disbthai

can you really tell the difference? I currently have component (Y, PR, Pb) input...any input is greatly appricated...

max

There wont be much of a difference if any!

MAX

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57U

DVI is used to appease the MPAA, not for better quality. If you have a pixel based TV (like LCD or DLP) then you may see a difference, since the signal will stay in the digital domain "all the way".

CRT-based TVs are analogue, so there is likely little/no difference. If there is a difference, it's typically due to the setup of that particular input, not because of any inherent superiority of DVI.

See the FAQ on DVI Connections.

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57U - Toronto, Rogers Cable, SA8300HD, 500GB HDD & Hitachi 61UWX10B HDTV, Yamaha RX-V1 A/V Receiver, Martin Logan Speakers. Photos --> 57U's HT

SA8300HD, 250GB HDD & KDL40W3000 (Upstairs)

Please don't PM me with questions that can (and should) be asked in the forum, thanks. Personal Question? Fire away.

summerfun

I understand 57U's point about the D/A conversion and it has merit, but I have had two LCD fixed pixel HDTV sets and the DVI cable made absolutely no difference. In fact, I could almost say it was worse but just a very little bit.

No offence to 57U, he is very well versed in this stuff and I highly respect his opinion.

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SET 1 (HD) Sony 60" LCD HD KF-60WE610 / SA 8300HD DVR TWC / RCA Progressive Scan DVD / Onkyo TX-SR501E Receiver / X-Box HD - Main Room
SET 2 (HD) Sony 30" CRT HD KV-30HS420 - Master Bedroom
SET 3 (SD) Hitachi 48" Ultravision Rear Pojection CRT - Game Room
SET 4 (SD) RCA 24" CRT - Kids room
SET 5 (SD) Sony 19" CRT - Kids room

57U

Well, thank you. I did say "you may see a difference". No offense taken.

I think that any difference most people see is due to one of, or a combination of, the following:

1. Output quality from the output device. (the same electronics are not used for CV or DVI on the output device - for example some of the DVI-equipped DVD players supposedly have horrible CV quality)
2. Input device setup differences. Most TVs have different setups for each input and very few people have had these calibrated for DVI/CV.
3. The quality of the D/A, A/D.

I think we can probably agree that the "cable" makes no difference, so, feel free to experiment with DVI - spend $20 or so to get a cable - and then you'll know for your situation.

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Please don't PM me with questions that can (and should) be asked in the forum, thanks. Personal Question? Fire away.

summerfun

To that point, I would be hard pressed to tell the difference between my component output and my S-video output on my DVD player. Just so ever slight a difference. Not near as much as you might expect.

The difference between the progressive scan output of the DVD player verses letting the TV do the converting is negligible as well. I think sometimes we worry to much about the very little things that make very little difference.

Just so I sleep better at night. I put everything on component hookups and tweek the setups as best I can, but I don't know exactly how much difference it makes overall.

I think they call it the "Law of Diminishing Marginal Return". How much more are you willing to spend and how far are you willing to go to squeeze out that last little bit of performance and can you or anyone tell the difference?

I have $6K in my HT. If I had spent $7, would it be any better? Who knows? How about $10 or $12. Where does it stop?

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SET 1 (HD) Sony 60" LCD HD KF-60WE610 / SA 8300HD DVR TWC / RCA Progressive Scan DVD / Onkyo TX-SR501E Receiver / X-Box HD - Main Room
SET 2 (HD) Sony 30" CRT HD KV-30HS420 - Master Bedroom
SET 3 (SD) Hitachi 48" Ultravision Rear Pojection CRT - Game Room
SET 4 (SD) RCA 24" CRT - Kids room
SET 5 (SD) Sony 19" CRT - Kids room

57U

Sorry, meant to say "DVI-equipped" DVD players. Agree with your point on S-video vs CV - not a huge difference on SD signals.

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Please don't PM me with questions that can (and should) be asked in the forum, thanks. Personal Question? Fire away.

kevinw

I would be convinced I could see a difference if I just spent 100 dollars on a 20 dollar cable.

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Crash068

Well,

After a few days of arguing with Voom I have been forced to not use DVI as my input for my Plasma TV and gone to Component. That wouldn't be such a huge deal except that now my DVD player is unplugged and has no progressive scan output.

All this because Voom wants to fight pirates using DVI.

57U

Blame the MPAA, not Voom. In the meantime you can hook up the DVD player with S-video and should still get a pretty good picture (interlaced signal from the player of course). You may wish to invest in a component video switch.

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SA8300HD, 250GB HDD & KDL40W3000 (Upstairs)

Please don't PM me with questions that can (and should) be asked in the forum, thanks. Personal Question? Fire away.

summerfun

Does your receiver have component?

I have the same problem with DVD and X-box. Two devices and only one component input on the TV available. My solution is to send them both to the receiver and just one output from the receiver to the TV. You use the receiver as a switch between them.

