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VGA Video Signal Format

This document summarizes the VGA video signal format and timing specifications. It explains that a VGA signal contains horizontal and vertical synchronization signals along with red, green, and blue video signals. It provides details on common VGA video modes and their timing parameters. Finally, it shows the pinouts for VGA and Macintosh video connectors.

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664 views3 pages

VGA Video Signal Format

This document summarizes the VGA video signal format and timing specifications. It explains that a VGA signal contains horizontal and vertical synchronization signals along with red, green, and blue video signals. It provides details on common VGA video modes and their timing parameters. Finally, it shows the pinouts for VGA and Macintosh video connectors.

Uploaded by

pirozy
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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VGA Video Signal Format and Timing Specifications


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Summary
This page explains VGA video signal format and its timing for the different video modes. I refer to the classic analog video signal, not the modern DVI (Digital Video Interface) signal in used today.
Table of Contents 1 VGA Video Signal Format 2 Video Modes and Their Signal Timings 3 VGA Connector 4 References

VGA Video Signal Format


A color VGA video signal is composed by 5 different signals, two synchronization signals (HSYNC and VSYNC) and three video signals (R, G, B)

HSYNC Horizontal sync. Make electron beam restart at next screen's scanline (starts a new line) VSYNC Vertical sync. Make electron beam restart at first screen's scanline (starts a new frame) R Red intensity G Green intensity B Blue intensity
HSYNC and VSYNC signals determines the screen resolution (for example 640x480) whereas the colour of every pixel is determined by the value of R, G and B signal. Each color is a combination of the 3 primary colours R, G and B. HSYNC and VSYNC signals are a train of squared pulses of +5V (+3.3V serves too) whereas RGB signals take values in a continuous (analog) voltage range from +0V (absolutely dark) to +0.7V (maximum brightness). Each of this 3 signals controls a electron gun that makes the screen's phosphor bright a basic colour (R, G or B) in a pixel. Any colour is the visual mixture of different levels of brightness of the 3 primary colours. A single dot of colour on a video monitor doesnt impart much information. A horizontal line of pixels carries a bit more information. But a frame composed of multiple lines can present an image on the monitor screen. In a 640x480 mode, for example, a frame of VGA video has 480 lines and each line usually contains 640 pixels (see later). In order to paint a frame, there are deflection circuits in the monitor that move the electrons emitted from the guns both left-to-right and topto-bottom across the screen. These deflection circuits require two synchronization signals in order to start and stop the deflection circuits at the right times so that a line of pixels is painted across the monitor and the lines stack up from the top to the bottom to form an image. The timing for the VGA synchronization signals is shown in Figure 2.

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Pulses on HSYNC signal mark the start and end of a line and ensure that the monitor displays the pixels between the left and right edges of the visible screen area. Pulses on VSYNC signal mark the start and end of a frame made up of video lines and ensure that the monitor displays the lines between the top and bottom edges of the visible monitor screen. As you may have guessed, the horizontal resolution of each line is not actually determined and could be anything, this resolution is determined typically by a pixel clock. Every rising edge of the pixel clock marks the start of a new pixel.

Video Modes and Their Signal Timings


The following table shows the time restrictions that video signal must obey in order to the monitor can synchronize and displays the image correctly (without blinks). The pixel clock frequency is only orientative, when designing a video hardware, you can use the pixel clock frequency that you want, the only important thing is that the video signal fits with the time restrictions (measures A, B, C, etc).

Analog Video Signal Timing Specifications IBM 640x480 60Hz 31.469 31.778 3.813 1.907 25.422 0.636 59.940 16.683 0.064 1.048 15.253 0.318 25.175 Neg Neg 720x400 70Hz 31.469 31.777 3.813 1.907 25.422 0.636 70.087 14.268 0.064 1.080 12.711 0.413 28.322 Neg Pos VESA 640x480 75Hz 37.500 26.667 2.032 3.810 20.317 0.508 75.000 13.333 0.080 0.427 12.800 0.027 31.500 Neg Neg 640x480 85Hz 43.269 23.111 1.556 2.222 17.778 1.558 85.008 11.764 0.671 0.578 11.093 0.023 36.000 Neg Neg 800x600 75Hz 46.875 21.333 1.616 3.232 16.162 0.323 75.000 13.333 0.064 0.448 12.800 0.021 49.500 Pos Pos 800x600 85Hz 53.674 18.631 1.138 2.702 14.222 0.589 85.061 11.758 0.056 0.503 11.179 0.019 56.250 Pos Pos 1024x768 75Hz 60.023 16.660 1.219 2.235 13.003 0.203 75.029 13.328 0.050 0.466 12.795 0.017 78.750 Pos Pos 1024x768 85Hz 68.677 14.561 1.016 2.201 10.836 0.508 84.997 11.765 0.044 0.524 11.183 0.015 94.500 Pos Pos

Measure F_HSYNC A B C D E F_VSYNC O P Q R S Pixel Clock Polarity HSYNC Polarity VSYNC

Unit kHz us us us us us Hz ms ms ms ms ms MHz

VGA Connector
Pinout. NC means "No Connect"

Pin
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15

PC (DB15 connector)
Red Green Blue NC DDC Return GND-R GND-G GND-B NC GND-Sync/Self Raster NC DDC Data H-Sync V-Sync DDC Clock

Macintosh
GND-R Ref H/V-Sync (not separate sync) Sense 0 Green GND-G Sense 1 Reserved Blue Sense 2 GND V-Sync GND-B GND H-Sync

PC connector (DB15)

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15

DDC Clock

H-Sync

Macintosh connector

References
VGA Signal Generation with the XS Board Pinouts.ru
Category: Hardware This page was last modified on 10 February 2011, at 08:36. Retrieved from JavierValcarce.Eu: Javier Valcarce's Personal Website. @ Content is available under GNU Free Documentation License 1.2.

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