About HDMI and VGA cables/converters

Ekip

Hi All

Hope this is the right place to ask.

I want to connect a Nintendo Switch to a monitor that only has a VGA port.

I currently have a cable with HDMI connectors at each end and a cable with VGA connectors at each end.

As I see it, I have 3 options:-

1) buy a cable with HDMI connector on one end and VGA connector on the other end

2) buy a HDMI to VGA convertor/adapter to use with the HDMI cable

3) buy a VGA to HDMI convertor/adapter to use with the VGA cable

My questions are whether it actually makes a difference (particularly in relation to picture quality) which option I choose? and if it does, which option is best?

Thanks in advance for any help/advice you can offer.

EndlessWaves

#2 is your only option, #1 and #3 won't work.

#1 is just rip-off merchants that get most of their business selling cables that sound promising but only actually work on a few non-standard devices. HDMI and VGA are different protocols and there's no provision in the HDMI spec to output VGA or the VGA spec to receive HDMI.

#3 Won't work because converters are directional unless they explicitly say otherwise. So a VGA to HDMI converter converts a VGA signal to an HDMI one and won't do anything to the HDMI signal coming out of the Switch you're trying to get the screen to understand.


Does the monitor have a DVI port? HDMI was built on DVI so you can often feed an HDMI signal directly into a DVI port and an HDMI to DVI cable works in many cases.


Also bear in mind that VGA (and DVI) don't support sound transmission so you'll need a separate output from the switch or converter for audio.

Ekip

Thank you for the comprehensive answer.

Unfortunately no DVI port.

I do also have a cable with HDMI connector at one end and DVI at the other though, so would a DVI to VGA convertor be an option and if so better/worse/same as option 2?

Ekip

Hi

Just realised I haven’t described option 3 properly - what I meant was the VGA cable (which has male connectors at both ends) with a HDMI (male) to VGA (female) convertor to attach to the Switch end of the cable.

As opposed to option 2 which would be a HDMI (female) to VGA (male) convertor to attach to the monitor end of a HDMI cable.

EndlessWaves

DVI does have provision to carry VGA signals but it wasn't included in the HDMI spec, so the HDMI to DVI cable is purely carrying the digital DVI signal (called DVI-D, as opposed to DVI-A for VGA and DVI-I for the combined cable/plug).

So a DVI-A/DVI-I to VGA plug changer wouldn't work. A DVI-D to VGA converter box would but would function very similarly to the HDMI to VGA one.

It might matter if you've got a particularly long cable, and the VGA port is often a bit more robust to be hanging weight off than an HDMI port.

I suspect most of any difference will come from differences between converters than the configuration of cables though.