MiSTer FPGA Forum

Hello, it's my first post here. I have a 17" 1280x1024 LCD monitor made in 2012 which I use for my MiSTer since it seems the best for Amiga productivity stuff (OS39, ClassicWB). It both has DVI and VGA inputs, and I use it via a passive HDMI - DVI cable with dvi setting turned on.

I've received my analog board this week so I can also hook it up in VGA. I don't know the quality of both of the converters in the monitor, but thought DVI would be much faster since it is LCD and deals with digital more than a CRT. For the VGA, it would go to two separate but same kind of conversion process to convert the signal from digital to analog (for both the DE10 nano and the board inside the monitor). But here I see analog board makes more accurate and faster results for CRT, am I completely wrong for LCD? Thank you.

HDMI to DVI does not convert, it's pin-compatible. VGA does get converted to digital by the screen, so HDMI will probably be faster for you.

It depends on the scaler in the screen. In my Dell 1280x1024 flat screen, the VGA and DVI seem to be identical as far as I have found in my research. Out of the MiSTer, it doesn't matter if you use VGA or HDMI. They will be identical. If you use direct_video=1, then there will be no lag out of the MiSTer. How your display takes the signal and displays it can vary. You may need to use the force scan doubler option in this case. The analog IO board's VGA output won't have as much color information as the HDMI port, so theoretically it will look better out of the HDMI port. An HDMI to VGA adapter looks better than the IO board's VGA port. At least it did on my VGA CRT monitor before it died.

There's no sense in favouring VGA over DVI with an LCD monitor. LCDs are natively digital, so stick to a digital input wherever possible.

Agreed. Use digital if possible.

jlancaster86 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 24, 2021 8:36 am There's no sense in favouring VGA over DVI with an LCD monitor. LCDs are natively digital, so stick to a digital input wherever possible.

Only reason to favor VGA is if your monitor can handle different refresh rates differently via different connectors. At least on my 17" Eizo LCD one can only use 60hz refresh rate when DVI is in use, but via VGA everything between 49-75 hz is OK.