What is better HDMI, component or DVI?

[kloneman]

Originally Posted by TheMoose

But you can't get lossless audio from optical.

There is nothing technically stopping you from getting "lossless audio" from an digital optical connection, other than the current industry implementation.

The "industry" are the same folks that told you via their past initial offerings that they didn't consider it feasible to implement discrete multi-channel audio (even though there were discrete 4 channel systems in the 70's, as well as some experiments in quadrature encoding that had some merit), so a DECADE OR THREE LATER they gave you phase quadrature encoding with its horrible sound quality in the center channel and essentially no localization on the rear, and called it "ProLogic".

Next, they told you via their offerings that they didn't consider it feasible to use full range speakers in the surround and center channels, resulting is some pretty sad acoustical mismatches between main and surrounds.

They are just now getting around to offering components with a significant fraction of the capabilities that are present in the original source material, and they still appear to be hell-bent on mucking it up.

As usual, I just don't buy what they're currently selling, and do not subscribe to the rationale provided for these arbitrary limitations on what the implementation could be, given the state of the art in high-data rate transfer technology used in the communications industry, and in the "signal sources" available now. Consider the following:

(1) High speed large capacity optical connections are a big chunk of the
communications infrustructure. They are also the best choice for long local
runs of high speed "1 & 0" traffic between sources and destinations.
Simultaneous bi-directional operation over single fibers is feasible too, using
multi-frequency (multiple color) LED/Laser diodes, and photo detectors.

(2) Optical connections have been present on performance equipment for years,
but they have been needlessly limited to carrying crippled audio content.

(3) You are getting all of your audio and video from optically read digital media
at the front end of your player right now, but for most of us, ALL of it doesn't
exit the equipment in that form.

(4) HDMI is a digital connection, but it runs over copper media that has severe
physical limitations that constrain its available frequency (called skin effect).
This in turn limits ultimate bandwidth and run distance. Optical media was
designed, developed and deployed to overcome these limits cheaply.

My beef with HDMI is that it is a dirt-poor implementation that should never have been deployed.

[rex]

A recent CEPro survey found that:

The vast majority of respondents far prefer to use component video for a number of reasons. Most of the complaints about HDMI center around distance issues, the challenge of terminating in the field, the fact that the connections easily disconnect, the fragility of the cables, the large connector size and HDMI’s far greater expense. There were also a number of complaints about compatibility issues, the lack of HDMI standards, HDCP issues and a negligible quality improvement.

http://www.cepro.com/article/hdmi_or...tors_weigh_in/

[Butch]

Originally Posted by AVRevForum.com

Voice your opinion on what is the superior method for carrying an HD signal from a source to a display.

The question doesn't address the audio portion of the HDMI cable, just its ability to carry an HD signal.

My experience is that if the source has video processing superior to the display its best to let it do the processing and send it to the display via analog component cables. If the display is the device with better video processors then send it digitally via DVI or HDMI.

My DVD player looks better using components compared to DVI, while my DSS looks best via DVI.

I assume that audio is the same. Whichever component has the better DAC's should be the one doing the conversion to analog.

[HT Junky]

I have had no issue with HDMI being the CARRIER of the signal. I have Bluejeans Cable's best HDMI cables in 35 ft (receiver to projector) and 3 & 4 ft (components to receiver) lengths. My projector is the Sony VPL-VW50 Pearl projector. The picture is great through DirectTV HD, AppleTV, HD-DVD and Blu-ray. I have had two HD-DVD players and 3 different Blu-ray players. They have all been plugged straight to the projector, or through my Denon 3808ci receiver. I guess I'm lucky, but I have never had any problems.

I have had disks that freeze up and also one that did not play the left front channel. All of this was corrected through various firmware upgrades. I have not had any of these types of issues, however, in the last 3 months.

I also have a 35 run of Bluejeans component video cable connected to the Sony projector. I have tried setting the various players to 1080i and feeding them to the Sony projector via component and HDMI. I set it to 1080i for a fair comparison, as the projector won't handle 1080p through component video. The Sony projector always displays a slightly better picture through the HDMI connection, both in color and detail. The problem with the comparison is the fact the the Sony may be optimized for HDMI processing. I have no way of telling. Another issue is the fact that 1080p is supported only through HDMI on the latest displays. 1080p makes a notable difference the 92 inch projected picture in my rig.

I sure do like what HDMI does for the clutter in the back of my equipment.

[wes]

HDMi done properly rules, at least for me