HDMI to DVI-D Cable 2m with Ferrite Cores - 24+1 Pin Monitor Lead

Product Overview

This is a heavy-duty 2 metre lead that connects an HDMI output to a DVI-D display. It is the straightforward answer when the computer only has HDMI and the monitor only has DVI, which is a very common mismatch: monitors tend to outlast the machines plugged into them, so a perfectly good DVI screen often ends up sitting next to a laptop or a mini PC that has no DVI socket at all.

The ferrite cores are the reason to choose this one. Look at the photographs and you will see a moulded cylinder on the cable near each plug. Those are ferrite cores, and they absorb the high-frequency noise that would otherwise travel along the cable and radiate from it. They are a normal part of a properly built video lead and they are the first thing left off a cheap one. Together with the thick jacket, that is the difference between this lead and the thin unbranded cables it sits alongside.

What the plugs are, so there are no surprises. One end is a standard HDMI Type-A male plug. The other is a DVI-D male plug with the familiar 24+1 pin layout – twenty-four pins in three rows plus the single flat blade. That plug goes into any DVI-D or DVI-I socket, which covers essentially every desktop monitor, graphics card and DVI projector you are likely to meet. It is DVI-D, meaning purely digital: there are no extra pins around the flat blade and it does not carry an analogue VGA signal.

What it will do, stated plainly. The link is single link, which supports resolutions up to 1920 x 1200 at 60 Hz – that covers 1080p Full HD and the common 1920 x 1200 monitor size. This is not a limitation of this particular cable but of the format itself: an HDMI source sends one digital video link, so no HDMI-to-DVI lead of any kind can drive a larger display at full resolution. If your monitor is 1920 x 1080 or 1920 x 1200, this is exactly the right lead.

It carries picture, not sound. The DVI standard has no audio channel, so the sound does not travel down this cable. On a desktop that is usually no inconvenience at all, because the speakers or headphones are already plugged into the computer. It is worth knowing before you order if you were hoping a DVI monitor with built-in speakers would play sound through this lead – it will not.

Setting it up takes a moment and needs nothing else. Push the HDMI plug into the computer or player and the DVI plug into the monitor, then finger-tighten the two thumbscrews either side of the DVI plug so it cannot work loose. Select the DVI input on the monitor. There is no power supply, no driver and no adapter box – the signal is digital at both ends and simply passes straight through.