Terrell

Does anyone have any recommendations on DVI versus component hookup for hi-def TV? Does one offer better quality, or are they both to close to call? Right now I have my HDTV connected via the component connections.

Second question. Are all shows on all of my Charter HD channels in hi-def? Or is it show dependant? Some channels look incredible, especially sporting events. Other shows often times don't look as good. I appreciate any help.

J-DAM

DVI is better, it is a digital vs. analog connection. Don't be suprised if Charter disabled that output, though.

As for the shows, it depends on the source. Shows shot on HD video or taken from film should look great, but many shows are upconverted from old masters. They won't look so stunning.

mbs

You won't notice a difference, between component and DVI. Component cables are perfectly capable of transmitting 1080i signals with no degredation.

FantasticVSDoom

I didnt notice a difference when I hooked up my HD through the DVI port and when I got the Oppo, I just switched back to component. I also had some issues with audio when I had it hooked up through the dvi that I dont have with the component but I dont know why that would have affected it, but for some reason it did. I have Time Warner Cable just fyi.

onabudget

The DVI vs component match up depends on whether your TV or your source has a better scaler/deinterlacer than the other.

Typically, TVs are better equiped than the source, so use DVI

X

Does "better equipped" mean it has a better scaler/deinterlacer than the source? If so, wouldnt that mean you should use component to the TV in a typical setup?

Not that I necessarily agree with that, just wondering about the logic. Not to mention there's a difference between interlaced and progressive, both of which may be passed via component.

I think we'd need to know what TV this is and whether it's a fixed pixel or tube type in order to provide a decent answer.

Terrell

Thanks for the recommendations guys!

The TV in question is a Hitachi rear-projection HDTV.

Fielding Mellish

This cannot be emphasized enough. Before you invest in the cables, you might want to make a phone call to your cable company.

The vast majority of boxes out there are DVI-disabled.

X

What's the image-generating technology? LCD, DLP or CRT?

joeblow69

That's true, my Charter box has the DVI disabled. Another thing you might want to check out, is that there are a bunch of different resolutions that DVI supports, but not all TVs with DVI inputs support all the resolutions. I had no idea about this, so when I bought my HDTV I just made sure it had DVI input. A couple months later, when I actually tried to hook something up to it, I found that my TV only supported the 2 lowest resolutions, which were both 640x480. So my DVI input is practically useless.

Terrell

It's a CRT!

X

Being an analog image device I doubt you'd see much difference between DVI or component at the same resolution. My CRT device doesn't have a DVI input and I've never thought it needed one. It has VGA which is probably very slightly better than component and probably equivalent to DVI given that there aren't fixed pixels to 1-to-1 map to.

It's possible that DVI could provide a higher resolution than the component input, but that is dependent on the resolution of your set's inputs and your box's outputs.

Spiky

I have a DLP projector. You would think the HDMI would be better for this since it is such a large screen and a digital output. And my HDTivo is not exactly the world's greatest video processor.

Can't tell a difference. I'm using the HDMI, but solely for convenience sake. (easier switching with my setup)

onabudget

Right, that's what I meant. So, send your unprocessed digital signal via DVI to the better equipped TV and allow it to handle the scaling/deinterlacing.

mbs

I don't understand. If you are talking about unprocessed signal, well, a DVD has its video information stored in component video. What possible benefit would DVI be?

And at least in my experience, my TV (32" JVC LCD) is not "better equipped" at scaling/deinterlacing than my DVDp (Oppo). Not even close.

I've never heard anyone say they could tell a difference between component out or DVI. I've heard "theoretics", but never a report of an actual eye that decipher the difference.

Josh Z

Theoretically, DVI should be better because it offers a purely digital connection, avoiding the digital-to-analog and then analog-to-digital conversion steps that a component connection goes through. However, in practice, most HD cable boxes have a negligible difference if any. A DVD player may or may not offer a more pronounced difference depending on the model.

You're really confusing the situation here. The deinterlacing and scaling processes are a separate issue than DVI/component. A TV can perform these functions regardless of input type. The distinction is in the resolution of the signal as sent from the source, not in the type of cable.

gorgo99

I guess it's the deinterlacer/scaler combo, because DVDs from my Oppo look WAAAAAY better through DVI than component on my Samsung 60" DLP. Then again, my components are run through my Yamaha receiver... maybe it's messing with them?

My Dish is hooked up to DVI too, and looks great with hd stuff, but I haven't tried component to compare.

Spiky

Everybody is confusing everything. The OP asked about HDTV with a cable box, not DVD. They are 2 very different subjects because of the different resolutions. And the video signal is always somewhat processed, even over DVI. It is not like a digital audio connection which is generally untouched by the player.

The bottom line is still to try both. See which one is better in YOUR setup and go with it. Also, cable boxes keep getting changed, so even people with the same equipment don't necessarily have the EXACT same equipment. The famous Mot 6412 DVR has about 4 different revisions. Some of these have DVI, some have HDMI, and some have one of these connections but not functional. And you can't tell what your box is capable of from glancing at the outside.

gorgo,
The Oppo has a horrible output from anything but DVI. Other players have much better output from the analog connections, so you'd have to compare to other players to get a usable result. The Oppo is effectively a DVI-only player.

The Bus

I tried HDMI but for one reason or another couldn't get it to work properly. It might be my TV, it might be my box (although the Comcast tech assured me I was good to go with HDMI). Component looks "good enough" for my purposes.

Terrell

My Charter HDTV box is a Motorola model. It does have a DVI connection on back, but I haven't checked yet whether Charter has it disabled.

Are DVI and HDMI connections the same? My understanding is they are the same, yet HDMI also carries the audio signal, and the DVI connection does not.

Josh Z

There are other differences (DVI can only carry an RGB signal, while HDMI can also carry YCbCr), but in general the two are compatible. All you need is an adaptor to connect one type of cable to the other type of input, and the majority of the time it should work fine.

Terrell

Thanks for the clarification Josh.