Thunderbolt vs Mini Displayport adapter?

[dawgfan]

I have a Samsung monitor with DVI and VGA inputs that I'd like to use with my MBA when in my home office.

Does it matter if I use the older MDP or the Thunderbolt. Is the newer one going to produce a better picture?

Thanks for your help!

 

[rigormortis]

i think they are identical and buying thunderbolt to dvi vs display port to dvi wouldn't matter.

dvi doesn't carry sound

you can go cheap on HDMI cables and save a lot of money

don't go cheap on displayport. the cheap cables break apart after regular use. we had a bad experience with cheap cables from amazon splitting in half after regular use

 

[s0nicpr0s]

You would only need to buy a thunderbolt cable if you plan on going from your Air to a thunderbolt dock, and then to your monitor. The mdp will do exactly what you need. To your monitor, they would be identical since it would only be receiving the digital video signal. The DVI will have a very consistent picture, and the VGA may degrade slightly depending on the setup (i.e., resolution of the monitor, length/build quality of the cable, anything between the two devices)

My setup at work using VGA goes to a 1920x1200 HP monitor, and the only reason the image looks fuzzy is because of the KVM between the Windows workstation and monitor. Removing the KVM from the equation sharpens the image considerably. The DVI and DisplayPort inputs look identical to my eye on this monitor as well.