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Cables for Home Theater

Originally posted by: James3shin
you can go to Tweeter or look on crutchfield.com for some high end Interconnects, calbes and such.
Click to expand...

Which are mostly a giant ripoff (especially "Monster"-brand equipment -- believe me, they paid for the licensing on that baseball stadium with the profits).

For your picture, you'll obviously want to use a digital spec like HD component or DVI. As long as your cables are functional, you'll get as good an image quality as you're ever going to get -- either the 1s and 0s are getting through, or they're not. It's not like with analog signals where signal noise causes gradual degradation -- if the cable's not working, you'll drop frames and/or notice glaring artifacts.

For sound, your best bet is probably optical (TOSLINK) or coaxial digital audio (DD, Dolby DTS [EX], etc.) from the source to the audio receiver (again, with a digital signal, cable quality is not critical as long as it is good enough to transmit the signal). For DVD-Audio, you have to use analog cables (since each channel is discrete), and here is somehwere that you might actually want to spend a few bucks for a better-than-average cable (but fancy gold-plating, exotic materials, etc. are not as helpful as you would be led to believe).

Regular old speaker wire is just fine for going from the receiver to your speakers.
 
bleh, I agree with you on your statement about Monsters, the only reason I noted Tweeter is because my local tweeter here in Rockville, MD was carrying some Cardas, and Dimarzios the last time I was in there which actually make a good deal of improvement interms of audio...For video, thats another matter and I agree with Matthias that either the 1's and 0's get through you should be fine, I guess I'll look more into video cables for any differnces.
 
Thanks Matthias and the rest, for the input. I do have a Sony Home Theater with a 500 Watts total output, and the DVD player is a Sony as well. What happens is that I notice that the image when playing DVDs is not as clear as should be. And same when watching TV, so I'm planning to get better quality cables, and I understand that there is a formula that said no to expend more than 10% of the value of the system. I paid about $500.00 for it, so I will no mind to expend up to $100 to get a better picture. If you can reccomend a brand or place where to buy, I will appreciate it.

Best regards

Eltano
 
Originally posted by: Eltano1
Thanks Matthias and the rest, for the input. I do have a Sony Home Theater with a 500 Watts total output, and the DVD player is a Sony as well. What happens is that I notice that the image when playing DVDs is not as clear as should be. And same when watching TV, so I'm planning to get better quality cables, and I understand that there is a formula that said no to expend more than 10% of the value of the system. I paid about $500.00 for it, so I will no mind to expend up to $100 to get a better picture. If you can reccomend a brand or place where to buy, I will appreciate it.

Best regards

Eltano
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What are you using now?

Did you calibrate the player/set with a calibration DVD (such as AVIA Home Theater Essentials)?

 
I'm using the originals cable that came with the system, and I have the satellite company to rewired my house, to get a better signal. I don't have any calibration DVD, where can I get one?

Eltano
 
Originally posted by: Eltano1
I'm using the originals cable that came with the system, and I have the satellite company to rewired my house, to get a better signal. I don't have any calibration DVD, where can I get one?

Eltano
Click to expand...

Um... composite, S-Video, component, or DVI? What kind of TV, also? You have satellite (DirecTV/Dish?) How is the receiver hooked up to the TV? Are you running through an A/V receiver, or plugging both the DVD player and satellite receiver directly to the TV?

I think Borders carries at least one calibration DVD -- you can definitely get them from Amazon, as well. Most places like Best Buy, etc. don't, in my experience.
 
The TV is a 36' Toshiba (regular TV), DirectTV, going thru an A/V receiver. I was looking at Amazon, and there are quite a few for $37.00 so is not a bad idea to calibrate my system. For what I remember how I have my setup:
DirectTV box====VCR=====A/V=====TV
DVD player=====A/V======TV

 
amheck, thanks for the link, but unfortunally, I'm not a member of any of those forums, second, there is not way to communicate with him and ask what he has available and when.

Eltano
 
Originally posted by: Eltano1
amheck, thanks for the link, but unfortunally, I'm not a member of any of those forums, second, there is not way to communicate with him and ask what he has available and when.

Eltano
Click to expand...

From the bottom of the FAQ page (you look at Gotapex.com, don't you?) 😉

Ok, how do I order from you?

First, you must be a registered member of the HOME THEATER FORUM, AVS FORUM or HOME THEATER TALK and be at least semi-active-- or be a reader of GotApex. When you contact me about orders, make sure to include your real name and your username on the forum. If you found me via GOTAPEX, make sure to mention that instead.

You can sign up for my email list here:


 
I also wanted to mention that Vince is nearing the end of one of his cable buys, and I know he's short a few orders to cover all his costs, so I"m sure he'd be more than happy to take your order.

These are really nice looking cables - boutique style even. I'm very happy with them.
 
Originally posted by: Eltano1
The TV is a 36' Toshiba (regular TV), DirectTV, going thru an A/V receiver. I was looking at Amazon, and there are quite a few for $37.00 so is not a bad idea to calibrate my system. For what I remember how I have my setup:
DirectTV box====VCR=====A/V=====TV
DVD player=====A/V======TV
Click to expand...

First off, running through a VCR is probably not helping. Does it look any better if you pull the VCR out of the loop? And are you using S-Video or composite (S-video is better by a decent margin)?

If it's a regular (non-HD) TV, you're stuck using S-Video or composite (S-Video is preferable; I'm not sure if all the DTV boxes output it, though). There's just only so much you can do with a 480i signal...
 
The wires are the cheap ones, so I think that they are composite. That is a good idea to pull the VCR out of the loop, since we don't watch tapes anymore.

Eltano
 
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