What type of video cable is being
used between your desktop computer and your monitor?
In this video, we'll look at the many types of video cable
connections.
A type of video connector that's been around a very long time
is VGA.
This is Video Graphics Array, and you'll often
see this described as a DB-15 connection.
The 15 means there are 15 pins inside of this connector,
and the DB is referring to the outside connector
type on this cable.
This is actually a DE-15 connection.
The smaller D-type sub miniature connection is the E size,
and you may see this described as either DB-15 or DE-15
if you're looking for a VGA cable.
Another thing that's very standardized on these VGA
connectors is the color blue.
Not only will you see the color blue on the connector,
you'll often see motherboards with the connectors themselves
having this blue color.
That's because there's a standard called the PC System
Design Guide which assigns different colors
to different types of connectors,
and for VGA, we have this blue color.
A VGA connection is an analog connection.
There's no digital option if you're connecting
with a VGA connection.
This means if you extend a VGA cable over a distance of even
five to 10 meters, you'll start to see
that the image itself would become fuzzier and fuzzier
as that distance increases.
One good test for anybody who's taking their A+ exam is to look
at the back of a motherboard and be able to recognize all
of the different interfaces and connectors that are
on the back.
For a VGA connector, we only need
to look for the connector that has 15 pins,
and these 15 pins in these three rows with this DE connection
is our VGA connector on this motherboard.
One of the most common video connection types
today is an HDMI connection.
That stands for High-Definition Multimedia Interface.
This ends both audio and video through this HDMI connection,
and it is an all-digital connection.
There is no option here for sending an analog signal
through an HDMI connection.
Usually you can extend HDMI connections up
to about 20 meters.
And since this is a digital connection,
after that 20 meters, you may start
to see dropout or have no signal at all
because you're not able to get enough signal from one
end to the other.
An HDMI connector is usually this A connector.
This is a 19-pin connector, and it's
proprietary to this HDMI type.
There is a smaller HDMI connector called a miniHDMI.
It's a Type C connector, and it's
designed for smaller devices such as video cameras.
Here's a video card, and this is the back
of the card that would extend out the back of a computer.
And you can see, there is an HDMI connector
right there at the bottom.
This card also supports other types of video connectors
as well.
For example, there is a DisplayPort connector and two
different DVI connectors.
We'll talk more about DisplayPort and DVI
in just a moment.
DisplayPort is a standard created by the Video Electronic
Standards Association or VESA.
It's a royalty-free standard, which
means manufacturers can add DisplayPort interfaces
to their components and not have to pay any royalties to VESA.
The data is sent over this DisplayPort connection
in a packetized form, very similar to sending information
over an ethernet network.
It's also compatible with HDMI and DVI, which
means you could use a passive, unpowered connector to be
able to convert between DisplayPort and HDMI.
There's two different kinds of connectors
you might see for DisplayPort.
One is this smaller Mini DisplayPort connector,
and some of the larger components like the video card
we just saw is using the standard sized DisplayPort
connection.
Notice that the connector of the standard DisplayPort
is a U-type connector, and it has
a corner that is at an angle.
So if you were to look at the components on a laptop,
for example, you can easily pick out
that DisplayPort which has that U
connector on the inside and that corner
that's a little bit different than the others.
Another common video type that you might see as DVI.
This is Digital Visual Interface connection,
and there are a number of different types
of DVI connections.
There are single and dual link DVI connections.
The single link supports 3.7 gigabits of throughput
which allows you to have HDTV at 60 frames per second.
For gaming and other applications
that need even higher resolutions and higher frames
per second, you can connect a dual link connection
with DVI which extends this to 7.4 gigabits per second
supporting an HDTV connection at 85 frames per second.
DVI supports both analog and digital communication.
The DVI-A connector supports analog signals,
DVI-D means that you'll be sending digital signals
through a DVI connection, and DVI-I
is an integrated connector that will
send both digital and analog signals
through the same connector.
Here's the end of a DVI cable.
We know that this DVI cable supports
the digital version of DVI because
of the grouping of the pins on the cable itself.
If we go back and look at that video adapter card which
had the DisplayPort and HDMI connector on it,
we saw that there were two separate DVI interfaces,
and you can see they look a little bit
different with the pin configurations.
The top connector is a DVI-D that can support digital video,
and the bottom connector, which looks a little bit different,
is DVI-I that can support either digital or analog video.
Here's a relative view of these cable connections
next to each other-- the VGA, the DVI, and the HDMI.
And depending on your video requirements,
you may be using one of these to be able to connect video
to your desktop computer.