New computer to monitor cable problem

Owen wrote:

Now I have to wait until Wednesday for the cable to come, so the computer is useless till then.
I could buy one from Best Buy but they want 49 bucks, Staples wants 43......
Why did they freakin' change the ports anyway.

Owen

Blame Hollywood.

There are differences between them (as HDMI devices have to support HDCP (encrypted video with a device that is compliant to certain standards to prevent copying of protected content). HDMI also supports Audio and has some other features that you don't get with DVI (even though HDMI displays are backwards compatible with DVI outputs).

I suspect you can blame the Motion Picture Industry for wanting to get rid of any analog interfaces like VGA, as the Copy Protection is probably what they want newer designs for, to make it harder for anyone to take an output from a device that's playing copy protected content, and feed it to any type of recording device. For example, note the history section for HDMI and you'll see that the Motion Picture Industry was a major driving force:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Definition_Multimedia_Interface

They have some similar features in many DVI devices now, too. But, not all displays with DVI inputs are HDCP compliant, whereas all displays with HDMI inputs are supposed to be HDCP compliant (and if the display is not HDCP compliant, it won't play protected/encrypted content).

IOW, I think that the Motion Picture industry wants to get rid of any analog devices and go to interfaces using encryption of both video and audio to reduce copying of content. But, it is nuts how many different connection types you can find in use now (VGA, various types of DVI connections, DisplayPort,, and even Thunderbolt; not to mention other connections that some cards and TVs may still use like S-Video, composite connections, etc.:-)

I know at one time there was a lot of debate over new laws they were trying to get passed to get rid of analog devices capable of recording or playing content entirely. But, I haven't kept up with it lately.

Google for MPAA Analog Loophole and you'll find lots and lots of articles about their lobbying efforts.

IOW, you can probably blame Hollywood for a lot of the changes you're seeing in connection types, as the recording industry wants to make sure content is protected end to end by encrypted video and audio so that it can't be easily copied.