Popular monitor connectors: VGA, DVI, HDMI

All monitors have some sort of connection type which connects it to the motherboard, some adjustment button on the body of the monitor, on-screen adjustment controls, mounting brackets and some additional features that varies from monitor to monitor. These variations can include things like – webcam, speakers, microphone etc.

All monitor connect to computers through either one of the six connectors you will find. They are the following: VGA, DVI, HDMI, Display Port, ThunderBolt and HDBaseT.

Let’s take a look at each one of them and get to know our connectors.

VGA

This connector is what you and all late generation is all so familiar with. This is because many of the monitors especially for Windows based PC uses a 15-pin, D-type, three row connector with a power plug. You will find various names for this connectors like – D-shell, D-subminiature. Generally, this is called a VGA connector. This is one of the most widely used monitor connection type.

DVI

There is this type of connector which lot LCDs use. DVI stands for Digital Visual Interface. DVI and its function wise, they are three different connectors which look almost identical. For instance, DVI-D is used for the digital version, DVI-A is used for analogue version which is to say, backward compatibility and the DVI-A/D or DVI-I, I for interchangeable, is used either as a DVI-D or a DVI-A. As for the DVI-D and DVI-A, they are labelled and made to fit only into their respective port.

Both DVI-D and DVI-I connectors come in with two varieties, for instance, single-link and dual-link. This determines how much bandwidth they can handle and therefore, how much they affect the resolution of the monitor. For the single link channel DVI it has a maximum bandwidth of 165MHz, which sets the threshold of the resolution to 1920 x 1080 at 60Hz or 1280 x 1024 Hz. On the other hand dual link DVI with the more pins to double up the throughput, enables much higher resolutions. With dual link DVI, you are able to get display up to 2048 x 1536 at 60Hz.

HDMI

A lot of LCDs, projectors, VR headsets use this modern HDMI connector to connect to the motherboard. HDMI stands for High Definition Multimedia Interface. HDMIs are able to carry both high definition (HD) video and audio signals. One of the best thing about HDMI is they are able to handle and deal with any kind of resolution for the monitor and do it without skipping a beat. With the HDMI you are able to connect your laptop to a high-end projectors for instance and can pull off your presentation in HD.

Not only big devices but also smaller device have mini-HDMI ports which require a mini HDMI connector on one end and a full sized HDMI connector to the other.