8mm Forum: HDMI or COMPONENT

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Topic: HDMI or COMPONENT

Graham Ritchie
Film God

Posts: 4001
From: New Zealand
Registered: Feb 2006

posted January 05, 2009 03:44 AM

Last month I bought a new Pioneer DVD recorder which has HDMI output and was wondering if this can provide better picture quality over Component out. At present I am using Component on the Panasonic PT-AX200E projector which has HDMI inputs. HDMI features uncompressed digital video, a bandwidth of up to five gigabits per second. Well thats what I read [Roll Eyes]

can anyone tell me if its worth making the move from using Component to HDMI? what does this mean to your average DVD? does HDMI upscale your DVD?, bit lost here with this stuff any help would be great. [Smile]

Graham.

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Mike Tynus
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 135
From: Addison, IL, USA
Registered: Apr 2008

posted January 05, 2009 05:34 AM

Graham,
In my experiences with DVD and HDMI, I find the Component Out gives a more pleasing image on my Panasonic PT-AX100U. With HDMI I get less artifacting, but this results in a softer image which I don't prefer. This also depends, though, on the model of DVD Player you're using. I have not tried a Pioneer, so your HDMI might do a better job in upscaling.
I just use the HDMI for Blu-Ray, which looks stunning through that connection.

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Gary Crawford
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 979
From: Manassas, VA. USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted January 05, 2009 08:23 AM

Mike , you just answered my question.....I got a blu ray for Christmas...and was considering component vs. hdmi... Those HDMI cables are horribly expensive, but I guess it will be worth it in quality. Just like Super 8 is expensive, but worth it on several levels.

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Claus Harding
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1149
From: Washington DC
Registered: Oct 2006

posted January 05, 2009 01:19 PM

Gary,
STOP before you buy your HDMI cable [Eek!]

. Locally, in stores they are horrendous rip-offs. Order on-line from here (this is where I got mine):

http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10240

Scroll aaaallll the way down to the colored cables and suddenly the prices look a lot better than BestBuy [Big Grin]

. Just double-check availability on the little boxes next to the price.

I use them for my setup and they have been flawless.

Claus.

--------------------
"Why are there shots of deserts in a scene that's supposed to take place in Belgium during the winter?" (Review of 'Battle of the Bulge'.)

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Martin Jones
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1269
From: Thetford , Norfolk,England
Registered: May 2008

posted January 05, 2009 02:00 PM

45 years in the audio/tv business.... I can confirm that most of the specifications and claims for "performance" of cables are sheer HYPE.
It doesn't matter a DAMN whether AV cables are "oxygen free", or have gold plated contacts or pins; they all perform just as well as far as signal QUALITY is concerned. Multicore analogue cables carrying more than one signal in their seperate conductors DO need to be individually screened to avoid cross-talk (ghost images) but this is less important with digital signals. And the claims that fibre optic cables give better results because they transmit signals faster is a load of eyewash...electrical signals at the relatively low frequencies encounterd in Analogue and Digital AV situations travel in cables at the same speed as light (there can be some very, very small delay at very high frequencies due to the inductance and capacitance of the cable itself).
So the advice is... screening is the only real requirement for cables; DON'T pay high prices for cables.
THe worst example I have ever seen was Lodspeaker cable at $100 per FOOT !!!!! And I had a customer who claimed that he could hear the difference in the sound from his speakers when he reversed his speaker leads end to end!
Martin

--------------------
Retired TV Service Engineer
Ongoing interest in Telecine....

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Graham Ritchie
Film God

Posts: 4001
From: New Zealand
Registered: Feb 2006

posted January 05, 2009 03:28 PM

Thanks Mike
I will stick to Component for the time being, but if I upgrade at a later stage to Blu-Ray I will use HDMI.

Graham.

