When will VGA hurry up and die?

[Chris15]

I'm in the process of designing AV specs for meeting rooms in a community facility that because of budgetary reasons will probably be progressively implemented over the next few years.

There is no question in my mind that the backbone of signal distribution from sources to projector will be digital since that is how everything is heading.

The question becomes how long are users going to expect to find a VGA plug to connect their laptop with?

If this does not install for another 3- 4 years say, and there is an installed PC as a fallback option, do I need to make allowance for VGA?

Digitial distribution can all be done quite nicely over shielded Cat6, so to have to find VGA baluns and run dedicated NanoSkew or the like is an unappealing prospect...

 

[cpf]

It'll be mandatory for at least 5 years after the last VGA-only laptop goes off the market, i.e. way too long. It's a self-perpetuating issue: laptops first supported VGA (back when it was the only standard) so "boardroom" projectors only had to have a VGA input. With all projectors (and external screens) supporting VGA, laptop makers guarantee user experience by equipping their hardware with a VGA output (taking precedence over HDMI, etc), lest someone be caught unprepared on the day of their big presentation with an incompatible laptop. Since both laptops, and to a greater degree projectors have a long lifespan, we're stuck with supporting VGA for quite a while.

As for the fallback installed PC, I wouldn't count on it, most presenters prefer to use their own computers to run their presentations. There would also be the issue of people's presentations being in formats that are incompatible with whatever software is on the installed PC, think a Keynote presentation (which can't be converted to PPT without losing fidelity) or a 2010 PPTX when the machine only has 2007.

 

[techieman33]

I would bet that vga projectors will be around longer than vga laptops. Just did a little google searching and vga is scheduled to be phased out by 2015, so figure 2020 before it would be safe to really drop support.

 

[chausman]

Longer than you want it to!

I would always have VGA available. While it may become obsolete in the near future, there will always be someone who comes in with an ancient laptop that née VGA because he needs to have some unsupported software that only runs on that ancient laptop. That happens to use VGA. I wish that digital (more specifically HDMI) was the standard. But...it's not (yet) so we'll just have to deal with it.

 

[DuckJordan]

Longer than you want it to!

I would always have VGA available. While it may become obsolete in the near future, there will always be someone who comes in with an ancient laptop that née VGA because he needs to have some unsupported software that only runs on that ancient laptop. That happens to use VGA. I wish that digital (more specifically HDMI) was the standard. But...it's not (yet) so we'll just have to deal with it.

I really hope hdmi doesn't take over its low res in comparison to vga or dvi.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[chausman]

I really hope hdmi doesn't take over its low res in comparison to vga or dvi.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

But, I can use the Digital AV adaptor for my iPad and have my video and audio come through one cable.

 

[DuckJordan]

But, I can use the Digital AV adaptor for my iPad and have my video and audio come through one cable.

But its lower quality on both spectrum's. In our industry the better the quality the easier it is to work with so I don't see HDMI going into theaters very often other than for special purpose. As far as convention centers and other places that hold meetings more than events, I could see using HMDI once in a while but most businesses that rent out a room like that are going to want to have more than just their laptop hooked up to the audio system.

 

[blackisthenewblack]

However, in a permanent installation, the cable runs might too be prohibitive to run HDMI which I think has a recommended max cable run of 25' before signal loss becomes an issue.

 

[facethewolf]

I think VGA will be the best fallback technology for many years to come. There are still a lot of issues with digital signals: transmission bandwidth, HDMI 1.2 or 3 or 4, proprietary plugs and signals, Copy-protection handshakes. It's good to know that when all else fails, you can fall back on VGA.
I think the good news is that you'll only have to consider one VGA connection for the occassional guest laptop, rather than the multiple VGA plugs we used to need.

 

[museav]

There's a chance that VGA could still be around after analog component video, HDMI and DVI are gone. My biggest fear with new projects is that 'state of the art' systems seem to be experiencing increasingly shorter useful lives. At least in my experience, many system replacements or upgrades are driven by needing to be compatible with the ever evolving sources the users of the system work with and part of that is an increasing spectrum of potential sources one might routinely encounter.

 

[MNicolai]

There's a chance that VGA could still be around after analog component video, HDMI and DVI are gone. My biggest fear with new projects is that 'state of the art' systems seem to be experiencing increasingly shorter useful lives. At least in my experience, many system replacements or upgrades are driven by needing to be compatible with the ever evolving sources the users of the system work with and part of that is an increasing spectrum of potential sources one might routinely encounter.

This is why when it came to purchasing a $30k+ projector for our arts center that we'd use a dozen times a year or so (and could never get a shred of return on that investment), we opted to purchase a $4k projector and a portable rear projection screen that suits 80% of our projection needs and then when there are film presentations that require a larger projector, we rent. By renting, we never have to worry about having to buy the latest, extremely expensive piece of technology. We only have to replace our smaller projector every so many years and then whenever we need the best, brightest projector for our large projection screen, we rent it.

As it turns out, almost all of the events in our film series next year already have sponsors that will cover the cost of the rental so we stand to lose absolutely nothing by not having a larger projector in our inventory, which is great because then we never have to worry about replacing a $30k projector every several years that a new video format shows up and an old video format becomes obsolete.

 

[ruinexplorer]

Seeing as many projectors still have S-video inputs on them, I think that it will take a very long time for the VGA to go away. However, the VGA input still ends up being quite versatile for the analog world, with adapters to go along with the various signal types. Sure, it could use a DVI-I as long as the projector has multiple options through the DVI-I port (not usually as versatile).

For a multi-use cable, I would rather see Display Port take off if we are destined to lose DVI.

I have to agree that for most use outside of home theater, having audio and video as separate cables is beneficial. Then again, there is also a move to combine all of your information on Ethernet cables and not bother with baluns at all. I'm still skeptical, especially since RJ-45 connections were never intended for this type of use and will cause way too much failure.

 

[Chris15]

All very interesting thoughts keep them coming...

A philisophical question;
At what point do you draw the line and stop trying to accept every input format under the sun and say this is what the system accepts, if you have something else, make your own arrangements?

 

[cpf]

All very interesting thoughts keep them coming...

A philisophical question;
At what point do you draw the line and stop trying to accept every input format under the sun and say this is what the system accepts, if you have something else, make your own arrangements?

At the point where the hassle of installing that input outweighs the hassle of dealing with however-many people show up and are indignant that they can't do what they're used to. VGA is relatively easy to support, and it's the accepted standard for PC hookup, so it's in. Allowing that one user to hook up via S-Video/Component would be a much lower priority, since it's extremely rare to need those formats in this situation (e.g. my old laptop had S-Video, but also VGA).