Well, I am getting VERY close to jumping into the HDTV world, and after exhaustive research, plan on purchasing the Panasonic Plasma TH-PZ800U. I am super excited! I have a couple of connector cable questions that I really need help with. To get my home theater set up just right, I need to get a couple of cables and have seen a really huge price swing in the cost of cables. I have heard monoprice.com offers the best values. Seen some good prices on amazon as well. The cables I need are: 1 HDMI cable, 1 component cable with audio, 1 optical audio cable. (I am initially going to use component from cable box to TV but probably will move to HDMI later on when I get a HDMI cable box. Optical audio is going from cable box to receiver.) What things should I be looking for with regards to these cables? I mean, I have seen HDMI cables on Amazon for $2 and then see them on other sites for like $40? Are people just being suckered here? Or is there a huge quality difference? What about the quality of the actual "end connector?" I would be looking for about 6 ft (just to be safe) for all 3 of the cables. Any help is appreciated! And feel free to provide links! ;-)
The cheap HDMI cables are just as good as the expensive (i.e. monster) HDMI cables. I've used some of the cheap HDMI cables to connect my PS3 and Dish Network receiver to my Planasonic plasma and the picture is excellent. If your going to need a long HDMI cable (more the 10 feet) than use an expensive one but for shorter cables the cheap ones are just fine!!
Ok hold on a sec. You have a cable box, and you are going to get an HDTV, but you do not have a HD cable service yet? That's what it sounds like. Or are you saying that your cable box IS HD, but it does not have HDMI? Man if that is the case, I would be on the horn telling them you need them to bring you a box from this decade or you are going to switch to Dish or someone. The only reason I say this is, component is not a substitute for HDMI. It's just not. Maybe some other people have had some success getting a good clear HD picture with component, but when I tried it, it was awful compared to digital. And yes, I second the opinion of the person who said there is no reason to buy expensive cables. Digital is digital. Now depending on the length, yes, they will necessarily be expensive - I had to buy a 30' DVI cable for my ceiling projector, and I found a GREAT deal on Amazon for *only* $80 for that freaking thing (other places wanted as much as $220 and up). But for just going from your box straight up 6 feet to your TV, cheap HDMI is fine.
My cable box is a motorola dual tuner DVR from comcast. I can get HD by getting comcast's HD package. But I will be getting the signal from component. I can however exchange the box for an HDMI version of the box. That's the plan. Sounds like the dirt cheap HDMI cables are the best bet. How about these? http://www.amazon.com/Super-Resolut...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1204150160&sr=8-1 So is HDMI really that much superior over component?
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Yes, HDMI is better, but if you cant tell the difference in video quality, there's always the fact that HDMI is much neater, and depending on your components/equipment setup, can be used to provide video and audio in one cable.
