At some point in your life you are going to sit down and say to yourself, “I sure wish I knew how to split a DVI signal to two devices.” When that day comes, it is important that you have done your research and learned some DVI splitter cable tips and tricks. The most important thing to recognize when splitting a DVI cable is that it tends to be more complicated that you expect. It is not just a matter of placing a Y-cable onto your output device and enjoying the effects of splitting your signal. Here are some DVI cable splitting tips to get you started.
DVI Splitter Cable Help
The first key to understanding DVI is that this standard comes in a variety of flavors, each with their own intended purpose and design. DVI-D (digital) and DVI-A (analog) are the two most basic types of DVI. The third type is called DVI-I (integrated) and allows for both analog and digital signals through the same cable. Each cable type is identified by different pin arrangements and can be identified by the pattern.
In order for a DVI splitter to send the signal to two different input devices, the output card usually must be able to send out a dual-link signal. Many video card manufacturers mistakenly use this to advertise two separate output ports. With splitting, this means that a single port can send two simultaneous signals rather than the typical single-link output.
Assuming your card can handle the split signal, the input devices must be of the same signal format. You cannot send both an analog and digital signal at the same time; they must be like-kind signals. For more accurate and dependable results it is generally also recommended that you use similar display types on the two monitors.
Splitting DVI can be somewhat tricky if you are using a simple Y-cable. If you would prefer to take the pressure off of the process, use of a DVI converter can clear up some of the variables. The converter box allows you to accomplish things that are standard limitations of the cable, such as mixing signals and amplifying the signal strength.
