A bit of trivia, in case you're interested:

The thing that lets you hook up an analog VGA monitor to a DVI port isn't really a "converter" because it's not converting or altering the signal in any way. Its pins are wired straight through from the VGA side to the DVI port; the only thing it lets you do is make the connection.

DVI ports, despite the name, are capable of outputting both digital and analog signals. Both, in fact, at the same time. They use different pins for the one or the other.

It's up to the card manufacturer to decide whether to include analog circuitry (DACs and such) on the card or not. It's possible that the analog out pins on the connector not be connected to anything. Most all card makers, however, still make cards capable of analog output.

And yes, the +/-/RAM thing with DVD disks bothers me, too. It's starting to look less and less like VHS/Betamax, though, and more like all (6? 7?) formats will hang around for a long time. We'll see.

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Matthew J. Hill
matt@idsi.net