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What Type of DVI Cable Should You Buy?
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Technology October 2, 2018 Lester Kim

What Type of DVI Cable Should You Buy?

The variety available in the market for the DVI connection types is bound to leave you confused, and if you are using a wrong kind of cable for the desired connection, your video simply wouldn’t play. This article will help you determine what type connection works and doesn’t work with the PrimeCables DVI cable and which one you should buy.

Signal Types

There are two types of signals that flow through the DVI cables. They are digital and analog and they are simply incompatible with one another. If a DVI cable is connected to a device that only emits digital signals to further connect with a device that accepts only analog signals, or the vice versa, you will receive zero outputs. So the first step is to determine if your device can interact with each other or not.

  1. Digital Signal or DVI-D

The DVI cable that carries digital signals is called DVI D. It is not compatible with any analog signal format like component video, composite video, VGA etc. and doesn’t connect with a device that cannot have DVI D or HDMI. If your socket says DVI D, then it will let in only DVI D signals. It can connect to an HDMI source using an HDMI or DVI cable. If your device has a DVI I socket, it is classified into three types as follows:

  1. DVI D only: No analog signal pins, uses DVI I socket for DVI I cable only.
  2. DVI A only: no DVI D signal, uses a DVI socket for regular analog signal, can be connected to an RGBHV device with a DVI I cable, DVI/VGA cable.
  3. True DVI I: has both analog and digital ability via this port. It is autosense.
  4. Analog signal or DVI A

A device which contains the connection for DVI I, along with the pins for analog RGBHV connection is compatible with RGBHV signals through the analog port. In this case, a regular analog computer monitor signal can be connected to any other RGBHV device.

What type of cable should I use?

Once you are aware of what devices are compatible, choosing a cable for connecting becomes quite simple. There are many DVI I cables available in the market which are compatible with both digital and analog signals in one cable. So, there is no good reason to use only one. Only digital or analog of a DVI I cable can be used in any application.