I know the buzz out there is all for HDMI over component cables, but has anyone ever used both and looked for the difference. HDMI cables are quite pricey, but most likely i'd get some from monoprice.com that wont set me back $texas. Anyone who has used both please let me know how much of a difference you noticed, if any.

12/4/2006 2:56:16 PM

If the source is HDCP enabled then you'll definately want to use an HDMI cable over component. There wouldn't be a huge difference for most HD signals espescially if your TV only does up to 720p anyways. If you're talking blue-ray, HDDVD, or many HD cable/sat boxes then HDMI is the better choice.

Also, you don't need to be raped on HDMI cables. Don't let morons trick you into monster or pure av branded HDMI cables. There's a lot of off-brands online that do a great job. I've used "cables-to go" hdmi cables, and the signal was perfect.

[Edited on December 4, 2006 at 3:37 PM. Reason : ]

12/4/2006 3:34:57 PM

so since I have 1080p, HDMI would be wise, and I should see a difference going directly from the cable box to my television?

12/4/2006 3:36:32 PM

I don't have HDMI connected to my cable box, but I've noticed a huge difference between DVI and component, so I'd say yes.

12/4/2006 3:43:27 PM

the difference is minimal on my 42" plasma (1024x1024... yes i know it should be shaped like a square at that res, but that's what it is), I regretted buying an HDMI cable after seeing little to no

BUT, with 1080p it would prolly be worth it

12/4/2006 3:58:16 PM

I just bought a Sony upconvert dvd player and found that Target has 6-foot GE brand HDMI cables for $39.99. Everywhere else was well over $90. It looks kick-ass btw

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=1-3/qid=1165286771/ref=sr_1_3/601-2286351-5760124?ie=UTF8&asin=B000E8T47I



[Edited on December 4, 2006 at 9:47 PM. Reason : .]

12/4/2006 9:45:30 PM

Even at $40, you still overpaid.

12/4/2006 9:52:46 PM

i just got mine on monoprice for $20

12/4/2006 10:34:39 PM

^^ But 40 bucks at a big-box retail store isn't that terrible.

12/5/2006 12:16:12 AM

the biggest difference I notice between component and HDMI is SOUND.

Sound is much better through HDMI

12/5/2006 3:25:50 PM

http://brentroad.com/message_search.aspx?type=topic§ion=3&searchstring=hdmi&username=&usertype=match&sortby=date&sortorder=descending&page=

12/5/2006 3:28:12 PM

^^ Yeah, but if you're going to be putting your sound through a receiver it doesn't matter too much. If you're doing a 5(+).1 setup you're probably connecting to a receiver through digital coax or optical. If by some chance you had a receiver that had HDMI in/out, then you'd have to buy TWO HDMI cables. Even optical cables can be found cheaper than most HDMI cables (radioshack or biglots or the bookstore usually have one kind on sale or another.)

12/5/2006 4:02:49 PM

Quote :

"Sound is much better through HDMI"

Untrue. Discrete lines are still and will always be superior to digital. Do it for the video if you go that route.

12/6/2006 12:08:37 PM

^ I don't know what you are trying to say there. The other person's point was component doesn't carry audio at all, unlike HDMI.

12/6/2006 1:18:02 PM

the HDMI cable prices are dang ridiculous, best buy charges 90+.........why pay that much

12/6/2006 1:47:01 PM

I love the way all the Best Buy guys try to sell you a $150 cable for a Digital Signal with a ton of Forward Error Correction.

As someone mentioned, monoprice.com has HDMI for cheap. Since the signal is digital and does have all that FEC cable quality is really a non-issue.

12/6/2006 4:31:38 PM

there is not really any error correction on hdmi.

it can only be considered error correction if it actually corrects something.

error detection...on the other hand

[Edited on December 6, 2006 at 6:27 PM. Reason : .]

12/6/2006 6:27:41 PM

jesus christ here comes another cable argument

12/6/2006 6:38:09 PM

im willing to sell anyone a 550 dollar cable.

12/6/2006 6:49:46 PM

^^

The kid said something incorrect, I had to say something .

12/6/2006 6:55:17 PM

anyone know where I can get something with atleast a laser5 output so I can hook my wii to my float screen?

