# HDMI vs DVI vs VGA



## crazyeyesreaper (Sep 29, 2011)

So anyone else notice that when it comes to HDTVs used as monitors 

HDMI has lower Image Quality then DVI and VGA,

noticed it now on 2x Samsung Displays


VGA looks better then HDMI on both when using a PC

DVI on the Samsung T260HD looks better then VGA


DVI > VGA > HDMI

sadly i cant run both my monitors anymore since 

Samsung T24A350 ToC is VGA or HDMI only and of course AMD being awesome you cant use 2x DVI to VGA do to how the GPU is setup,

I guess when it comes down to it why do Display makers refuse to let go of VGA ? its 2011 and a brand new monitors tend to have VGA still more often then they have DVI, and surprisingly enough DVI and HDMI are supposedly the same when it comes to Digital signals so why the crazy quality loss? It seems pretty sad that im force to use an inferior input to get multi monitor to work.

by inferior i mean

sharpness, letters any kind of reading hurts on HDMI, where as VGA and DVI both seem to offer a softer more natural presentation, but seem to lack vibrant colors that HDMI offers.


----------



## erixx (Sep 29, 2011)

great find! Sadly, my nvidia card doesnt offer VGA anymore (just to test) and yes monitor ony has HDMI or VGA.... crazy marketing...


----------



## EarthDog (Sep 29, 2011)

There are several factors that determine this. It depends upon your source and display devices, and there's no good way, in principle, to say in advance whether the digital or the analog connection will render a better picture.

So this works for you with your source, and display device. The song may be different with others with different setups/cables/displays...


----------



## brandonwh64 (Sep 29, 2011)

hmmm I will have to test more. My finding are that VGA was very fuzzy even when set to all proper settings. DVI and HDMI were perfect on the other hand. I would play BC2 all night on the 52Inch and only issues I had was its energy settings were if the screen was dark it would dim the brightness.


----------



## MilkyWay (Sep 29, 2011)

Well all i can think of is that the TV or Graphics Card processes the signal differently. HDMI is digital and a 1 and a 0 cannot be any different so in theory the DVI and HDMI should be the same.

Im sure someone here will know whats up lol


----------



## a_ump (Sep 29, 2011)

Yea i was always puzzled as to the true benefit of HDMI over DVI...still have yet to hear or read anything that proves HDMI is a sound win over DVI. Though i know the marketing of 1080P and HDMI go hand in hand. 

My brother is one such fool, "No i don't want DVI, i want HDMI, its the best, i don't want that other shit." So foolish and unintelligent when people get such an attitude.


----------



## crazyeyesreaper (Sep 29, 2011)

use DVI to VGA converter lol it will still look better then HDMI on an HDTV

im rather pissed off actually

VGA is so much better then HDMI on this samsung id use it exclusively but sadly AMD gpus will no longer allow you to use 2x VGA monitors even if you use 2x DVI to VGA adaptors the cards cant output a second analog signal so it wont work. overall this experience has taught me 2 things

Industry at large sucks for forcing HDMI over DVI, and it sucks even more for clingling to VGA over DVI since both cost the same to implement there just using VGA for no real reason.

bah such a pain in the ass.


HDMI has better color and contrast over VGA for sure

but HDMI has more digital noise then DVI and VGA,

also any kind of small text on HDMI is painful to read where as VGA and DVI dont have this issue

ill put it this way

my 6 year old VGA Acer AL2016W has better image quality on PC then the Samsung T260HD or T24A350 using HDMI

so on 2 $300-400 24-25inch screens HDMI was worse then VGA, but DVI was far superior to both on the T260HD, sadly the T24A350 dosent have DVI at all since for some reason samsung decided VGA was more cost effective when its in fact the same cost as DVI to implement, and again on TV or Game Console it makes no difference but for PC the image quality is easily noticeable its bad enough that even tho im pretty much blind in one eye and need glasses i can STILL see the image quality difference with my glasses off.

again problem could be solved if AMD gpus could process 2 analog signals but they cant, and cant output video to a monitor via VGA on each gpu seperate unless Crossfire is disabled lolz. overall monitors / hdtvs and PCs with HDMI are in my opinion fucked.

the kicker is HDMI costs money its not free its competitor aka Displayport is free on the other hand but has little market penetration unless looking at extremely high cost displays,


HDMI has the same limit as single link DVI for video HDMI offers HD sound tho, so its a trade off smaller form factor with audio for the Home use, for Monitors HDMI seems to just be a massive waste.


oh never mind cant fix the analog issue with adaptors either

the AMD 6900 series will not generate more then 1 analog signal so looks like im forced to use HDMI period to even use multiple monitors, fantastic / sarcasm.


----------



## Beertintedgoggles (Sep 29, 2011)

Fine I'll be the one to say it, that's an issue with your display or the interaction between the display and video card.  HDMI on my TV is perfect.  VGA is still alright but the HDMI displays everything better, even text looks like it's on a computer monitor.

My TV at home (I'm stuck in an apt. for a year on site for work) displays perfectly with my DVI --> HDMI adapter (the TV doesn't have a DVI input).

Edit:  Forgot where I saw it before but there are multiple settings for the display output that can completely hose up the digital display on a TV (over scanning comes to mind right away but it's lunch and if I'm gonna look something up it's some T & A from thechive.com)


----------



## monte84 (Sep 29, 2011)

HDMI will look just as good on an HDTV as DVI or VGA, the only difference is you have to make sure your HDTV is set to 1:1 pixle mapping so the image isnt get stretched. And make sure overscan is off or at 0% in display driver control panel. im using a 32inch Samsung LCD @ 1920*1080 over HDMI and once thought that was the case till i found out how to enable 1:1 pixle on my TV.


