Whether or not your laptop has DVI or not should be easy to determine by looking at the video adaptor. This article has pictures of what a VGA and DVI adaptor looks like. Very few laptops today have DVI.

Without getting into boring details, DVI is intended to provide a higher quality image than VGA, similar to high def TV compared to regular TV. Not to repeat myself, but I really think the easiest thing to do would be to just bring your laptop into the store and ask them to hook it up to the monitor you are considering. If the image is satisfactory, buy it, if not, don't. Getting all caught up in lengthy technical discussions can be interesting but at the end of the day, the issue you're trying to address involves the specific equipment you already own, not theoretical upper limits on the latest and greatest equipment that exists in the marketplace. Note also that your maximum resolution will depend on both the monitor *and* the video card, and whichever one has the lower resolution will be the limiting factor - in other words even if your monitor can display 1280x1024 if your video card can only handle 1024x768, then your effective resolution will be 1024x768. As you know you can't upgrade the video on a laptop like you can upgrade to a better video card in a desktop, so your laptop's current video is what you'll be using (unless you replace the laptop) Good luck with it

JW. . .I think I will follow your advice of taking the laptop in person in the store for a test drive. . .I agree. . .that would be most practical.

Thanks.

Still. . .a question, or food for thought: the maximum resolution will depend upon whichever is lower: monitor or vid card.

What if the laptop my mom gets does not have a dedicated vid card (i.e., just an integrated graphics set, no nVidia or ATI)? Would that change anything?

Thanks again for your thoughts.

In terms of laptops, dedicated video cards and integrated video chips are basically the same thing -- realistically, you cannot upgrade them like you can with a standalone video card in a desktop. As such, whatever video capabilities your laptop originally had when you purchased it will be the video capabilities it will always have. Laptops offer only limited upgrade options - usually you can increase the RAM and the hard drive capacity, but that's about it

To illustrate what I meant in my last post about the "lower being the limit", consider a digital photo that was taken at 1024x768 resolution. If original photo was taken at that resolution, then there is no way to improve on it even if the monitor you're using is capable of much higher resolution. (It's a lot like making a Xerox copy of a paper document -- the copier cannot improve upon the quality of the original source document.)

Similarly, if you look at that same digital photo on a monitor that can only handle a max of 800x600, then even though the original source is better quality, you are limited by the monitor's weaker display characteristics.

The same goes for a live video signal. If your laptop can support a max of 1024x768, then even if you hook it up to a monitor that can support a much higher resolution, the original signal is only 1024x768, so that's what you'll get. Similarly, if you hook it up to a monitor that can only support a lower resolution, then by definition you will only get that lower resolution despite the fact that the original signal is better quality.

Hopefully my comments make sense and are clear. Good luck setting up your system to display the laptop's image on the TV

It is half true that DVI provides higher picture quality. This connector has both analog and digital signals depending on certain pin arrangement. Digital signals can handle longer distances than analog. Analog has infinite levels, but digital has predefine or fixed levels. Analog is better for producing color, but digital is better to pass the signals on great distances. Analog is better for CRT and digital is better for LCD.

Intel graphics support in Linux is horrible. You will not be able to output to the TV or VGA or DVI connector easily. nVidia is the only manufacture that supports the their hardware. ATI is ok, but have lousy software support in just about any OS.

There are some notebooks computers that have upgradeable graphics because of PCI Express.