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SET 1 (HD) Sony 60" LCD HD KF-60WE610 / SA 8300HD DVR TWC / RCA Progressive Scan DVD / Onkyo TX-SR501E Receiver / X-Box HD - Main Room
SET 2 (HD) Sony 30" CRT HD KV-30HS420 - Master Bedroom
SET 3 (SD) Hitachi 48" Ultravision Rear Pojection CRT - Game Room
SET 4 (SD) RCA 24" CRT - Kids room
SET 5 (SD) Sony 19" CRT - Kids room

Crash068

Yar, after I posted the last post I gave up and went to s-video on the dvd player. Nah, my receiver is an old Marantz sr780 and has no component inputs but good idea

That wasn't the only problem with Voom so far. They are generally in a state of dissarray and it's not unusal to wait on hold for an hour in orrder to speak to someone. Also, When thier "professional" installer had left I found that not only was I not watching DVI input which he stated I was, but that he hadn't hooked up my digital 5:1 audio either. He also casually used my old equipment on the roof from Dish instead of installing what he had brought. Not that it makes that big of a difference but I have to wonder what he did with the equipment he brought with him...

Either way, I now am watching Cheap Trick in 720p and then switching back here to read and write posts. I thank you VERY much for responding!
I think my only regret at this point is not getting PiP when I bought the 42in Phillips Plasma.

FilthFifthAggie77

I can only speak to my equipment, but I just bought a Samsung HD931 DVD player and hooked it up to my Samsung HLM507W DLP television and the improvement in picture quality was very noticable. I sampled several DVD's and the picture was close to the quality of HBO HD from Comporium Cable. I hooked up the DVI cable and the component cables and switching back and forth confirms that the DVI picture is superior.

summerfun

It's going to be different for everyone, depends on your equipment. It just may be that your DVD player has a better DVI output than it does a component output.

In my setup, the component is slightly better if not exaclty the same.

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SET 1 (HD) Sony 60" LCD HD KF-60WE610 / SA 8300HD DVR TWC / RCA Progressive Scan DVD / Onkyo TX-SR501E Receiver / X-Box HD - Main Room
SET 2 (HD) Sony 30" CRT HD KV-30HS420 - Master Bedroom
SET 3 (SD) Hitachi 48" Ultravision Rear Pojection CRT - Game Room
SET 4 (SD) RCA 24" CRT - Kids room
SET 5 (SD) Sony 19" CRT - Kids room

57U

It has been well documented in many professional reviews that the component video output from the Sammy 931 is terrible. No one should buy this DVD player unless they plan to use the DVI. The same holds for the Bravo D1. The A/B comparison is therefore totally flawed, although one could expect a better picture with DVI on a fixed pixel display.

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57U - Toronto, Rogers Cable, SA8300HD, 500GB HDD & Hitachi 61UWX10B HDTV, Yamaha RX-V1 A/V Receiver, Martin Logan Speakers. Photos --> 57U's HT

SA8300HD, 250GB HDD & KDL40W3000 (Upstairs)

Please don't PM me with questions that can (and should) be asked in the forum, thanks. Personal Question? Fire away.

avic

as far as DVI versus component, it's not all that simple. running some tests, i could not tell the difference between them on my RP CRT with an HD source, however analog channels yielded significant PQ improvement. i suspect this has much to with my STB, DCT-5100. so keep in mind that in some cases such as this one DVI can improve PQ even when using analog displays. and in others like summerfun's the opposite is true. my advice is try both, let your eyes decide!

rlouis

I think Component has richer colors (at least on my Hitachi 57S700) Using a Motorola DCT-6200 (comcast) HD box. I made the settings identical on both DVI and Component input and here's what I found:

DVI - More "true" picture but this can also mean seeing more artifacts if the signal isn't %100. I feel cable can't deliver %100 in my area because my SD channels on my Tube tv do not look all that great. The color system wasn't as rich but it looked "cleaner"

Component- Very rich colors. Not quite as "crisp" but it makes it look very nice. I would think DVI would be the way to go from a truely clean digital source like a DVD player but I prefer Component for Cable signal.

My2Cents

Adam

From what i have read... the HD boxes do not do as good a job converting regular sd channels back down to your tv. So in conclusion the DVI may give better picture on a fix panel display for HD content but not for the SD content. To top it off the 3250hd box from SA is not able to passthrough the signal from the dvi.. hence you cannot stretch your sd content and must resort to using a different video source if you want to stretch the pic on your hdtv.

I have tried.. stuck with component as also the 3250 has improved the component sd content.

Stalker

I have a 52" HD RCA rear projection, and I per chance used both my connections of componet and dvi and I used the dual link cable not the other one, and switching back and forth I can tell you there is a HUGE differnce in pq, and dvi is by far the best connection.