# Question for you HDtv users



## zimbloth (Dec 12, 2006)

I just got my first ever HDtv. I'm new to this whole thing, can any of you recommend what cables I'm going to need and what are good values? I'm aware I'll probably need an HDMI cable and/or Component cables. You guys are so resourceful here I figured I'd ask you guys instead of spending hours googling reviews. Monster HDMI cables appear to be priced outrageously high, what do you guys use? 

For the record, its a Samsung 40" LCD w/ 3000:1 contrast ratio, yada yada (got a sick deal on it too ) I have Comcast Digital Cable and plan on getting an XBox360 or PS3 at some point.

Thanks


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## noodles (Dec 12, 2006)

Does your TV have multiple HDMI ports?

Yes:
Get an HDMI cable for both the DVD player and the cable box.

No:
Get an HDMI cable for the DVD player, and HD component video for the cable box (it's like three or four RCA-type plugs, but they are not RCA).

Oh, you'll need a new DVD player, unless yours already support HD. I put the HDMI cable on my DVD player, because I'm a movie buff. HDMI doesn't suffer from color bleed like component video, and I want the best looking picture for my movies. If you don't really watch movies, or rarely do, then use the HDMI cable on the cable box. You can also switch one cable bewteen the two devices if you want, but I am personally too lazy to do that.

Expect to pay at least $85 for a 3 foot HDMI cable. They carry HD video and full surround audio on the same interface. They are very expensive to make.


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## zimbloth (Dec 12, 2006)

Thanks for the response Dave.

Well I see some Monster 1000 series (best one they make) 4 foot ones on eBay for $69 or so, $40-50. And some no name ones for cheap, like this.

I don't know how important it is to have the highest of the highest end cable wise. They have monster "400" series HDMI cables which are far less. I know I can tell a big difference between my Monster Rock cable and the Monster 100 Series cable.

My unit is this. Except I didn't get it on NewEgg (or pay anything close to that). So I guess it has 2 HDMI ins. I have a Sony DVD player I bought 5-6 years ago, so I doubt it has HD support.


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## Rick (Dec 12, 2006)

What exactly are the HDMI cables supposed to do? The guys I used to work with when I was installing cable said that they were a waste of money.


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## Samer (Dec 12, 2006)

Im working with this stuff every day being a cable guy / phone tech. For cable boxes i can honestly tell you it makes no difference if you buy HDMI or component. Whats going to effect your picture is your cable drop, signal strength, and connectors used on cable. You can buy the most expensive TV and still get a bad picture if you have one bad connector. 

The problem with HDMI is when you are flipping through the channels and it changes resolution you get a blue screen for a few seconds. 

As far as DVD players im not sure what the better route to go is

But with cable your analog channels are going to look like shit no matter what you use. And digital / HD channels (there are only 2 HD channels that broadcast in HD 27/7) it will make no difference.

In fact a lot of the customers houses i go to for trouble calls bought the expensive Monster Cables and I go and put in component cables and the picture ends up looking better.

Also you will need to get a HD digital box because the regular ones dont support HD (should be a free upgrade) try to ask for a PACE box. Those are the best ones.

Or you could get a cable card and put it right into the TV, it should be a lot cheaper than the digital box and still gives you all the HD and digital channels.


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## Metal Ken (Dec 12, 2006)

so thats where the bc rich went!


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## zimbloth (Dec 12, 2006)

Metal Ken said:


> so thats where the bc rich went!



Nah, I got this before that sold actually. Was a gift from my Dad. I chipped in but not much. I may actually get another Carvin with some of the money, but a big chunk of what I got for my Rich I need


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## Metal Ken (Dec 13, 2006)

true


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## metalfiend666 (Dec 13, 2006)

Funnily enough my Dad's just bought a Samsung 40" HDtv, it turned up today. Ours has 2 scart sockets on the back though, plus fuckloads of other ins & outs. I'll be watching this thread I think.


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## zimbloth (Dec 13, 2006)

Somehow I found it for $1199.99 w/ free shipping. If anyone else wants to hop on that deal (if they still have it), head over to Frys.com. Which if you look that model up at most places, is absurd.


