Video Asylum

Posted by Winston Smith (A) on April 30, 2008 at 18:31:06

In Reply to: RE: HDMI or component video cables for HD cable box to HD TV? posted by Brian A on April 30, 2008 at 16:22:21

Brian A-

Thank you! I liked your post a lot. Anytime I can learn from folks, it's great.

The reason I responded as I did (and let me PLEASE apologize for the apparent dismissiveness of my tone in the original post. Not cool. Very sorry. Hope I didn't offend) was that sometimes when you tell a guy or gal that there's no difference, they just say, "OK", and don't do an investigation on their own. In my personal experience, the cables, all other things being equal, really did present a different level of resolution, and substantially so, whatever the reason for same. (But as you'll see below, I did adopt your approach, ultimately.)

My discussions with the Better Cables engineer backed up my thinking about sending the multiplexed signal on the same conductor, so thus my distaste for the format, However, I DO marvel at it as an engineering coup in many respects, and it can sure as hell save on cable costs not to have to buy nice ICs for the audio.

But your post gave me food for thought. I'm going to look at it from your perspective for a while and see if maybe my assumptions are wrong, and that there is something somewhere else causing the differences that even my 13 year old son says, "Wow!" about. Something IS going on. I want to find out what. But I sure as hell am not going to dismiss what you say out of hand. That's crap, and I'm sorry if I came across like that. No place for that here!

But please note: I DID refer the guy to the CHEAPEST cable. Why? Because what if his system is exactly as you say, i.e., such that there would be no visible difference between any of them? Well, if I told him, "DUDE! You just GOTTA get the WireWorld 'Silver Starlite Biff-Bob Wham-Bam-Thank-You-Ma'am' cable for a gazillion dollars!!!", then I guess I just talked a guy into pissing away some serious bucks. So, in a certain way, I completely backed up your position and approach, which I believe is the best one here: go cheap, as the differences make not be noticeable. I just hope I steered the guy right with the other stuff I told him about, because in my set up, MAN, do those tweaks make a visible difference to all of us here. Worth every penny!

Honestly, we DID see a difference among the cables. [But then again, we could all be simultaneously hallucinatory! : ) ]

Again thanks for the reply. You gave me food for thought, and I appreciate it.

Best Wishes,

WS

PS-

I thought the warming reference was directed to me personally, and thus my confusion. Thanks for the clarification. As for the site where grown men argue, well, I've had enough of arguing (a career spanning three decades as a civil litigator and trial attorney will do that to you.) I think I'll just listen to others, rather than argue with them. And thus, this post.

All the best!