DVI-D to VGA adapter Whaaaa?!?

[windudes]

i have a bunch of these adapters laying around and they don't work. they look like this: http://images.cecompass.com/productimages/D/DVI_D_VGA_ADAP/DVI_D_VGA_ADAP_B.jpg

based on my knowledge of DVI learned from wikipedia, the four pins around the blade pin on DVI are for analog signal. and VGA is an analog signal. if these adapters don't have those four analog pins but are supposed to convert DVI to VGA, what are they for? how do they work? do you understand my confusion?

 

[luciferano]

I think that you are correct in that those are DVI-D to VGA instead of DVI-A/DVI-I to VGA and if that's true, I don't know what they're for. It might be for a similar use as to non-active Displayport to HDMI/DVI-D adapters that don't actually let you use a Displayport to support an HDMI/DVI-D display.

 

[joesden]

These cheap adapters will not work as they don't do digital to analog video conversion. If you are looking to go from DVI-D to VGA you need a true digital to analog signal converter (Part # SCA-DVI-ANA).

 

[luciferano]

These cheap adapters will not work as they don't do digital to analog video conversion. If you are looking to go from DVI-D to VGA you need a true digital to analog signal converter (Part # SCA-DVI-ANA).

I think that OP wants to do a DVI-I to VGA adaption (doesn't need any converters) and these adapters might simply be the wrong adapters for that.

 

[windudes]

it's not that i need anything. i was just wondering what purpose in the universe a DVI-D to VGA adapter has. i imagine it would work with certain monitors. it's my understanding that LCD monitors with VGA input have to convert the signal from analog to digital to display on the screen and perhaps if you could bypass that conversion or it didn't have that converter in the first place in very specific hardware applications that maybe this converter would be used where it's digital the whole way but still has a VGA connector type. is that correct? does that even make sense?

 

[luciferano]

I guess that is possible, but it would probably be a very limited market considering that at least usually, only very, very old LCDs lack support for digital ports and I'd think that they'd need to be designed to work with such adapters. IDK for sure about any of that.

 

[ko888]

DVI-D to VGA adapters were never made to work. They're only made to con the unsuspecting buyer.

If the adapter doesn't have any analog signal pass through there is no way that it will ever work.

How did you acquire these adapters? Were they included in graphics card packages?

 

[windudes]

i colleague at work bought about ten of them for a dollar a piece on ebay. i work at a computer repair store. certainly they weren't made with the explicit purpose to troll people, haha

 

[ko888]

Anyone that has bought one of those adapters have said they never worked because they theoretically can't work as intended. When they're being sold for a dollar apiece it certainly does raise my suspicion that it's a con job on the unsuspecting buyer.

 

[aethelbuz1978]

DVI-I carries both digital and analog signals. If you need to go from DVI-D to VGA you will need a converter. These adapters don't do digital to analog video signal conversion.

 

[srisher]

These adapters are used to connect a DVI-D output to VGA input, but the video card must support outputting analog over the DVI-D port. If it does not, then these adapters are useless.