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## noodles (Dec 13, 2006)

Samer said:


> Im working with this stuff every day being a cable guy / phone tech. For cable boxes i can honestly tell you it makes no difference if you buy HDMI or component. Whats going to effect your picture is your cable drop, signal strength, and connectors used on cable. You can buy the most expensive TV and still get a bad picture if you have one bad connector.



I suspected this, which is why my DVD player gets the HDMI cable. I always thought it would have been a question of bandwidth, though. When I had Cox cable, I noticed the picture was fairly sharp, but it was not uncommon to get signal noise (garbled picture and sound) at times. After I moved, Comcast became my new provider. I never get signal noise, but picture quality is not as high. I still notice color bleed with the components versus the HDMI cable, but I suspect this is because I have cheap component cable. I just refuse to spend the money on cable, because there is no way it is going to touch DVDs. That is why I have no movie channels, but have NetFlix. 



> The problem with HDMI is when you are flipping through the channels and it changes resolution you get a blue screen for a few seconds.



The trick is to lock the cable box at one resolution. I set it on auto, and switch to a 1080i HD channel. I then set it to fixed, forcing all channels into this resolution. Non-HD channels appear with black bars on the side of the screen. Basicly, the box is doing an "up convert" on the lower resolution standard channels.



> As far as DVD players im not sure what the better route to go is.



HDMI by far. I've done back to back comparisons, and component video loses out big time, suffering from color bleed that causes the picture to look less crisp overall. I will conceed that you get what you pay for, and a cheap HDMI cable is not going to compare to expensive component video cable, but overall it is the better interface.

But with cable your analog channels are going to look like shit no matter what you use. And digital / HD channels (there are only 2 HD channels that broadcast in HD 27/7) it will make no difference.



> Also you will need to get a HD digital box because the regular ones dont support HD (should be a free upgrade) try to ask for a PACE box. Those are the best ones.



I totally spaced and forgot to state that in my response. Unless you specifically request HD, you get a non-HD box that is incapable of decoding the signal.



> Or you could get a cable card and put it right into the TV, it should be a lot cheaper than the digital box and still gives you all the HD and digital channels.



This doesn't help you if you want DV-R, though.


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## noodles (Dec 13, 2006)

zimbloth said:


> I have a Sony DVD player I bought 5-6 years ago, so I doubt it has HD support.





rg7420user said:


> What exactly are the HDMI cables supposed to do? The guys I used to work with when I was installing cable said that they were a waste of money.



HDMI = High Definition Multimedia Interface







DVI = Digital Video Interface






The only difference is one carries the audio signal, and one doesn't. They make a converter to drop HDMI back to DVI, so Nick, if you have DVI on your DVD player, you are in good shape.


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## zimbloth (Dec 13, 2006)

Cool, thanks man. I should get it in tomorrow so I'm pretty excited. For the record, I have NetFlix too, but I also have Comcast Dig Cable w/ On Demand, and I end up watching way more movies on cable than via DVD. Plus I have many of the movie channels in HD as well. So that being said, I would probably just use the cable for Cable for now. I'll check my DVD player and see if it has DVI.

My PC videocard (nVidia 7800GT) has a DVI out, so I assume I could use the HDTv with my PC at some point too? My PC monitor is a 20" Samsung, and the difference between DVI and RGB was HUGE. Thanks again


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## noodles (Dec 13, 2006)

zimbloth said:


> Cool, thanks man. I should get it in tomorrow so I'm pretty excited. For the record, I have NetFlix too, but I also have Comcast Dig Cable w/ On Demand, and I end up watching way more movies on cable than via DVD. Plus I have many of the movie channels in HD as well. So that being said, I would probably just use the cable for Cable for now. I'll check my DVD player and see if it has DVI.



I also have Comcast with On Demand. Most OD movies are not HD widescreen, because it eats up so much bandwidth. Plus, the difference between a HD movie on cable and DVD is extreme. Trust me, once you get HD from the DVD player, you'll see



> My PC videocard (nVidia 7800GT) has a DVI out, so I assume I could use the HDTv with my PC at some point too? My PC monitor is a 20" Samsung, and the difference between DVI and RGB was HUGE. Thanks again



Yes, but do not expect it to be anywhere near as good as your monitor. HDTV is usually 1080i/720p, 1920i/1080p at the most. This means that the higher resolutions are all interlaced, while the lower resolutions are where your typical computer monitor is just getting started. I run my 17" monitor at home in 1200x1024, which absolutely smokes my HDTV. They really don't have the same refresh rate and resolution standards.


