Console newbie question.

[Pugnate]

Hi,

Been a hardcore PC gamer since the days of King's Quest and Quest for Glory. Recently, I bought my first current gen console i.e. an Xbox 360 (I blame GTA4), along with a nice Samsung HDTV.

So here is my question. Am I likely to get better image quality when connecting with the component cables, or with HDMI? Or does it not make a difference?

Sorry, I am a PC gamer at heart, so I am used to trivial tweaking.

 

[bucwylde23]

Originally posted by: Pugnate
Hi,

Been a hardcore PC gamer since the days of King's Quest and Quest for Glory. Recently, I bought my first current gen console i.e. an Xbox 360 (I blame GTA4), along with a nice Samsung HDTV.

So here is my question. Am I likely to get better image quality when connecting with the component cables, or with HDMI? Or does it not make a difference?

Sorry, I am a PC gamer at heart, so I am used to trivial tweaking.

Component looks fine to me (I have a non-HDMI 360) and I don't know if you'll notice THAT much of a difference. I do want HDMI though if anything for the smaller cable.

I'm assuming your 360 has HDMI, so why not? YOu can get an HDMI cable for cheap.

 

[Queasy]

Yeah, if you have HDMI go ahead and use it. The level of quality between component and HDMI is debatable and likely mostly dependent on your TV. The major benefits that HDMI has over component though is that it will upscale DVDs, play any 360 1080p games in 1080p, and cut down on cable clutter.

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: Queasy
Yeah, if you have HDMI go ahead and use it. The level of quality between component and HDMI is debatable and likely mostly dependent on your TV. The major benefits that HDMI has over component though is that it will upscale DVDs, play any 360 1080p games in 1080p, and cut down on cable clutter.

So component cables wont upscale DVDs at all?

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: Oyeve

Originally posted by: Queasy
Yeah, if you have HDMI go ahead and use it. The level of quality between component and HDMI is debatable and likely mostly dependent on your TV. The major benefits that HDMI has over component though is that it will upscale DVDs, play any 360 1080p games in 1080p, and cut down on cable clutter.

So component cables wont upscale DVDs at all?

480p is the most you get over component for DVDs.

 

[AstroManLuca]

From what I've learned about HDTVs in the past few days, a lot of HD sets designed for 720p or 1080p don't do very well in 480p. Samsung is a good brand so it's probably fine, but for the HDTV I just bought (Westinghouse; haven't gotten it yet), I definitely want HDMI for the upscaling because (apparently) 480p on cheap sets looks really bad.

 

[alfa147x]

also its the difference between running 5 cables vs 1

 

[warcrow]

Yea deffinitely go with the HDMI port. Also, get your cables from monoprice.com and pay the $9 there instead of $60 at Best Buy or Circuit City.

 

[Pugnate]

LOL warcrow.

First of all, I appreciate the responses. I am enjoying gaming on a big screen.

I actually work out of Asia -- moved from Canada 4 years ago -- and was shocked at the price difference between cables. I picked up my HDMI cable for about $10 the other day, whereas in Canada, it would have cost me nearly $60. Does anyone know how that started, and why thecable scam exists? I find it incredible that residents of North America have come to accept the ridiculous component cable prices. Even four years back, simple cables that would have cost a couple of dollars in Asia, cost nearly twenty times as much at Radio Shack. Were they being shipped by Concorde?

Also, while I haven't noticed a big difference between the visuals, I am glad I went with HDMI, as one cable certainly feels far more efficient than several.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Originally posted by: Pugnate
I actually work out of Asia -- moved from Canada 4 years ago -- and was shocked at the price difference between cables. I picked up my HDMI cable for about $10 the other day, whereas in Canada, it would have cost me nearly $60. Does anyone know how that started, and why thecable scam exists? I find it incredible that residents of North America have come to accept the ridiculous component cable prices. Even four years back, simple cables that would have cost a couple of dollars in Asia, cost nearly twenty times as much at Radio Shack. Were they being shipped by Concorde?

A lot of places sell cheap accessories (like cables) for hugely inflated prices because they know that a lot of customers will just buy them because there's less hassle. Now, I'd say spending ten times as much on a cable as I need to qualifies as a hassle, but most people don't know any better. Online stores suggestively sell them by prompting you to add cables to your order whenever you buy something that could use cables, and B&M stores sell them for high prices because you're in a store and can't as easily compare prices with competitors.

They are gigantic profit-makers. Even if only 5% of people decide to buy an overpriced cable from Best Buy, they make tons of money. If 100 people buy HDTVs, and just 5 of them buy a $50 Monster cable for them, that's $250 extra for BB right there. Compare it to if they sold cables for $5... they'd need 50% of customers to buy a cable to make the same amount of money. And that's only gross revenue - since the margins are a much larger percentage in the Monster cables, they'd actually need more than 50% of customers to buy cheap cables.

