TV vs. VGA: what's best for displaying on-going test data?

ElectricAye

Hi all,

I've been using a TV to display data from my on-going experiments, mostly Hz on 6 channels, date, time, and 6 temperature readings by having the TV screen switch back and forth from different readings. I'm now considering switching to a VGA terminal so I was wondering what sort of things can I do with a VGA that I can't do with a TV? Can I plot the data in real time, for example? Can I get more lines on the screen? Can I have warnings flash in red, etc? Or is there any real advantage to a VGA over a simple TV?

thanks for your insights,
Mark

virtuPIC

Hi Mark,

VGA has higher resolution than TV. 6 channels of data and a few characters (numbers) are no problem for the prop in real time. You can have colors on VGA and... well, I connected my demo board to two different TVs: One gave BW, the other one showed colors. Oh, yes, the VGA doesn't flicker - also on CRT.

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Mike Green

The VGA drivers do take more memory for their screen buffers, mostly because there are more characters on the display. The
higher resolution drivers use more than one cog in order to keep up with the speed of the display (bits per second).

You can plot data in real time as well on the TV as you can on the VGA display. You can have warnings flash in red, etc. on the TV.
The main advantage is that of more space ... more rows ... more columns ... sharper display

ElectricAye

Thanks, Mike and Virtu, for the super quick responses. I'll give this a try and maybe a VGA will also look a little more professional than a joe-schmoe TV. It might also reduce the temptation for some of the lab rats to switch the TV to watch Sponge Bob Square Pants when I'm not around.