----------



## crazyeyesreaper (Sep 29, 2011)

okay so your telling me

HDMI that works fine on TV and PS3 but not PC is the monitor issue? yea dont think so

the fact both are seperate panels and VGA DVI work perfectly fine and its only to HDMI and both screens have more then 1 HDMI and it displays the same thing, no im gonna say its samsung that cant get shit straight

there EDID tags for there monitors are well known to have issues, and AMD drivers are well known to have scaling problems with HDMI

so tell me why is it HDMI cant display the resolution properly aka black borders but VGA and DVI display it 100% without issue?

its not like HDMI isnt unusable its just as a digital artist i can easily see the difference and on both samsung panels the HDMI is sub par compared to VGA let alone DVI


oh and setting overscan etc to 0% makes the image larger then its suppose to be so setting overscan in AMDs drivers to 0 = worse it custs off about 30-40% of the screen space lol

and again these issues only happen with HDMI, so why is it VGA and DVI have no problems what so ever but the defacto standard HDMI has make the end user jump through a shit ton of hoops ?

overall this is a well documented issue with AMD, kinda funny really there desktop gpus etc cant properly map to an HDTV but there console gpus have no issues lol


----------



## wiak (Sep 29, 2011)

something is wrong if you say VGA looks better than HDMI, get your settings right and try again, can also be something wrong with your driver too, try some different settings?


----------



## crazyeyesreaper (Sep 29, 2011)

again HDMI uses the SAME digital signal as DVI

using DVI = no problems etc,

HDMI requires all the extra BS 

T260HD offered DVI but on HDMI still had shit image quality,
T24a350 offers on VGA of HDMI 

between the 2 HDMI on PC looks the same on both 

VGA looks better then HDMI on the 350 and DVI looks better then HDMI on the T260


amd drives dont have options for 1x1 pixel mapping nor do the HDTVs themselves

again problem only exists on HDMI  VGA or DVI on either monitor has 0 issues and quality is amazing on DVI with the 260HD, the VGA is better then HDMI on the 350 but worse then DVI of the 260HD


----------



## wiak (Sep 29, 2011)

try a different nvidia driver?, pretty sure there are some so called video enhancements enabled that mess up quality on hdmi etc


----------



## crazyeyesreaper (Sep 29, 2011)

uh why the fuck would i use an nvidia driver on an AMD gpu


----------



## erocker (Sep 29, 2011)

I'd have to say no. In my experience with my TVs and monitors there is no difference between the picture quality of HDMI or DVI. VGA quality is not as good.


----------



## catnipkiller (Sep 29, 2011)

I'm running a dvi to hdmi cable from my 5870 to my 50 inch tv and i don't have any problems at all. It looks better then my friends monitor tahts running just dvi imo.


----------



## crazyeyesreaper (Sep 29, 2011)

1080P 0% scan so supposedly 1x1 pixel map obviously thats not 1 to 1 as the start menu isnt even usable then again i also see no one here is using a samsung monitor / hdtv either 


of course scaling the image to fit makes the image quality suck causing text to become far less legible colors look better on HDMI then VGA but overall text is far harder to read and just looks like shit compared to vga or DVI for whatever reason. HDMI just seems to have NOISE granted the TV has a filter for that but then you actually lose sharpness and focus and it just applies a damn blur filter to everything such a pain in the ass.
HDMI at 0% scan supposedly 1 to 1 pixel mapping






VGA nothing touched






also rather interesting side note the monitor has a DVI-PC option but no DVI port lol


----------



## monte84 (Sep 29, 2011)

the your not at 1:1 pixle mapping thats why your start bar is not on screen and text is blurry, you will have to look up the option for your tv. On my Samsung i have set the screen to Set i belive it is for 1:1 pixle mapping. Google it for your model and your issue will be resolved.


----------



## crazyeyesreaper (Sep 29, 2011)

ive looked through the manual and online theres no option ive found within the TVs menu to allow for 1 to 1 mapping.

from what im able to dig up the ToC series doesnt offer 1 to 1 pixel mapping period

thus it means its moot VGA IS better then HDMI if the device dosent support 1 to 1 pixel mapping.


----------



## monte84 (Sep 29, 2011)

Its not labeled as 1:1 you probably have your TV set to wide zoom or 16:9 cycle those options. For my samsung its the option that lets you change picture placement i believe it is set.


----------



## crazyeyesreaper (Sep 29, 2011)

yea they all result in the same picture dosent fit right or image quality sucks lol been at this for 4-5 hours now

gonna try a display port to vga adaptor later. a buddy apparently has one laying around see if it fixes the problem as of right now all the choices in the menu can be cycled and nothing changes the crappy image quality.


----------



## monte84 (Sep 29, 2011)

HDMI 1 input?


----------



## Batou1986 (Sep 29, 2011)

As far as im concerned dvi is still king hdmi should in be better but depending on the chip in you tv/monitor it can look worse.

DVI looks best because there is no image processing done by the display its 1:1 from the cable


----------



## crazyeyesreaper (Sep 29, 2011)

tried both HDMI inputs on both monitors its the same on both,

could just be an issue related to Samsung and AMD gpus via driver and display when HDMI is invloved, just makes me wish HDMI was never invented DVI has it beat day in day out from simple plug play and done

then again could just be samsungs lineup

these monitor are hybrids

Monitor first supposedly TV second 

which was true on the T260HD it functioned far better as a monitor then a TV but did the job well, this replacement seems to be the other way around better as a TV not much as a monitor.


----------