Take a look at Dell (or any other online computer store) sometime. They almost always have a free printer deal, and, without fail, they do not include a USB cable. USB cables are cheap, $5 or less, but they will gladly sell one to you for $35. And this isn't some Monster gold-plated high fidelity carbon vacuum tested premium USB cable either, it's just a plain old cable. I've got a dozen of them in a box somewhere.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

HDMI is hte best in termsof quality. Component sucks. did you mean composite? If you meant composite, those are also very good. HDMI is marginally better than Composite. So if you already have composite, save your money and stuick with them. If you have neither composite or HDMI, I'd go HDMI or whatever is best suited for yout future entertainment components. If you have two HDMI inputs, you might want to save the slots for Blue Ray, etc.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Originally posted by: IHateMyJob2004
HDMI is hte best in termsof quality. Component sucks. did you mean composite? If you meant composite, those are also very good. HDMI is marginally better than Composite. So if you already have composite, save your money and stuick with them. If you have neither composite or HDMI, I'd go HDMI or whatever is best suited for yout future entertainment components. If you have two HDMI inputs, you might want to save the slots for Blue Ray, etc.

No, composite is the really bad one. Component is good (not as good as HDMI but close).

Composite = All the video combined into a single composite cable. In the same way that a "composite metal" is a metal composed of several different types of metals, composite video has all the colors combined into one signal. The cable is generally a single yellow one.

Component = The video signal is split into several components that you connect individually. These components form parts of a whole. Component video is much cleaner and looks better. The cables for component video consist of red, green, and blue connectors.

 

[Baked]

Should've bought a PS3, that would've given you better image quality.

 

[Pugnate]

Yup I meant component...

Should've bought a PS3, that would've given you better image quality.

I won't bite.

Take a look at Dell (or any other online computer store) sometime. They almost always have a free printer deal, and, without fail, they do not include a USB cable. USB cables are cheap, $5 or less, but they will gladly sell one to you for $35

Are you bloody kidding me? $35 for a USB cable? Wow...

Anyway, you made some good points. In the end, they charge up the ass for cables because enough people fall for the trap for them to make a profit. And I wouldn't say it is 5% of people. I am sure it is a pretty significant number.

 

[AstroManLuca]

The same is true of cell phone companies. They'll give you a "free" phone if you sign up for a 2-year contract, and then they charge you $40 for a car charger when it's $15 to buy one from anyplace else.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Pugnate
I won't bite.

Good call.

 

[VIAN]

look below

 

[VIAN]

Originally posted by: IHateMyJob2004
HDMI is hte best in termsof quality. Component sucks. did you mean composite? If you meant composite, those are also very good. HDMI is marginally better than Composite. So if you already have composite, save your money and stuick with them. If you have neither composite or HDMI, I'd go HDMI or whatever is best suited for yout future entertainment components. If you have two HDMI inputs, you might want to save the slots for Blue Ray, etc.

HDMI is digital so it is label the best. But seriously, you don't need it unless you plan on seeing 1080p images, movie studios forced hardware makers to limit Component to only 1080i.

Component is the next best thing. Then it's S-video. The most primitive is composite.

HD gaming only goes up to 720p 99% of the time. If you have Component lying around, use those, if not go get an HDMI cable.

As for DVD scaling... if you have a name brand TV, then you shouldn't worry about HDMI for that purpose. Your TV will upscale it automatically. It will still say 480p, but it needs to upscale it to fit it on the screen.

 

[AstroManLuca]

As others have mentioned, there are other good reasons to go for HDMI. One is that the cable is tiny and you only need one cable for audio and video combined. Another is that, at least on the Xbox 360, you can't upscale DVDs if you're using component?you have to use either VGA or HDMI.

But component certainly isn't bad, quality-wise. It's definitely not worth spending $50+ to get special gold-plated nitrogen purged Monster premium cables, but for less than $10 from monoprice.com, why not?

 

[VIAN]

Originally posted by: AstroManLuca
As others have mentioned, there are other good reasons to go for HDMI. One is that the cable is tiny and you only need one cable for audio and video combined. Another is that, at least on the Xbox 360, you can't upscale DVDs if you're using component?you have to use either VGA or HDMI.

But component certainly isn't bad, quality-wise. It's definitely not worth spending $50+ to get special gold-plated nitrogen purged Monster premium cables, but for less than $10 from monoprice.com, why not?

:thumbsup: