Unlike the old days of hooking up a VCR to an analog television, today's media centers and HDTVs accept a wide range of cable styles and connections. Read on to learn more about cable types and when you should use them.
Photo by Ryan Franklin.
Technology and how-to site How-To Geek offers a primer on the difference between VGA, Composite, DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort cables and connectors and why you would opt to use one over the other for your video needs. Here they highlight what you need to know about DVI cables:
DVI is one of the most common digital video cables you'll see on desktops and LCD monitors today. It's the most similar to VGA connectors, with up to 24 pins and support for analog as well as digital video. DVI can stream up to 1920×1200 HD video, or with dual-link DVI connectors you can support up to 2560×1600 pixels. Some DVI cables or ports may include fewer pins if they are designed for lower resolution devices, so you'll need to watch for this. If your port contains all the pins, however, it can support the max resolution with no problem. The biggest problem with DVI is that it doesn't support HDCP encryption by default, so if your hardware only includes DVI ports, you may not be able to playback full HD Blu-rays and other HD content.
Check out the full article for a run down on all the other cable styles, including photo references.
What's the Difference Between HDMI and DVI? Which is Better? [How-To Geek]