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## zimbloth (Dec 13, 2006)

Interesting. I hear those BluRay movies look incredible. I'll wait for those inevitably to drop astronomically in price like DVD players did in due time. Perhaps if I get a PS3 that will kill two birds with one stone? 

I run my PC at 1600x1200 generally, either way I'ts not a big deal, the HDtv is going to be for the living room anyways.


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## technomancer (Dec 13, 2006)

Just a note if you have Comcast, be careful when they come to give you the box, I almost got burned by them on a bait and switch. 

I scheduled the install for an HD box and when the installer shows up he tells me they're out of HD boxes so they sent him with an HD-DVR box instead. There is an upcharge for these boxes, and if I hadn't asked about and then refused it I would have been paying an extra monthly fee for a service I never ordered and had no use for (I have a TiVo).

The installer had no clue (he was a subcontractor) and called in to check when I asked about the fee. If I hadn't asked I wouldn't have found out until it showed up on my cable bill.


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## zimbloth (Dec 13, 2006)

Thanks for the heads up, but I have a DVR on mine anyways... so an HD-DVR box would be welcome


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## noodles (Dec 13, 2006)

Nick, this is the box you're going to get.


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## zimbloth (Dec 13, 2006)

noodles said:


> Nick, this is the box you're going to get.



Cool, thanks.

EDIT: Cool the thing just was delivered one day early. Gonna try setting it up now. I have component cables, not much else right now. Here goes nothing...

*Update*: I got it setup and its breathtaking. Regular TV is eh, but HD tv is great. I also as a test, ran through some Cinemax On Demand HD movies, such as Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. I've never seen anything more amazing visually than that movie in HD.

I am having one problem though. There is a considerable hum when the cable is engaged (when I watch DVDs or broadcast tv its just fine). It effects both the Samsung speakers as well as my seperate stereo speakers. Not sure why thats happening.

Anyways the TV is beautiful, thanks for all the help, I'm really pleased. I'm going to be getting an HDMI DVD player next and that should be cool... but as of now, the tons of HD On Demand movies look insane.


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## noodles (Dec 14, 2006)

The cable box is a finicky one. I've had the best luck by locking everything down the way I want it. For example:

--Switch to an HD channel, watch the 1080i light on the front panel come on, then go into the video settings and set it to "fixed".

--I use the optical out for audio. So, I set the audio output to "digital" and audio mode to "Dolby 5.1".

--I set the side bars (for non-widescreen channels) to dark, so they are black. I found black is easier to ignore than gray.

--I set programs to record to a couple of minutes before and after. The scheduling is based on the time the box receives from the cable company, which doesn't always sync up with the programming on the individual channels. Adult Swim on the Cartoon Network is notorious for being two minutes ahead of schedule.

Also, you might want to try moving the cable box. Maybe you have older speakers that aren't shielded from interference. The cable box has a lot of stuff in it, including a hard drive and cooling fan. It is essentially a computer.

I'll try to remember to go through my settings this weekend and note anything you should change.


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## zimbloth (Dec 14, 2006)

I fixed the hum problem, got a new box and a free HDMI cable and now its swell. I'll try those settings you use.

Yeah, I DVR Metalocalypse and it always comes on too early, I've learned to set it to start early.


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## noodles (Dec 14, 2006)

So it was the box causing the interference? I bet it was coming out of the audio ports.


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## zimbloth (Dec 14, 2006)

Yeah, when the audio source was the DVD player or "Air" there was no num. The HDMI cable fixed it, but the component cables were fine, was just something with that box so I got a new one.


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## Rick (Dec 14, 2006)

zimbloth said:


> I fixed the hum problem, got a new box and a free HDMI cable and now its swell. I'll try those settings you use.
> 
> Yeah, I DVR Metalocalypse and it always comes on too early, I've learned to set it to start early.



I had to do that as well. I'm usually never home when it comes on.


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