12/6/2006 7:21:42 PM

^^ I know, I'm just saying


if we had stickies we could avoid the repetitive bullshit that occurs on TWW


ie:

stickied: "SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT CABLES"

stickied: "DID YOU CHECK GOOGLE FIRST YOU DUMBSHIT"

etc etc

12/6/2006 7:30:30 PM

Quote :

"there is not really any error correction on hdmi. "

HDMI uses TMDS for signalling which actually does include error correction. TMDS was designed to be robust over low quality cables so the whole $150 HDMI cable thing is pretty silly from the get go.

Quote :

"The kid said something incorrect, I had to say something ."

Not quite.

[Edited on December 7, 2006 at 10:13 AM. Reason : D]

[Edited on December 7, 2006 at 10:15 AM. Reason : ^]

12/7/2006 10:13:04 AM

My point was the following. Using a cheap long cable you are not gurarnteed the same data to leave your source to and end up being displayed by your display.

If the signal degrades to a certain point, there is nothing that is bringing it back. As it can not request retransmission. I mean hell, you can go try it yourself if you want, go get a 50 foot cable and hook it up to a projector and look for bit errors. Yes i know, 50 feet is at the extreme max limit of hdmi/dvi and isnt really a fair test.

So Im looking at it from a pure all A gets to B.



Your point , which is valid the way you state it, is that any reasonably produced impedance matched cable is going to have minimal errors such that the BCH ECC code sent with each packet can be used to correct it.

So "almost all" of A gets to B. So much so that it doesnt matter.


I agree with both

12/7/2006 2:02:32 PM

Yeah, I see what you mean.

At a length of three feet, poor cable quality is not likely to cause too much error in the bitstream.

Seems like the TMDS gives you a bit more wiggle room in exactly how cheap the components in the cable can be.

[Edited on December 7, 2006 at 2:43 PM. Reason : ^]

12/7/2006 2:42:45 PM

three 10-ft hdmi cables for $21

http://www.supermediastore.com/hdmi-to-hdmi-cable-3-meter-3pk.html

12/7/2006 3:01:45 PM

if you stay under 8 inchs you dont even need impedance matching!

12/7/2006 3:54:36 PM

best way to hook up a Wii or 360 to an HDMI port? ((just as an alternate source on a monitor, not looking for higher than component quality))

i looked at a few adapters, dunno which way to go though. Component ~> VGA, or ~> DVI, or ~>HDMI?

12/7/2006 5:53:56 PM

I got my radio-shack brand one for 50$... Best Buy will rip you off with HDMI cables (120$?!?!?!)... Circuit City is a little more tolerable at 90$.

12/7/2006 9:56:19 PM

Best Buy sells $50 HDMI cables too.

Here's a secret though... even Monster pays about ~$7 to manufacture their $90+ cables. Even paying $50 is being "ripped off." If you really don't want to be ripped off, you'd just buy your cables online. Those cables that are even cheaper-looking than Monster cables probably are made for ~$1-3, so they all have pretty ridiculous margins.

[Edited on December 7, 2006 at 10:06 PM. Reason : ]

12/7/2006 10:04:20 PM

you're not really being ripped off as long as you're satisfied with what you got for the price you paid..

12/8/2006 1:06:24 AM

That's why I said "ripped off" but if people really knew how cheap the cables are to actually produce, they might feel less satisfied.

12/8/2006 2:59:11 AM

just picked up a 6ft dvi-d to hdmi cable for $7 off ebay

12/9/2006 6:53:45 PM

^^ The margins ARE really ridiculous. When I worked at radioshack we got pretty big bonuses for getting people to buy cables over 20 bucks (5 bucks EXTRA comission on a 20 dollar cable.) If they were willing to give their salespeople roughly 30% the cost of cables (including comission) the markup had to be retardedly high.

12/9/2006 7:50:55 PM

i got my hdmi cable for $15.00 at Tiger Direct

12/9/2006 7:52:02 PM

It's either digital or it's not. So you can get cheap ones and get the same affect.

Cables are way overpriced.

12/11/2006 10:28:55 AM

^^did you order yours from tigerdirect online or did you just pick them up from the store

i live pretty close to the store so i'd rather get some there

12/11/2006 4:21:50 PM

Video alone, you won't notice a quality difference between HDMI and component. I tried them both on my 50" plasma and couldn't tell the difference.

I would have still used the HDMI cable I bought but my receiver doesn't have HDMI. Using component allows everything to be routed and controlled nicely by the receiver.

12/11/2006 4:41:59 PM