Is there much of a difference Between HD component and HDMI?

Question

Is there that much of a difference? Can you have them both plugged in at the same time for maximum quality? Tell Me everything you know about this.

Answer 1

I have been using component cables for my CATV box. When I plugged a HDMI cable as well, the component feed got an error and down-converted the video to 480i.

This seemed to trip the copy protection logic.

So no -  you dont want them both connected.

Answer 2

the blue/green/red component cables will only support up to 720i  so if your TV or video source doesn't support 1080. if you have a 1080 source and your TV will support it, than HDMI is the way to go ...its the only way to get a digital signal to your monitor. I said monitor because if your using the TV tuner as your source then the cable issue does not apply

Answer 3

Sorry Dogman, can't tell you everything I know about this here at Y/A, but here's the nickel tour...

HDMI is the better choice for digital cable boxes, dvd players, satellite boxes, PCs, Bluray players and HD-DVD players 100% of the time if you have a digital display.

HDMI is digital, component is analog. Digital would not necessarily be better if you have an analog display such as a picture tube TV or a CRT based rear projection.

But it will be best for all digital to digital devices like the ones I mentioned above. If you can avoid converting digital to analog and back to digital again, you've eliminated several electronic components in the circuit. A fundamental rule of electronics is: Every time you add another part, you add a little of what you don't want (call it noise) and take away a little of what you do want (signal.)

Also, you want an exact copy of the signal that leaves your source to arrive at your display, right? If you buy a medium priced or better HDMI cable, that's what you will likely get. So long as the bits arrive at the display, (cheap HDMI cables tend to drop bits over time) everything will be perfect.

You can usually plug both component and HDMI in, but you can only use them one at a time. For maximum quality use HDMI with Bluray or HD-DVD and set at 1080p. If you have decent equipment, it should look really good.

Answer 4

Yeah.. HDMI delivers a digital signal, and component doesn't. Digital is not always better.... It depends on your display device and your output device. Component looks better with a cable box while HDMI look better with a DVD player or a game console. No, you cannot have them both plugged in at the same time because they use different ports. HDMI is a single port while component consists of red green and blue as separate ports. It just depends on what i mentioned earlier...