Video Connectors Tutorial

Video Graphics Adapter (VGA)

VGA is the traditional plug used to connect your PC to video monitors. It is also one option to connect your PC to video projectors and digital TV sets (HDTVs). This connection offers a better video quality than component video, S-Video, and composite video because it uses an independent wire for each video signal: red, green, blue, horizontal sync, and vertical sync. It uses a 15-pin connector known as D-Sub, D-Shell or HD15. On this connection, information is transmitted using analog signals, while on DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort, information is transmitted digitally, thus providing better quality. Therefore, if your video monitor, video projector or digital TV set (HDTV) has a DVI, an HDMI or a DisplayPort connector (which will be the case with current models available on the market), you should use one of them instead of the traditional VGA connector to hook up your PC to your monitor, projector or HDTV.

Figure 23: VGA connector on a video card

Figure 24: VGA cable of a video monitor

Figure 25: VGA connector on an HDTV set