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Topic: Hardware

Leading PC manufacturers dropping VGA support by 2015

Summary: Get ready to say goodbye to analog display connectivity as several major tech companies have banded together to stop supporting LVDS in 2013 and VGA in 2015.

Rachel King

By for The ToyBox |

Get ready to say goodbye to analog display connectivity as several major tech companies have banded together to stop supporting LVDS in 2013 and VGA in 2015.

Those aforementioned manufactures consist of AMD, Dell, Intel Corporation, Lenovo, Samsung Electronics LCD Business and LG Display.

Instead, focus will be placed on DisplayPort and HDMI connections as they support higher resolutions, more color depth, multi-display support, and stereoscopic 3-D technology.

Consumers might still see VGA ports on the back of projectors after 2015, but AMD is pushing for the end of DVI-I support by 2015 as well.

Topic: Hardware

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20 comments
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  • Cute, but what will be the "universal default"?

    I thought that when all else failed Windows defaulted to VGA mode since EVERYTHING works with it?
    This is like getting rid of the space saver spare in cars.
    I can live with it, but I don't feel comfortable.
    kd5auq
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Leading PC manufacturers dropping VGA support by 2015

      @kd5auq - Right up there with run flat tires. Pretty scary when you take a trip along the back roads of New England
      wemmel
      Reply Vote

    • RE: Leading PC manufacturers dropping VGA support by 2015

      @kd5auq The "VGA mode" itself isn't going away - that's just software/firmware stuff. Video cards can still emulate it even without the VGA connectors.
      CobraA1
      Reply Vote

  • What's the real aim?

    While I realize these manufacturers want to reduce costs by having to support only the newest video technologies, you have to wonder if they also aren't trying to jump start sales of new monitors as well? Already they and Microsoft have banded together to pull another Windows 98 stunt -- where they made it nearly impossible to get a pan-and-scan virtual desktop (where the desktop is larger than your monitor and when you move your mouse to the edge of the monitor screen, you get more screen right before your eyes) and instead you had to buy multiple monitors. The ability to produce a pan-and-scan virtual desktop was restored in Windows P (at least with ATI videocards until last year), but killed off with Windows VISTA and 7. The unsatisfactory, expensive, and not neary as productivity-enhancing alternative is to buy two or more monitors for each computer. Please note that you could produce the pan-and-scan virtual desktop only with a VGA connection. DVI and any other digital connection would not work.

    I'd say that this move isn't a cynical attempt to force us to buy more monitors -- but if it weren't wouldn't Microsoft and the other manufacturers allow you to set up the pan-and-scan virtual desktop in Windows 7 and with digital video interfaces?
    dl@...
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Leading PC manufacturers dropping VGA support by 2015

      @dl@...

      it's my understanding that the hardware level Pan-n-Scan you refer to was essentially a "software implementation" in the video card's firmware that proved buggy and most people didn't use it because they found the idea annoying at best. i know i tried it a few times and despised it, preferring to sacrifice the 'desktop space' to be able to see my entire desktop without having to move my mouse all over the screen.

      however, i have also seen a software implementation of this on Linux quite frequently. personally i hated it there too, but if you are well served by it, you may look there to at least get a lead on restoring this functionality for your own systems.
      erik.soderquist
      Reply Vote

      • Didn't the concept of virtual desktops replace this technology?

        @erik.soderquist
        If a user wishes more monitor viewing surface area and doesn't wish to upgrade his hardware either by using a multiple monitor setup or a larger screen size monitor, than I would think virtual desktops along the lines of "Spaces" used in OSX would be the preferred option.
        kenosha77a
        Reply Vote

    • Saying pan and scan is more productive than multiple monitors

      @dl@... is like saying that 1920x1200 leads to lower productivity than 1024x768. The more you can see on your desktop at one time, the more you typically can do and/or monitor.
      nix_hed
      Reply Vote

      • But that's only true - IF you can read the teeny tiny letters at a higher..

        @nix_hed
        ...resolution. Personally, I'm good with like 1600x1200 or so. Anything higher and I can't read it unless I've got a 40" monitor. Which I don't have nor do I have any plans on buying one.
        Wolfie2K3
        Reply Vote

    • RE: Leading PC manufacturers dropping VGA support by 2015

      @dl@...

      "you have to wonder if they also aren't trying to jump start sales of new monitors as well?"

      Maybe, but my video card came with a couple of adapters to VGA, as it itself does not have VGA ports. I imagine adapters aren't going away any time soon, so you don't really have to buy new monitors.

      "The unsatisfactory, expensive, and not neary as productivity-enhancing alternative is to buy two or more monitors for each computer."

