HDTV hookups

[sluggish]

Besides their great warranty, buying $100 monster HDMI cable makes about as much sense as buying a toslink cable with gold-plated terminals.

[Shuffler]

http://www.audioholics.com/education/cables/long-hdmi-cable-bench-tests

[Newman5]

It depends on how many ports you have. Newer TVs are finally coming with multiple HDMI ports. If you do not have more than 1 HDMI port on your TV, then it will depend totally on your setup.

Do you have a 7.1 surround receiver?
Do you have a Blu-Ray player?
Do you have a console gaming system?
What inputs do they have? What outputs do they have?

A quick example of my setup:

42" HDTV
7.1ch A/V Surround Sound receiver
HDTV Cable Tuner
Nintendo Wii
DVD Player
Blu-Ray Player

The Wii, DVD & Blu-Ray players all connect to the 7.1 receiver with component video cables and composite audio cables. The 7.1 receiver connects to the TV with an HDMI cable.

I keep the TV set to HDMI input, and the volume at 0. All input switching is handled with the A/V receiver.

note: there's zero difference between the cables you use for "component" and "composite" connections, just the color physically on the connector itself. they all work the exact same, only varying in construction quality.

Alright here are my specifics:

52" Sony LCD 1080p
   w/4 HDMI slots
Digital cable box w/ HD capability
5.1 Surround receiver (not sure if theres an HDMI slot, but i know i have a spot for optical)
I also want to add (eventually) a Blu ray player

I have xbox 360, but I dont use it, because AH takes up all my time!      

So what do you suggest?

[Newman5]

http://www.audioholics.com/education/cables/long-hdmi-cable-bench-tests

Your take-away from all this should be the following: 

At lengths less than 4 meters you can just about use silly string (OK, not really) and get HDMI to pass at any current resolution. At less than 3 meters you'll even extend that to 12-bit color and possibly the next crazy idea HDMI Licensing decides to throw at consumers. Don't spend a lot on these cables and if you want to save money you won't let anyone at a big box store talk you into buying from them.

Does everyone pretty much agree on this?

[sluggish]

Does everyone pretty much agree on this?

I completely agree.

[Shuffler]

I still bought monster cables for less than 100 bucks.

[Newman5]

HDMI carries an audio signal, and most of your new receivers have an HDMI pass through. If you have an older receiver optical works well, as others have said.

Get your cables here; http://www.monoprice.com/home/index.asp they have great prices and excellent quality on all there cables. Personally I think Monster Cables are way over priced.

If you have any other AV questions I recommend; http://www.avsforum.com/ they cover just about everything AV you could ever think of.

Justr ordered the cables through monoprice.com.  Incredible!  Half the price I was going to pay at BestBuy.  And it looks like they are better quality to boot.  Thanks for the recommend, SIK.

[SIK1]

NP Newman,

I get all my cables from monoprice everything from tos link cables, power cables even DVI to HDMI cables, and I have never had any issues. 

That and their prices rock. 

[Soulyss]

HDMI is the devil.



that being said we're all stuck with it so yeah that's probably the way to go, in fact it's really your only option if you want to watch blu-ray discs. 

For audio if you're not using HDMI you can use either Toslink/Optical or you can use a digital audio cable.  The nice thing there is if you have the output and input for digital audio on your components you can just use a composite video cable, since the have the same impedance. 

As far as brand name cables go, yes I have heard a difference in audio quality when I switched cables.  But the difference you hear is also depending on the other components in your system.  Personally I think Monster while a decent product is over rated and over priced. 

[FLOTSOM]

so you guys pump your computer audio into your HDTV? i have a good sound card and 5.1 surround system on my computer so i don't feel the need to use the TV sound. should i consider doing this differently? what are the pros and cons of using the TV audio over the computer audio?

FLOTSOM

[SIK1]

I don't use the tv audio on anything. On my gaming display I use the computer sound, and on the main tv I use an audio receiver.

The DVI to HDMI cable is used to hook a computer using DVI to a tv with an HDMI port. Most of the newer tv's are not being made with a DVI connection.

DVI and HDMI are both digital signals DVI doesn't carry an audio signal, HDMI does.

[FLOTSOM]

I don't use the TV audio on anything. On my gaming display I use the computer sound, and on the main TV I use an audio receiver.

The DVI to HDMI cable is used to hook a computer using DVI to a TV with an HDMI port. Most of the newer TVs are not being made with a DVI connection.

DVI and HDMI are both digital signals DVI doesn't carry an audio signal, HDMI does.

i was wondering if there was something i was missing due to the references people have made to the audio input capability of the hdmi. as i said i wasn't using the audio in the TV because i assumed the audio card i have in the computer would do a much better job. it sounds great with the 5.1 surround sound. but if you guys knew something that would be even better then i was all ears for it.

thanks for the info.

i use the TV (60"hd1080p) as a monitor, i also have a 22" hd flatscreen monitor that i use as a monitor. i use the small monitor when i am at my desk working on my computer, the 60" is used for playing aces high.

FLOTSOM