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 525
From: Dallas, TX, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted January 06, 2009 04:15 AM

Martin is correct and Claus has THE best price on the internet from one of the best companies on the internet in his link above. You can trust monoprice. [Smile]

quote:
At present I am using Component on the Panasonic PT-AX200E projector which has HDMI inputs. HDMI features uncompressed digital video, a bandwidth of up to five gigabits per second.

Just an FYI, but 5 gigabits per second is NOT uncompressed by any means. That is sales pitch bullshit talk, and if anyone tries to tell you that your DVD or blu-ray is uncompressed, slap them in the face and find someone with a brain.

That being said, HDMI is ideal if you have a 1080P or a 720P native resolution display device. Your projector has a 720 native chip in it, so set your DVD or blu-ray player's HDMI output to 720P and that's about as good as you can get from a consumer video format given your particular projector. If you set the output to 1080i or 1080P then you are UPscaling the image and then the projector is DOWNscaling the image. Every time you scale the image, it gets worse and more blocky.

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David Pannell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1072
From: Horsham, West Sussex, UK
Registered: Nov 2004

posted January 06, 2009 07:34 AM

Martin speaks as a "real" engineer. Factually and technically correct.

Best,

--------------------
Dave.

Valves and celluloid - a great combination!
Early technology rules OK!

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Graham Ritchie
Film God

Posts: 4001
From: New Zealand
Registered: Feb 2006

posted June 27, 2009 10:22 PM

Paul
Interesting reading in your present post and noticed you are using component, has your Panasonic got a HDMI input if so you might find the comments from this old post helpfull. I myself have not got a player as yet around eight Blu-ray discs so far [Roll Eyes]

but hopefully soon. [Smile]

Graham.

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Mitchell Dvoskin
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 128
From: West Milford, NJ
Registered: Jun 2008

posted June 28, 2009 10:37 AM

At present time there is no visible difference in quality between HDMI and component cables into devices up to 1080i. I'm not sure component supports 1080p. As Brad has stated above, you want to set the output of your Blu-Ray player to the native resolution of your display device.

The only problem with component connections is that sometime in the future, Blu-Ray disc manufacturers will start manufacturing discs with the "no HD via component" flag turned on, which is part of the Blu-Ray standard, and for those discs, the Blu-Ray player will only output 480p via component. Not an immediate concern, but it will start happening over the next few years.

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Paul Adsett
Film God

Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted June 28, 2009 10:44 AM

Hi Graham,
Yes, I am presently using a component lead between the BD player and my Panasonic AE700. I did do some research on the internet on the merits of a componenet hook up versus an HDMI hook up, and there is no clear answer as to which is the best. Some people, including some professional A/V installers say they prefer component cables, others say HDMI is better. The bottom line is probably that there is very little difference in picture quality between component and HDMI. HDMI's main claim to fame seems to be that it carries audio and video through one connection, which is of no value if you are using a video projector. I have read that the HDMI connectors are not nearly as robust as the RCA connector used on the component cables, and some installers hate them. Another thing to keep in mind is that HDMI cables longer than 5 meters will break up the signal. One thing though is that many BD players, including my new Panasonic BD60, will only provide an upscaled DVD signal through the players HDMI connector, so if you want to upscale your old DVD's you must use an HDMI cable. But my projector is a 720p projector, so upscaling to 1080p and then downscaling to 720p may do more harm than good, as Brad points out, and how good is upscaling anyway?
The whole BD situation is now much more attractive to me than it was just a few months ago. Players of really good quality are now available for $250.00 or less, and some really classic films are finally being released in BD, the classic Disneys, The Wizard of Oz, and Fox have just released a 50th anniversary BD of South Pacific - we watched it last night, and it was the most breathtaking visual and audio experience I have yet had in my home theater - and I say this with great reluctance on a film forum, but to me it looked as good as 35mm!
Now, I have to upgrade my sound system to take advantage of the 7.1 surround sound available from the BD player!

--------------------
The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection,
Elmo GS1200 f1.0 2-blade
Eumig S938 Stereo f1.0 Ektar
Panasonic PT-AE4000U digital pj

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