2. Digital inputs
This is where monitors begin.
The predecessor 2407-HC had just one digital input – nowadays this is unacceptable.
The Dell 2408 has three of them: 2 DVI and HDMI (I don’t count DisplayPort).

HDMI input failed to support 1080p from a Blu-ray player. A scene from Blu-ray 1080p movie “300” (2.4:1) is overscanned and cropped.
Overscan (the image is larger than it should be or larger than the monitor screen) means interpolation.
Interpolation means degradation of the quality and cropping from both sides.
A similar thing happened in the test of the Dell 3008 on prad.de – a famous test magazine.
Please take a few minutes to see a discussion of that problem on prad.de
It is short but very informative.
There you can find a scheme illustrating the impact of overscan.
Apparently prad.de experts missed something important. They posted a photo of overscanned image along with the conclusion that video support is perfect…
You can compare overscanned pictures (“300”) from 2408 and 3008 – they are identical.
Setting an external device to RGB may or may not help with overscan over HDMI in case of 3008 though.

Let's return to our Hero.

A closer look revealed that a specific transformation happens to OSD settings when HDMI input detects a source of video signal other than PC: Video mode becomes on, Graphics mode becomes disabled.
It looks like that it is the Video mode what makes images overscanned. The problem is hidden somewhere between Video mode and HDMI.
It was confirmed by DVI connection (with DVI both modes remain active) – a correct video format becomes overscanned after switching from Graphics to Video.
At the same time HDMI works excellent as a DVI alternative for regular PC connection.
So HDMI can serve your PC with a high quality digital connection and leave you with two extra DVIs! His is REAL variety of inputs.

A hint: beware of monitors with just one digital input in the form of HDMI and avoid them when possible. You will probably never have correct 1080p on your monitor.

DVI
Connected with Blu-ray player via DVI, the Dell 2408 displays correct Full HD (1080p)! The reference monitor confirms.
This is great news! Finally, we have a mid-level monitor to support 1080p! In this aspect the Dell 2408 is among top class monitors.
To be precise, another little feature is lost as HDMI failed – audio output becomes idle. Not a big loss, indeed.