2005FPW 20.1" monitor running on a Mac G4

[switters]

Hi people, this is my first post here.
I just bought a Dell 2005FPW 20.1" LCD monitor. I plan to hook it up to my Mac G4, 933 MHZt, 1 gig of ram computer running a Nvidia GeForce4 MX with ADC and VGA ports.
This question relates solely to the image quality of the monitor.

I have three options to hook up the monitor ( Dell 2005FPW ) to my computer (nVidia GeForce4 MX with ADC and VGA ports):

1. Hook it up using the VGA monitor cable to the VGA computer port.
2. Hook it up using the DVI monitor cable to an adc to dvi connector.
3. Hook it up using the DVI monitor cable to a vga to dvi connector.

Which method will yield a better image quality??
Thanks for any responses...trully appreciate it.

 

[grapes911]

DVI on the computer and DVI on the monitor will give you the best image.

 

[switters]

hmmmm......

Obviously that wasn't one of my choices since I don't have a DVI capable graphics card.

Are you suggesting that I get a new graphics card?
If yes, do you have any sugestions on which one I would buy?


Thanks for your response

P.S. I was told that I could get a pretty good quality image if I buy an ACD to DVI connector and connect my monitor that way.

 

[edesignuk]

Just go VGA to VGA, a VGA or ADC to DVI won't produce any better result I don't think.

 

[switters]

Just go VGA to VGA, a VGA or ADC to DVI won't produce any better result I don't think.

OK, so you are saying if I use an adapter/connector for my computers VGA or ADC ports it will hardly make a visual difference. hmmmm....

So many different opinions; if I were to judge your response based on the amount of posts that you posted than I got to go with your VGA to VGA connection.

wow...got me thinking know, I wish the Dell people would help me but they gave me the same response that you did.

Thanks a lot for your suggestion.

 

[edesignuk]

Think about it, VGA to DVI cannot possibly improve anything. The DVI is still sending a VGA signal just through a different connector. ADC to DVI I am not as certain about, I don't know if ADC was a better interface quality wise than normal VGA, perhaps someone else knows?

 

[Eidorian]

ADC is DVI + USB + Power. You can split off the DVI feed from ADC and run the monitor off of that.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/AddLogix/MCAADCDVI/

You could also just use the VGA too.

 

[switters]

Just to let you know, other forums don't compare with this one.
I am really happy here. The Dell forum netted me 1 response in 3 days!

The apple forum was OK, not as many respnses as here.

Back to the topic at hand. edesignuk & Eidorian thanks a lot for your time and your responses. ADC is a digital connection, to me at least, that might give my monitor a noticable visual improvement. I will def. buy that connector/adapter and see what happens.

I will also post back when I get it and let this community know if there was any visual difference using that connector/adapter.

Since my monitor has a DVI-D connection, there is a connector/adapter on the market that guarantees an ACD to DVI-D connection that will work; since I heard that some connectors only work with a DVI-I monitor and don't work with DVI-D monitors.

right here


Thanks again,


Cheers...........

 

[drlunanerd]

Absolutely get hold of an ADC to DVI adapter. Image quality is noticeably better when running digital instead of analog - especially on a good monitor like the 2005FPW.

I have a Dr Bott DVI Extractor and used it on a Power Mac G4 to output to an Iiyama Prolite E431 LCD and it worked great. No mucking about with geometry settings etc. on the monitor needed in digital mode either. You should be able to get cheaper ones these days - I note Belkin do one for example.

I've recently run a 2005FPW on a Power Mac G5 using straight DVI and this was also great.

 

[Eidorian]

I've never noticed any major quality issue between DVI and VGA on my Power Mac G4's. The Mac Mini G4 has weak DVI to VGA output though. That's the only machine I've heard that has some VGA quality issues. You'd get dim displays.

 

[CanadaRAM]

News flash: ADC is DVI - read on.

VGA is an analog signal, and results in "soft" on-screen results with LCD monitors - not as crisp as a digital signal. Going "VGA to DVI" does not make the analog VGA signal into a high quality digital signal, it just pipes the VGA signal into some pins in the DVI-I connector that are there to carry oldstyle analog signals. So VGA to DVI is a misnomer - you are as well to use VGA to VGA if the monitor has an analog VGA port.

ADC and DVI (digital) have the SAME digital video signals in them, they just have different plug configurations and ADC also carries a power and USB lines that DVI does not.

So it is easy to go ADC to DVI - a simple adaptor (about $25) converts the ADC digital signals to a DVI jack. This gets a pure digital signal and is sharper than the VGA connection.

The thing you have to check is whether your video card has enough RAM to support the native resolution of the monitor. ATI Rage video cards in early G4 towers did not have enough VRAM to run 20" widescreen monitors at native resolution, despite their ADC digital outputs.

Remember that LCD monitors as a group perform poorly if they are set to a resolution other than the native resolution. If you are not maintaining a 1:1 ratio of video pixels to the actual LCD pixels, then the monitor has to interprolate thye signal and assign a video piel to more than one LCD pixel. Some, or many, of the video pixels will span 2 or more LCD pixels, and their edges will overlap with others on the same LCD pixel, which compromises the quality and makes the screen results look grainy and blurry.

There are two flavours of the DVI jack - DVI-I and DVI-D. DVI-I includes pins for the analog VGA signal. DVI-D has only the pins for the digital signals and is incapable of passing through VGA signals. Most monitors and cards with DVI jacks are DVI-I but there are exceptions.

So:
If you have an ADC video card and a DVI-I or DVI-D monitor, then use ADC-DVI convertor and a DVI - DVI cable.

