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What is a digital monitor?
A digital monitor is one that needs a digital INPUT signal to make it work. They need a digital graphics card to provide that input signal.
Do I need to change my graphics card?
Yes, if you want a purely digital system. Most monitors work off analogue signals and so, if this is the case with your old monitor, you would need to change to a digital card.
However, a monitor with a DVI-I connection can work in analogue mode by connecting to exisiting, 15-pin, analogue graphic cards. Later, when you have a digital card with a DVI-I out, you can use the same monitor for a purely digital system.
What are the benefits of digital monitors?
The picture quality of digital monitors is excellent because digital signals can be processed and transferred with no loss in the signal. You may have already seen a digital display without realizing it because most laptop computers have LCD screens that are fed by digital signals. The monitors listed below give significantly better pictures than any laptop computer.
Is it true that ALL LCD monitors are digital?
Essentially, the OUTPUT is digital but it is the INPUT SIGNAL that matters. If all LCD monitors were digital then none would work with existing graphics cards and the market for them would be limited. Monitor manufacturers realized this and so they made analogue LCD monitors which work by taking the signal from an analogue graphics card and they then pass this through a converter which is built into the monitor. This changes the analogue signal to digital which the monitor can understand.
So why buy a digital monitor?
As mentioned before there is no signal loss with digital monitors. In fact, two processes are eliminated: (1) The conversion of the original digital signal (yes, the original signal is digital) from the computer to analogue, as performed by the analogue graphics card; and (2) The re-conversion of this analogue signal to digital in the monitor conversion unit. The digital monitor will simply take digital signals throughout: from computer via card to screen.
What if I don't want to change my graphics card?
Then make sure that you buy a monitor with a DVI-I socket. This is the latest digital format and will accept digital or analogue signals through the same socket. Nearly all digital monitors produced these days have this type of socket. They allow you to use an exisiting analogue card before upgrading to a digital DVI-I card later.
Some monitors have multiple sockets that will accept a combination of digital and analogue signals from different cards - you simply switch between signals via a button on the monitor.
Confused about connectors? Click here for more (information that is, not confusion).
