Hdmi system selector help?

Question

Home theatre experts i need help.i got a oppo hdmi selector its nice!but lets say im using a cheap hdmi cable for the hdmi out. and the hdmi in for the ps3 and hd-dvd player im using expensive monster 1000 ultra cables.will using the cheap hdmi out cable effect the monster cables video playback?im not quite sure how system selectors work.and dont tell me there is no difference in hdmi cable quality because my monster hdmi cables blow the roof of the cheaper cable.my hdtv is 60 inches so the difference is very noticable. thank you

Answer 1

I'm not going to get into a discussion of whether the budget cable gives a degraded signal relative to Monster (Although you may wish to read the article at the link).

In essence a selector/switch links several (in this case up to 3) input cables to an output cable.

The signal from any input device therefore will pass through both the specific input cable (say Cable P for the PS3 and Cable D for the HD DVD) and the lone output cable (Cable O).

Any degradation of signal will be (simplistically) the sum of that from Cable P and Cable O for the PS3 and Cable D and Cable O for the HD-DVD.

If I had a "poor" cable I would conclude the worst place to put it is in the output .. since it will then impact on the signal from both input devices. A better place (assuming you can't replace the cable) is as the input cable for the least critical device.

Hope this helps.