Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions HDMI Connections

Anyone using the DVI or really more specifically the HDMI connections between DVD & TV?? Is there that much of a difference between those and component or optical for video & audio??

I am using HDMI between my DVD and projector. I also have component connections. I get a better picture with the HDMI, but that is because even though my projector has a nice scaler, the one in my DVD player is a little bit better and only send the, dare I say it, upconverted image over HDMI.

No, this is not a discussion about upconversion vs. 480p, but I am just stating that since I, personally, like upconversion for my 104" screen, than the DVD does it a little better.

Non-upconverted images look the same to me regardless of cables.

Since most receivers won't switch HDMI yet how do you handle projector switching from HDMI (for DVDs) to "everything else" (presumably through the receiver via component or something) ?

Right now I only have the DVD player hooked in. The DVD player gets the HDMI, and my receiver switches anything else to component which is also run (including from the DVD player for my tests with upconversion). No VCR, but if I did, it would hook in to the receiver via s-video, and the receiver would switch that to component for me. Same with game consoles. I do not have my satellite connected in to it at this point, but I might have to for the superbowl or something. I am toying with trying out over the air HD, but I haven't gotten that far into researching it, so I don't know what the tuners output the video as.

Probably a basic question but why run the video for a DVD player to the receiver first and then out to the TV? Why not run it straight from DVD to the TV?

I DO run it right from the DVD to the display (actually a projector). The HDMI cable is a direct connect. I also route component through the receiver to the projector for things that do not have HDMI. I figured that if I just ran another 3 foot set of component cables from my DVD player (in addition to the HDMI that goes right to the projector) I could mess around more with finding the best picture quality. It ended up being HDMI that was better, and I never got around to disconnecting the component. It isn't hurting anything to still be there.

One note, though. It may seem obvious that HDMI SHOULD be better, but not always. I have heard of people getting no better increase in picture quality than over component. I didn't know what I was going to end up with in the end, and I knew that I would need component for sure, but didn't want to miss out on HDMI if it was going to be better, so I actually ran both sets of cables when I was finishing my basement, which was before I had the DVD player or projector, so I had nothing to try out first. I am glad I got them both.

Thanks. Good input. I just bought a Samsung DLP with HDMI and will eventually get a new DVD player with the same. For now, I'll just use component cables for video and optic for audio. I'm wondering if the HDMI is that much better since it's a combo AV cable.

I use a Sanyo Z2 WXGA projector with native 720p via component and HDMI/DVI from my Panasonic S97S player. The DCDi Faroudja scaler on the Panny is better than the scaler on my Z2, so I turn my onboard projector scaler off and let the DVD player handle it.

To answer your question based on my experience, I do notice a difference using HDMI at the 720p/1080i modes versus standard 480p over component. Just my 2 cents.

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Thanks. Good input. I just bought a Samsung DLP with HDMI and will eventually get a new DVD player with the same. For now, I'll just use component cables for video and optic for audio. I'm wondering if the HDMI is that much better since it's a combo AV cable.

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Charles if you have an HD set top box connected out to your TV using an HDMI connect and will also connect your DVD player (if it applies) to the TV you may want to take a look at an HDMI Switcher such as this unit from Gefen...providing you only have one HDMI input on your TV.

How about TV sets that do not have a HDMI input? My samsung DLP HDTV does not seem to have one. Will I still be able to use HDMI devices (dvd players, receivers) with my TV set?