Connection Questions

[xilpaxim]

Ok, I was wondering, what are the differences between the DVI HDMI, and Component Video inputs? Should I have certain things plugged into each? Would I rather buy a DVD player that had DVI or HDMI or just go with component video(im guessing thats the red, green, yellow outs, right? is it yellow? not sure) and maybe the HDTV connected to the HDMI and something like maybe a computer or something to DVI? Or would the DVD player work better somewhere else? Thanks

[Lex]

One advantage of component hias been switching. If you wanted to switch DVD player, Satellite receiver, perhaps even another video source through a receiver or pre-processor, component video is the easiest to do this with. Yes, DVI and HDMI switching will increase in the future.

Personally, I also like component because we can increase the quality of the wire/coax being used to silver coated copper or even solid silver coax.

I can order DVI or HDMI cables for you, but we build component video in house at CATCables.com. My company. I also own this forum.

There could be some copyrighted material in the future that will only transmit over DVI or HDMI, but we are not there yet. Future DVD players could require it for 1080i, or 1080P signals perhaps.


Doug

[aud19]

DVI is a digital cable that allows full digital transmission of video signals (no conversion to or from analog) It's most likely to work best with a fully digital display (DLP, LCD, Plasma, SED etc) as they do not require the digital signal to be converted to analog as is the case with CRT's. Though you can still get very good and possibly better results with DVI (or HDMI) than component if the set has a very good digital to analog converter. As Doug mentioned it's also for digital rights management/copy protection.

HDMI is a newer version of DVI that is backwards compatible with DVI but can also carry high resolution audio information on top of the video data. It's also used for copy protection.

Component connections can still offer very good quality again, depending on your set and it's ability to pull information from the analog signal. Cable quality will also likely play a bigger roll here with analog cables. As they offer no digital copy protection there is the possibility in the future that HDTV/HD-DVD's etc may be down res'd to 480p (from 1080i/p 720p) over the analog connections. Though consumer rights activist are fighting for that not to happen for all the people who bought early HD capable TV's with no DVI/HDMI/Firewire inputs. If you agree strongly on this matter I urge you to seek out your local government representative to have your voice heard on that matter.

Depending on what equipment you'd like to connect you have to decide what's highest priority. If you plan on having both an HD cable/satellite/OTA feed and a DVD player I'd likely give priority to the HDTV for the one DVI or HDMI connection on your TV as it has inherently more resolution to begin with and hence will likely bennefit more from the digital connection. If you don't pan on getting HDTV and you have a DVD player with DVI/HDMI output then allow it the digital connection. Though you should technically try any equipment on both connections as the source unit may put out a better signal from either output. This will get harder when HD-DVD players arrive and you'll have to choose between the two or have some sort of outside switching etc.

The colours used to make up an image are actually Red, Green and Blue, however component cables need to carry chrominance (colour) and luminance information.

For more information on specific cable types or the signals that they carry, try doing a google search for the info you're looking for