Log in

View Full Version : DVI to VGA conversion woes, again


Joel Crane
03-29-2011, 07:32 PM
I've bee fighting this problem for 6 years. Back in the day, I had a Radeon 9200se with one VGA port and one DVI port. I used a cheap DVI adapter to convert back to VGA for my second CRT monitor. It rendered a very blurry, darkened image, with a strange "ghosting" effect. I never could find a solution to the problem.

Several years later, I bought a cheap GeForce 6200 card for Windows 7 compatibility. This time, the same adapter converted DVI to VGA very clearly, and the issue was solved!

Since then, I've gone through several cards with similar setups, and they have all worked great, until now.

I have obtained a 9200 GSO, and it has dual DVI. Since I'm on an extreme budget, I'm still rocking two CRT monitors. I was shocked when the image came out blurry, just like on my old 9200se. I ordered two new DVI adapters to see if that would solve the problem, and it didn't.

I've scoured Google. I can't find anything. I need a video expert.

Sven Johannsen
03-30-2011, 04:01 AM
Well, I wouldn't say I'm an expert, but let me draw your attention to the Wikipedia articles on the two standards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VGA_connector
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Interface
Look over on the right side at the pinouts. Notice that VGA is Red, Green and Blue video with Horizontal and Vertical sync. DVI is Digital Red, Green and Blue signals and clocks. They are completely different technologies/concepts, and you are at the mercy of widely varying conversion boxes. It is not just pinouts.* As you have already figured out, your mileage will vary considerably, and you may end up spending more trying to get acceptable DVI out into a VGA monitor than just scrapping some coin together and getting new (refurbed, outlet) DVI flat screens. Check Dells outlet store, or HP's, Amazon, etc. You'll not only recover clarity, but deskspace and power consumption as well.

*DVI ti HDMI is largely just pinouts as looking at the HDMI article will highlight
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI

Joel Crane
03-31-2011, 01:25 AM
Here's what is so weird to me: why has the conversion looked great on three videocards I've tried, and awful on the other two?