      I agree with "expensive" - it is indeed expensive - but I do not agree with the rest. I'm using dual monitors right now (one is actually using a digital outlet converted to VGA using an adapter), and I can tell you it's FAR more convenient to have two screens showing different things simultaneously than to use any sort of virtual desktop, where you have half of what you need always hidden.
      CobraA1
      Reply Vote

  • If this is like all the rest of the unsupported technologies...

    that have been declared dead. Undocumented support will continue for 5 to 10 years after that. Look at the current dinosaurs, the floppie drive, PS2 mice and keyboards. I haven't seen a computer with a non-USB floppy for years, but if you open the case on most budget and mid level PCs. There on the motherboard is that double row of 17 pins waiting "Just In Case". Even on the new computer I just bought for my son (i7/920 quad core). It has a floppy connector on the motherboard. In addition, my son has a keyboard that stores macros and multiple re-mapping for his faviorate game. Problem is the keyboard is PS-2 connection and the new computer only has USB connections. The solution was to open the case and remove the blank covering the PS2 Keyboard and mouse connections. They are still on the motherboard, just not uncovered on the new case. The PC manufacturers might stop putting the VGA header shell on but I think support for those dinosaured displays will continue for a significantly longer time. The motherboard manufactures will continue to provide support as long as it's more profitable than retooling to remove it.
    Scubajrr
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Leading PC manufacturers dropping VGA support by 2015

      @Scubajrr

      "I haven't seen a computer with a non-USB floppy for years"

      I have one in my custom built machine. Haven't used the floppy drive for years, but it's still there :).

      Being able to boot from CD-ROMs and USBs was the final thing that finally killed them. Unless I want to go through my old floppy collection for nostalgic reasons (although the data's probably long gone by now), I consider floppies dead.

      My motherboard does still have PS/2 connectors - sitting there completely empty. Both my keyboard and mouse are USB.
      CobraA1
      Reply Vote

  • Leading manufacturers hope to drop VGA?

    It all depends on what the new standard interface will be. Until there is a new standard waiting in the wings there can no commercial plan to drop VGA and no story. So the real question is what are we being softened up for? What is waiting in the wings? And who will it be better for? If the low cost unbranded manufacturers do not buy in, VGA will not die, and they will not buy in to anything complicated.

    PS Anybody got a spare USB monitor?
    PassingWind
    Reply Vote

    • I have a 7 incher

      and it's both bus-powered and slow.
      nix_hed
      Reply Vote

  • I see a train wreck here.

    It sounds like they are trying to use HDMI as the primary connection option for video. HDMI has HDCP copy protection and will limit the ability to use the video in ways that are common and required now. For example, using a KVM switch or distributing a signal to multiple displays using a DA or one of my favorites, using a VGA signal in a video production system to connect to a video switcher input. The only way that the market will generally accept HDMI as the only video connection is to eliminate HDCP, which the RIAA/MPAA will have a problem with.
    james.graham@...
    Reply Vote

    • RE: Leading PC manufacturers dropping VGA support by 2015

      We do a lot of commercial AV installations- we avoid HDMI connectiosn beacuse of the HDCP problem. Video proccessign gear that is supposed to handle HDCP frequently doesn't- so using VGA is the safer bet.
      craigblackley
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Leading PC manufacturers dropping VGA support by 2015

    HP Envy 17/14 don't have VGA ports
    shellcodes_coder
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Leading PC manufacturers dropping VGA support by 2015

    Waves @ The ToyBox
    Andrew Nusca & Rachel King
    Have we ever installed windows blindfolded ? After partitioning it goes like this, Name , tab(x)4 , enter,computer name ,tab(x)2 enter,tab(x)2 enter,tab(x)7 enter enter.There is more to dropping VGA then just graphics , wave bye bye to seeing boot , say good bye to seeing bios I am Hdmi w/t no vga . evil laugh Mu ha ha ha mu ha ha ha. Actually it's not to bad if you are a avid computer user , the new challenges are exhilarating , and well worth the trade off , the graphics are busting out of this box. :)
    cybursoft
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Leading PC manufacturers dropping VGA support by 2015

    My post here will not be a big deal to most people, but all of the inexpensive LCD monitors that I tested a few months ago, HP, Viewsonics, and a couple of others whose names I can't recall, flunked a basic requirement that all monitors used for serious color graphics evaluation should have. In my work I require that screen brightness be uniform from the top of the screen to the bottom in order that photographs be properly display for critical editing. My measurements showed that these screens were 1/2 to 2/3 of an f-stop brighter at the top than at the bottom when a flat gray screen was displayed. The only exception I noted to this was the 21" screen on the Apple iMac. The 27" Cinema Display was not available at the time, so I can't comment on it.

    For the non-photographers who might read this, a 1/3 f-stop change in brightness produces a noticeable difference to the eye, and a 1.0 f-stop change, in which there is twice as much light between levels, can easily result in one's getting either washed-out highlights or buried shadow detail in an image as well as unacceptable color distortion.

    I don't plan on buying any of these computers in the near future, so I don't care whether or not they will support VGA in the future, but anyone doing serious computer graphics work should be aware that inexpensive LCD monitors are a poor substitute for the ancient CRT technology.
    K4thwright
    Reply Vote

    • cheap LCDs

      @K4thwright

      One of the reasons Apple iMacs and monitors were more expensive is the use of better tech and proper color management profiles. A Mac with an Apple monitor would work for most graphic needs short of buying a top of the line monitor with calibration puck. Something many Wintel folks never used or cared about but should have been figured in their price calculations.
      Mr_Dave
      Reply Vote

  • RE: Leading PC manufacturers dropping VGA support by 2015

    ISA in 2050?
    trust2112@...
    Reply Vote
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