Component vs. HDMI...which to use?

[Tomorrow]

At my age, there are ...uh... attention problems. I can't recall if there has been much discussion about the signal quality of HDMI vs. component connections. Is there an electronic or A/V advantage to either? (I'm talking measured results, here.) I recognize the convenience and the copy protection issues, but dunno if there is any other good reason for using one over the other.

I'm finally getting into the 21st century with HD DirectTV. (No BR or HD-DVD is seen in my immediate future, however.)

Anyone?

 

[mtrycrafts]

At my age, there are ...uh... attention problems. I can't recall if there has been much discussion about the signal quality of HDMI vs. component connections. Is there an electronic or A/V advantage to either? (I'm talking measured results, here.) I recognize the convenience and the copy protection issues, but dunno if there is any other good reason for using one over the other.
I'm finally getting into the 21st century with HD DirectTV. (No BR or HD-DVD is seen in my immediate future, however.)
Anyone?

If you have a digital TV, the signal through HDMI and the signal chain stays digital and in most cases will be coming from a digital source, so there is no signal processing between digital and analog signals. Not sure about measure differences but there must be with sensitive test gear
But, it can be tricky at times with the hand shake issues that you don't have with component video. How long of a video run are you talking about?
Maybe, that will be part two of another DBT process

 

[zildjian]

Both will provide for the same video signal; the quality of one is not better than the other. If you can use HDMI, go for it. It's the easiest if there are no "hand shake" problems or anything, but as far as quality goes, no difference, just go with whatever is easiest for you.

 

[Tomorrow]

If you have a digital TV, the signal through HDMI and the signal chain stays digital and in most cases will be coming from a digital source, so there is no signal processing between digital and analog signals. Not sure about measure differences but there must be with sensitive test gear
But, it can be tricky at times with the hand shake issues that you don't have with component video. How long of a video run are you talking about?
Maybe, that will be part two of another DBT process

The run is very short. I think AverageJoe is running some kind of A/B testing on the issue. Maybe he'll have something later.

 

[Tomorrow]

Both will provide for the same video signal; the quality of one is not better than the other. If you can use HDMI, go for it. It's the easiest if there are no "hand shake" problems or anything, but as far as quality goes, no difference, just go with whatever is easiest for you.

This makes sense to me, Brad. Have studies been done or do they even need doing?

 

[markw]

given my druthers, I'd go for component every time.

It makes a much more secure connection. I have to reinsert my HDMI cable periodically, generally when guests are over and I want to show off the system (grumble).

There's no technical reason component can't pass any signal fed through it, including 1080p. My comcast/Motorola HD cable box passes 1080i over componemt and it's simply stunning.

But, some sources require HDMI, such a upconverting/upscaling DVD players. They will only pass the good stuff via HDMI. At least this is true for my Tosh, my bud's LG and, I believe, Oppo.

 

[mtrycrafts]

The run is very short. I think AverageJoe is running some kind of A/B testing on the issue. Maybe he'll have something later.

Buy a cable and check it out. Short cables can be had for not much, $10?
While component is excellent, it does go through D/A or ADA, some form of processing. You may need a side by side comparison so it may not worth the difference?

 

[zildjian]

They are supposedly the same video quality; the only "testing" of this I've done is just good ol' completely subjective eye balling it. My HDTV tuner box has HDMI & component outputs and a switch between them on the back, so I had a friend switch it back and forth to see if we could tell the difference, and he nor I could tell between the two. He might have know which was which, he was doing the input switching on the TV too, but I didn't FWIW.

 

[AverageJoe]

The run is very short. I think AverageJoe is running some kind of A/B testing on the issue. Maybe he'll have something later.

I did some comparison checking this morning. I had prewired the living room set with component cables when we built the house and they've worked out fine, but when we got the new plasma a couple weeks ago I ordered an HDMI cable to see if I could tell any difference.

The component cables are about 30' of RG59 (25' in-wall, 2' jumpers at the set, 3' jumpers at the receiver), and the HDMI is about 15'. The source is HD programming on DishNet. TV is Samsung 50" plasma. Sorry, no DB testing - I did all the switching myself.

I could not see any difference between the two inputs. For grins I also tried a 50' RG6 component cable and it looked the same. Then, just because I had it, I spliced a 35' RG6 cable to the 50' one and I think it looked just a bit "softer" (An HD DVR would make the comparison a little easier, but I'm too cheap to get one ).

I did notice the TV audio was about 3 dB louder with the HDMI input compared to L/R analog in (...but only AverageWife uses the TV speakers anyway).

Maybe I can talk Tomorrow into verifying my results Tomorrow?

 

[obscbyclouds]

"The Following User Says Thank You to AverageJoe For This Useful Post:
Tomorrow (Today)"

That cracks me up everytime I see it.

Let me add my voice to the mix for those who have A/B tested component vs. HDMI using a comcast HD-DVR and couldn't tell one lick of difference (running at 1080i).

 

[AverageJoe]

"The Following User Says Thank You to AverageJoe For This Useful Post:
Tomorrow (Today)"

That cracks me up everytime I see it.

...and from Today: Tomorrow (Yesterday)

 

[jonnythan]

Just for a piece of trivia, my TV handles component and HDMI differently.

My Maxent MX50-X3 does automatic brightness adjustment as the display changes from light to dark over component. It's maddening to me.

Needless to say, I use HDMI.

 

[pcefrog]

my two cents

i recently recorded on my PVR..the ken burns WAR series..7x2hrs.in HD
anyways....totally getting frustrated with my HDMI hook up...people talk about the "handshake" holy %$#@@%$ it seems like every couple of minutes the sound dissapears for a second...it sounds like the movie is bleeped......very annoying watching a two hour movie, somtimes you miss an important word or sentence.
also, dont know if it was my imagination but it seemed like after a scene would change or an explosion would make the sound stop..........while watching i said to myself im going to switch back to component.
i have hdmi ..tv, dvd , pvr. to amp

 

[mtrycrafts]

i recently recorded on my PVR..the ken burns WAR series..7x2hrs.in HD
anyways....totally getting frustrated with my HDMI hook up...people talk about the "handshake" holy %$#@@%$ it seems like every couple of minutes the sound dissapears for a second...it sounds like the movie is bleeped......very annoying watching a two hour movie, somtimes you miss an important word or sentence.
also, dont know if it was my imagination but it seemed like after a scene would change or an explosion would make the sound stop..........while watching i said to myself im going to switch back to component.
i have hdmi ..tv, dvd , pvr. to amp

Try component cable and see if that helps.

 

[Davemcc]

FWIW, I have to buck the trend here. I ran my system with component for a while and the picture quality was noticably worse than HDMI. The image had a sort of glazed look. I much prefer the image I get over HDMI.

 

[mtrycrafts]

... I have to buck the trend here. .

Nonconformist rebel you
Yes, this may be one of those issues one needs to try and compare