PPC Mac Mini (1.25GHz), KDS K-20MDWB flat panel, and DVI-D

Question

I'm upgrading from an old CRT-based iMac G3/450 to a PowerPC Mac mini (1.25GHz) with a KDS widescreen LCD panel (Model #K-20MDWB) with DVI and analog inputs. The connecting cable is a DVI-D type at both ends, with no analog connections in it.
I would like to use the DVI output (without a VGA adapter) to run the KDS monitor. That's where the problem comes in. Although the analog VGA adapter works fine, I can't get anything beyond very distorted and incredibly jittery video (followed by the monitor giving up and reporting "no signal") from the DVI-D connection.
I know I've used DVI on this computer before, as it once had an Apple 30" Cinema Display attached to it. I also know that the DVI-D cable and the KDS monitor are working--substituting an Intel Core Duo based Mac mini resulted in perfect DVI-D video.
I have tried starting the machine up with the analog adapter attached, setting everything back to 640x480 at 60Hz refresh (settings that should work with any monitor) and zapping the PRAM to clear any incorrect information about the attached monitor. Nothing has worked, and I suspect that the video output on the computer is somehow broken or incompatible with the KDS monitor.
My question--is anyone successfully using a DVI-D connected monitor with their PowerPC Mac mini?

Answer 1

The original PPC minis certainly work with DVI-D cables and DVI displays (I have used 4 different cable/display combinations with my 1.25 mini so I know it works), but there have been a number of reports of specific displays that were simply not compatible and which produced a range of results from no video at all, to distorted video, or 'sparklies' or noise ribbons.
At one point there was a thread here (very long by the end) in which users were reporting which DVI displays worked and which did not, and other threads which discussed various potential causes or solutions. A search for 'DVI' might help (I'll try and dig up a link to the website where the DVI results were posted).
In short, it's not likely to be a fault with your mini, the cable or the display, just a lack of full compatibility, which might be resolvable using a display configuration utility such as SwitchResX or DisplayConfig X, or which might not be satisfactorily solvable.
ON EDIT: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=150291&tstart=550 is the link where DVI experiences were compiled, with the first post containing a link to the table of results indicating quite a number of incompatibilities.