If you have a DVI video card and a ADC monitor, you're mildly hooped because although the video signal is the same, the monitor relies on power which is not present in the DVI jack. There are some moderately expensive DVI - ACD adaptors which have an AC supply to feed in the power required.
http://www.addlogix.com/peripheral_sharing/embed.asp?stuff=se_adc_body.html


If you have a VGA video card and a monitor with a VGA jack, use VGA to VGA, no point in anything else. If the monitor has a DVI-I jack but no VGA, then you can use a VGA to DVI adaptor, but as noted it will still be a VGA signal. If the monitor is only DVI-D, you're hooped.

If you have a DVI-I video card output only and a VGA monitor, you can use a DVI-VGA adaptor to extract the VGA signal, then VGA to VGA to the monitor. This would be used, for example, to hook up a second VGA monitor if there was one already using the card's VGA port.

If you have an ADC card and a VGA monitor, you can similarly get an ADC-VGA adaptor.

More detail on what goes with what here http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58692

 

[valiar]

Your best option will be to connect with an ADC/DVI connector (should cost about $20 at the Apple store).
ADC is, in fact, just DVI with additional pins for power.
In this case, your signal does not go through A/D converter and you don't lose anything in quality. VGA connections may be noticeably worse.

 

[grapes911]

hmmmm......

Obviously that wasn't one of my choices since I don't have a DVI capable graphics card.

Are you suggesting that I get a new graphics card?

Sorry, I thought you knew ADC was just a reconfigured DVI connection. Get an ADC to DVI adapter and you won't regret it.

 

[CanadaRAM]

I've never noticed any major quality issue between DVI and VGA on my Power Mac G4's. The Mac Mini G4 has weak DVI to VGA output though. That's the only machine I've heard that has some VGA quality issues. You'd get dim displays.

I noticed a major improvement in sharpness from my G4 Dual 1.25 moving from VGA to DVI on my Dell 2005FPW

 

[Eidorian]

I noticed a major improvement in sharpness from my G4 Dual 1.25 moving from VGA to DVI on my Dell 2005FPW

Does that only apply to LCD's though? I get killer VGA performance on CRT's. I try to use DVI as much as possible. I'm just curious.

 

[grapes911]

Does that only apply to LCD's though? I get killer VGA performance on CRT's. I try to use DVI as much as possible. I'm just curious.

I notice a drastic performance increase from VGA to DVI when using an LCD. I only notice a slight performance increase from VGA to DVI when using a CRT (it could be in my head though).

 

[switters]

holly cow...lol

This was like a mini tutorial for me. I learned so much and now I know exactly what to do.

I just ordered a DVI Extractor for ADC...
I didn't know that ADC is a digital signal.


Thanks for all of the knowledge and information. This is great...


Enjoy the rest of your Sundays!!!!!

 

[Eidorian]

I notice a drastic performance increase from VGA to DVI when using an LCD. I only notice a slight performance increase from VGA to DVI when using a CRT (it could be in my head though).

Find me a DVI CRT. I think IBM made a few.

 

[CanadaRAM]

Does that only apply to LCD's though? I get killer VGA performance on CRT's. I try to use DVI as much as possible. I'm just curious.

Yes it only applies to LCD's.

CRTs are by definition analog, so a digital signal is of no use - it would have to be converted back into analog before the CRT could use it. So CRTs are VGA only - if you use a CRT on a DVI-I connection, you're using the VGA signal embedded in the DVI-I connector, so there should be no difference at all between that and VGA.

Virtually no CRTs have DVI connectors, the few Apple CRTs that had ADC were using the analog pins only AFAIK. If a CRT accepted a digital signal, it would have to have conversion circutry inside it to create the analog signal.

 

[grapes911]

Find me a DVI CRT. I think IBM made a few.

I had a Apple CRT with a ADC connection.

 

[Eidorian]

I had a Apple CRT with a ADC connection.

That was analog over ADC.

 

[grapes911]

That was analog over ADC.

Yeah, I guess it would have to be. Like I said, it might have been in my head.

 

[switters]

I just wanted to update you on the situation, and maybe this will also help someone in the future.

I went ahead and bought an "ADC to DVI extractor/connector/adpater" and it worked beautifully.
This adapter was shipped pretty fast and it works on the dell and my nvidia GE force4 MX beautifully.

I have two minotors hooked up. A CRT Viewsonic A90f+ and the Dell 2005FPW 20.1. The dell is hooked up via the adapter in my computers ADC port and the viewsonic in the VGA port.

I have to say that I noticed a slight difference when I hooked up the Dell using the adapter as opposed to a straight VGA connection. The difference was in sharpness. It was a subtle difference.

Thanks again for all of the suggestins and I hope that this will help someone else.


Peace........

 

[Eidorian]

I notice a drastic performance increase from VGA to DVI when using an LCD. I only notice a slight performance increase from VGA to DVI when using a CRT (it could be in my head though).

I just tested the difference between VGA and DVI at work. There's a big difference between the dual displays at 60 Hz. (Dual Dell 17" LCD's) Once I crank the analog refresh rate to 75 Hz it sharpens greatly. It's fuzzy at 60 Hz.

 

[Jery49]

ADC to DVI

I went ahead and bought an "ADC to DVI extractor/connector/adpater" and it worked beautifully.
This adapter was shipped pretty fast and it works on the dell and my nvidia GE force4 MX beautifully.

I just ordered the 2005FPW and also have a G4 933 MHZt. Does the "ADC to DVI extractor/connector/adpater" connect to the Mac or the monitor. In other words, do I need a DVI cable to connect the monitor to the Mac or a ADC cable?