Buying Cables (to be cheap or not to be cheap, that is the question)

I am seeing a huge difference between my HDMI cable and the component cables on my 8300HD DVR with TWC and my 55†Sony GWIV WF655. I had the old 8000HD hooked up over component and the picture was just too soft so I switched to the new 8300HD. Now the picture has improved over component but I am seeing a lot of compression artifacts and ringing over component. I don’t have any of these problems over HDMI. The HDMI picture is much much much sharper and the colors are more vibrant with the same TV settings. I used to believe that HDMI was a gimmick and that as long as there was no interference they would be identical. I am not so sure anymore. I still don’t think the cables really matter. For example I run Monster THX component cables(Yea I am an idiot for buying these. I didn’t know any better then) from the cable box to the TV and I use the super thin cheapo cables that TWC gave me with my Computer. The image from the computer shows no artifacts or ringing and it looks exactly the same as when I use DVI to HDMI from the computer with a high end cable. And I also use the cheapest ($13) 9 foot HDMI cable(monoprice.com ROCKS!) from my cable box to my TV. The picture is perfect. It actually seems like the biggest factor is how good the converter is from digital to analog. The 8300HD seems to do a poorer job of converting D/A while my ATI 9800pro seems to do a great job. I think in the end my TV still converts the Digital signal to analog but that does not seem to be the problem. I have found that the HDMI video is almost identical to the video I get when I run the coaxial cable directly into my TV and let it tune the HD with its built in digital tuner. That picture is also very similar to using over the air co-axial directly into my TV and when I use over the air into my ATI HDTV wonder and then feed my TV 1080i over very cheap component cables. So it appears that the only problem is that the HD DVRs do not do the analog very well over component cables. However, I turned on my TVs noise reduction function on high for the component inputs and that helps. It does soften the picture though.

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This helps! Thanks so much for your experience! I checked out the monoprice guys and they look very resonable. Maybe I'll use them.


-Greg

One way to preserve signal path integrity is to use a minimalist approach. Toslink connections require two digital to optical conversions where as the S/PDIF interface is direct electrical digital to digital (two less points of conversion).


If you search e-Bay for “Canare†and “Digital Cableâ€, you’ll get several hits on vendors who are making digital and video cables. They all use the Canare RCAP 75 ohm RCA connectors and one of several equally good cables. Personally, I prefer Belden 1505A or 1506A. They’re both solid conductor cables, so they perform a little better, but are a little stiffer. Both Belden and Canare make suitable cable with stranded center conductors which bend a bit better. Digital, composite video and component video all use the same type of cable so it doesn’t hurt to have a few extras lying around.


If you’re an audio nut, select DTS over Dolby Digital and think Bose is the plague of sound reproduction, then seek out a decent (and still inexpensive) coax cable. If none of the above makes sense to you, if your receiver or sound card only have Toslink connections or you’re using the speakers that came with your PC, then by all means use a Toslink. This isn’t intended to be snooty (well not mean anyway). It’s just that not everyone is obsessive about audio reproduction.


If you like reading up on all this, here are some links to get you started:

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/etmcable.htm

http://www.bettercables.com/1met328feetp1.html

http://www.bus.ucf.edu/cwhite/theater/diycable.htm