I have my home theatre setup in the basement but have just mounted a 42" plasma in my living room. I'll be breaking the drywall soon to run in-wall speakers on each side and then inputs to the TV however I'm wondering what's really required. I'll be running an HDMI and a coax and was thinking about component, but is the component even worth it (everything seems to be going HDMI and it's easier with only 1 cable over 3 or 5)?

I'll be running 5m of cable.

I have my home theatre setup in the basement but have just mounted a 42" plasma in my living room. I'll be breaking the drywall soon to run in-wall speakers on each side and then inputs to the TV however I'm wondering what's really required. I'll be running an HDMI and a coax and was thinking about component, but is the component even worth it (everything seems to be going HDMI and it's easier with only 1 cable over 3 or 5)?

I'll be running 5m of cable.

At that distance, I would stick with HDMI. Component really starts to shine when you talk a 100ft+ length, where HDMI CAN have issues.

I have my home theatre setup in the basement but have just mounted a 42" plasma in my living room. I'll be breaking the drywall soon to run in-wall speakers on each side and then inputs to the TV however I'm wondering what's really required. I'll be running an HDMI and a coax and was thinking about component, but is the component even worth it (everything seems to be going HDMI and it's easier with only 1 cable over 3 or 5)?

I'll be running 5m of cable.

It will depend somewhat on your receiver. If it can upconvert everything through the HDMI out, then no need. If it only upconverts to component, then yes you will need it. If it doesn't upconvert at all, then you may need more than just those.

With the still ever present HDMI handshaking issues between hundreds (if not thousands) of pieces of gear and media I know I would still be running component as a back up- It can't hurt and it will be a pain to do afterwards.

Best of luck
Calvin

I'm with Calvin on this. It's so much easier to do now than later and not very expensive. Look at the guy who just recently ripped the end off his HDMI cable. It's nice to have a backup. You could even run a conduit while the walls are open to run a future cable if you need.

Actually, even if you ignore what's above (because it's probably overkill) seriously consider running 2 cat5e or cat6 cables. You can use these (with a balun) to replace an HDMI cable if necessary. This is really cheap insurance.

Greg

Run Cat5e, 4 cable drops, you can buy baluns, HDMI or component. I have my whole house video running component baluns from a room in my basement, no problems and 1080i. HDMI is still iffy, but doable, I would stick with component, it serves me well.

http://www.avovercat5.com/product.htm

Mike

Totally agree with the rest, hdmi is still not 100%. I had problems with hdmi from my ps3 and toshiba hddvd to an optoma projector. Thankfully there was a component run I could use.

I would absolutely do it. A 25' in-wall rated component cable is ~$23 shipped from monoprice.com.