that VGA has to do the conversion twice, which significantly degrades the quality of the resulting image.

Which is better DVI or HDMI

In comparing these two interfaces, we can say that they are somewhat equivalent. The big advantage of HDMI is that with just one cable you can transmit both video and audio data, thereby reducing the number of wires that are abundant in modern multimedia systems. The significant difference is maximum resolution, which is HDMI on this moment can be 10240 × 5760.

Difference between VGA and HDMI

It is incorrect to compare these two interfaces due to their difference in creation time. HDMI is a fairly new connector that provides the user with an excellent picture and excellent sound in just one cable. Video Graphics Array is now used mostly in old technology that is not compatible with new technologies.

Most LCD and plasma TVs have a VGA connector, or as it is also called, D-sub. In addition, it is used to connect system unit and monitor. The abbreviation VGA comes from the name of computer video adapters. The VGA connector is designed by Canon. At first it was the smallest compared to other similar connectors.

general information

VGA connector: pinout

So, we present to your attention the wiring of such a connector, and at the same time we will decipher the purpose of each pin:

1. Red channel - 75 Ohm, 0.7V.

2. Green channel - 75 Ohm, 0.7V.

3. Blue channel -75 Ohm, 0.7V.

4. Second identification bit.

5. Common wire.

6. "Ground" of the red channel.

7. "Earth" of the green channel.

8. "Earth" of the blue channel.

10. "Ground" synchronization.

11. Zero identification bit.

12. Single identification bit, or DDC data.

13. Composite or line synchronization.

14. Frame synchronization.

15. DDC clock, or third identification bit.

Conclusion

It should be noted that audio information is not transmitted through the mentioned type of connection. This may cause additional difficulties in synchronizing sound and video. After all, TVs usually do not have additional audio inputs compatible with the VGA connector. The easiest way to synchronize two signals is to use a separate