{"id":98,"date":"2017-04-25T05:32:16","date_gmt":"2017-04-25T09:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/computermoose.topshot.com\/?p=98"},"modified":"2017-04-25T05:34:06","modified_gmt":"2017-04-25T09:34:06","slug":"too-many-types-of-video-cables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/computermoose.topshot.com\/index.php\/2017\/04\/25\/too-many-types-of-video-cables\/","title":{"rendered":"Too Many Types of Video Cables"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was a time when life was simple. \u00a0You wanted to connect a monitor to a computer so you took the VGA cable and connected it between your computer and monitor, female to male and male to female. \u00a0You couldn’t go wrong.<\/p>\n

\"VGA<\/p>\n

I just bought a new laptop. \u00a0It doesn’t have a VGA connector. So my KVM switch won’t work with this laptop. \u00a0I just realized that. \u00a0A KVM switch is a set of cables plus a switch that allows you to connect a number of different computers to one k<\/strong><\/span>eyboard, one v<\/strong><\/span>ideo (monitor) and one m<\/strong><\/span>ouse. \u00a0That way you don’t kill all the real estate on your desk with multiple monitors, etc. \u00a0Consumer KVM switches usually come with connectors for 2 or 4 computers. \u00a0Until recently, I used my KVM switch to connect my work laptop, my personal laptop, and my personal desktop.<\/p>\n

But now I have a new somewhat high-end HP Pavilion laptop that only has an HDMI connector. \u00a0My work laptop has adapters for VGA and DisplayPort. \u00a0Oh, and my desktop computer, which is about 7 years old, only has VGA connectors. \u00a0One of my two 24-inch monitors has connections for VGA and DVI while the other monitor has connections for VGA, DisplayPort, and HDMI. \u00a0And I’m having problems trying to figure out the differences between the various connector types and whether I can connect everything together via any type of KVM switch.<\/p>\n

This blog entry is really meant for me so I can easily look up and remember which type of cable is which. \u00a0So first, here are what the cable connectors look like:<\/p>\n

\"HDMI
HDMI cable (note the symmetric look of the connector)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"DVI
DisplayPort cable (note the asymmetric shape of the connector)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"DisplayPort
DVI\u00a0cable (reminiscent of the VGA cable but larger and rectangular)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now that I have these pictures I hopefully will not forget which cable is which. \u00a0What’s somewhat nice is that there is much compatibility between these digital cables. \u00a0For example, there are DVI-HDMI cable adapters<\/a>. \u00a0There are also DisplayPort-HDMI cable adapters<\/a>. \u00a0And of course there are DisplayPort-DVI cable adapters such as this one which I own:<\/p>\n

\"DisplayPort-DVI
DisplayPort-DVI cable adapter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I need to integrate the computers and monitors\u00a0so that they all use one type of adapter so that a KVM switch can be used to share the devices. \u00a0Note that I will only be sharing one monitor between the computers. The second monitor will only be connected to my work computer.<\/p>\n

The DVI interface is the oldest of the three digital interfaces so I’m choosing not to buy a DVI KVM switch. \u00a0Where I’m living DisplayPort KVM switches aren’t available so I will buy a HDMI KVM switch. \u00a0To get everything connected I will need to buy a couple of adapter cables: one DVI-to-HMDI cable (to connect my older monitor to the KVM switch) and one DisplayPort-to-HDMI cable (to connect my work computer to the KVM switch).<\/p>\n

Now that was easy, wasn’t it?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There was a time when life was simple. \u00a0You wanted to connect a monitor to a computer so you took the VGA cable and connected it between your computer and monitor, female to male and male to female. \u00a0You couldn’t go wrong. I just bought a new laptop. \u00a0It doesn’t have a VGA connector. So … Continue reading “Too Many Types of Video Cables”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8,9,13,11,10,12,15,14],"class_list":["post-98","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cable","tag-cables","tag-displayport","tag-dvi","tag-hdmi","tag-kvm","tag-monitor","tag-vga"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7qelO-1A","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/computermoose.topshot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/computermoose.topshot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/computermoose.topshot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/computermoose.topshot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/computermoose.topshot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/computermoose.topshot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115,"href":"https:\/\/computermoose.topshot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions\/115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/computermoose.topshot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/computermoose.topshot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/computermoose.topshot.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}