HDMI and Component

[dharris]

Hi all - I'm sure this has been asked before.
I just bought my new HDTV LCD. I currently have Charter HD cable and I am using Component to connect the two. The quality is great, but my question is this,
When I move into my new house and am able to get Dish Network, should I connect via HDMI, or is my component connection fine. My A/V does not not have HDMI connections, so I would only be using the HDMI for video and then connecting the audio via another source.

Thanks ahead of time,
Don

[Lex]

Don, I personally still use component video here. But then my DVD source is locked into it, which is ok, since I build high quality component myself, and do not feel a quality sacrifice. The one area their could be a sacrifice would be with a digital projector. You wouldn't want to feed it an analog signal.

But analog component is very capable, if it's the right cable. Our silver we feel does give optimum performance, though it could be a somewhat small upgrade, depending on your cable used.

[dharris]

Don, I personally still use component video here. But then my DVD source is locked into it, which is ok, since I build high quality component myself, and do not feel a quality sacrifice. The one area their could be a sacrifice would be with a digital projector. You wouldn't want to feed it an analog signal.

But analog component is very capable, if it's the right cable. Our silver we feel does give optimum performance, though it could be a somewhat small upgrade, depending on your cable used.

Would in my case suing an LCD HDTV see any quality difference from my component to HDMI? My TV has two component sources one would be for the HD dish box and one for my DVD player. Thanks, and I appreciate the help.
Don

[Azeke]

My personal experience is that HDMI vs Component is equipment dependent. I use HDMI to upscale my Pioneer Elite DVD player to 720p, but found that it didn't have any significant PQ increase with my Directv HD box.

Which prompts the following question.

Has anyone seen any significant PQ increase while using the Directv's HDMI vs Component with the H20?

My apologies, I digressed. What you probably need to do is test the equipment with both the HDMI cable and component cable to determine if there is any increase in PQ.

Peace and blessings,

Azeke

[aud19]

It's highly equipment dependant. If either the source or the display has a cheap or poorly designed/executed HDMI or component in/out you'll get a lower quality picture regardless of which cable type you use.

That said, particularly with fixed pixel displays like your LCD unit, HDMI "should" have a higher capacity for a better signal as it requires no D/A A/D conversions. But as I said above if your source/display has better quality component ins/outs then it could be the better cable to use.