LCDs - Analog vs Digital

hj2k_x

hj2k_x

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Finally got myself some matching monitors, both coming off my trusty 8500GT, one off analog and the other off digital.

The one coming out of the analog port seems noticeably less sharp, and the colours and fonts slightly less crisp and clear.

Is this to be expected?
 
Yes, I think this is to be expected.

Have you swapped them to see the difference? Then one would really know.

My assumptions:
Using an analogue cable (vga):
Card dig out, D/A conv, analogue over cable, A/D conversion in monitor, Digital display of pixels

Using a digital cable (dvi):
Card dig out, digital over cable, Digital display of pixels
 
Yup...analog output provides crappier images than digital.
 
hj2k_x said:
Finally got myself some matching monitors, both coming off my trusty 8500GT, one off analog and the other off digital.

The one coming out of the analog port seems noticeably less sharp, and the colours and fonts slightly less crisp and clear.

Is this to be expected?
Click to expand...

It is to be expected, yes. :)
 
yeah I can't bear analogue anymore. Try and find a cheap 2nd hand card with 2 dvi.
 
Franc is spot on about the A/D conversions introducing losses.

In addition, analog signals represent the picture quite well, but because of noise and other disturbances, and the fact that the analog signal doesn't incorporate redundancy, small disturbances show up in the output as noise. Not so for digital because redundancy provides error correction.

But for larger disturbances, digital signals correct the errors in the wrong way, or are unable to provide correction at all. This leads to NO picture, as opposed to just a bad picture. Think of bad signal with terrestrial television vs bad signal with DSTV.
 
hj2k_x said:
The one coming out of the analog port seems noticeably less sharp, and the colours and fonts slightly less crisp and clear.

Is this to be expected?
Click to expand...

In theory, yes, but in practice, with two monitors, one on digital and one on analog, I've noticed no difference at all.
 
Claymore said:
In theory, yes, but in practice, with two monitors, one on digital and one on analog, I've noticed no difference at all.
Click to expand...

The problem is much more noticable on larger displays, ie T260's

on small 17 or even 19inch displays you can tweak them close enought with settings.

Also depends on the quality of the graphics card and the quality of the analog cable. My laptop really stuggles outputting a decent signal to my 2333 with the cable that came with it. I managed to track down a old thick analog cable off an old 21" CRT and that solved the problem.
 
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