HDMI Switchbox

[Jay]

Anyone ever use one of these? Comments, complaints, recomendations?

[Tikker]

edit: for some reason it slipped my brain that the new gaming systems will do HDMI too

[Tossica]

I considered one because my projector only has 1 HDMI input on it but it doesn't seem to be worth the money. I bought a really nice 4x Component input switcher for the same amount of money and am only using the HDMI input for my cable box. DVD player, 360, Xbox, etc all use component and look great in HD resolutions.

[Jay]

I have a component switchbox but I'm curious to see the difference with HDMI vs. Component. I guess the real question I should ask is "How noticeable is the difference between HDMI and Component HD?"

[Tossica]

unless you are doing 1080P, I'm not sure you'd be able to tell the difference. I don't think component supports 1080P...

[Jay]

As far as I know component only supports up to 480p. I could be wrong though. I'm not exactly a home theater expert. And yeah I could potentially run everything on 1080p. Gears of War on 1080p I would imagine probably looks sexy. I'm gonna buy an HDMI cable for my ps3 and see if I can tell first.

[Tikker]

when you say component, do you mean component, or composite?

HDMI is just a different format that carries digital video and audio on 1 cable

component will do 1080p just fine as long as your tv supports it(a lot don't, but some do)

it's a limitation of the input on the monitor/tv, not the cables

[Tossica]

360 only supports 1080i which is still badass.

[Tossica]

I'm fairly certain component does not support 1080P. HDMI is the only consumer I/O that does.

[Tossica]

360 only supports 1080i which is still badass.

Scratch that. I guess MS did a dashboard update to support 1080P. Both of my HDTV's only support 1080I though.

[Tikker]

Component video is capable of producing signals such as 480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p.

[url]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_video
[/url]

It's not a limitation of the cables, but rather what the input on your tv will accept

Westinghouse 42" LCD will take 1080p on all of it's inputs

[Narrock]

wtf I thought this was a music group.

"Yo man, did you get your Switchbox tickets? That show is gonna rockzor"

[Jay]

So with all that in mind does that mean that the quality of the picture will be the same whether I use component or HDMI cables? If that's the case I might just stick with my component cables.

[Tikker]

So with all that in mind does that mean that the quality of the picture will be the same whether I use component or HDMI cables? If that's the case I might just stick with my component cables.

you really shouldn't notice a difference

You'll find people who'll tell you they can tell the difference between coax and optical SPDIF, or can see the difference between 100fps and 85fps

they're also mysteriously the people who buy speakers that have ranges from 20Hz to 40k Hz (ie shit mostly out of the range of human hearing) and then look down on your stuff

the big advantage of HDMI is that you have 1 cable that does video + audio, instead of 4 seperate cables for the component setup(3 video, 1 spdif)

[Jay]

Is it comparable to the difference between S-Video vs. Component? That I can tell the difference of but only slightly.

[Harrison]

Saying you can't notice a difference between 85fps and 100fps is slightly false.

Just because the "refresh rate" on our eyes doesn't go as quickly as that does NOT mean that we can't discern the difference between the two.

[10sun]

So with all that in mind does that mean that the quality of the picture will be the same whether I use component or HDMI cables? If that's the case I might just stick with my component cables.

you really shouldn't notice a difference

You'll find people who'll tell you they can tell the difference between coax and optical SPDIF, or can see the difference between 100fps and 85fps

they're also mysteriously the people who buy speakers that have ranges from 20Hz to 40k Hz (ie shit mostly out of the range of human hearing) and then look down on your stuff

the big advantage of HDMI is that you have 1 cable that does video + audio, instead of 4 seperate cables for the component setup(3 video, 1 spdif)

Frequency range in hearing isn't quite the goal of speakers which can reproduce that range. I can tell the difference between low quality speakers with a decent range and high quality with a huge range because the sounds are clearer, the cutoffs aren't there, etc etc etc

[Tossica]

HDMI is bullshit IMO.

Yes, it carries both audio and video signal BUT if you have a surround sound receiver, you need an HDMI cable to carry the signal to the receiver and then you need another HDMI cable to carry just the video signal to the monitor. The cables are expensive. What's the point? It's also another layer of copy protection if they ever wanted to switch it on. Unfortunately, all the high def audio signals are going to require an HDMI connection in order to decode. I'll stick with optical for audio and component for video.

[Tikker]

Is it comparable to the difference between S-Video vs. Component? That I can tell the difference of but only slightly.

s-video does have a resolution limitation iirc

I don't think s-video will do more than 1024x768

I'm 100% sure it won't do 720p

again, notice finawin saying he can tell the diff between 85 and 100 fps, exactly what I was talking about


And Atensen, that's not quite the same thing

Insane high quality with full human audible range vs insane high quality with range way above/below human hearing is what I'm talking about

comparing low quality to high quality is kind of obvious that you'd tell the difference

[10sun]

Is it comparable to the difference between S-Video vs. Component? That I can tell the difference of but only slightly.

s-video does have a resolution limitation iirc

I don't think s-video will do more than 1024x768

I'm 100% sure it won't do 720p

again, notice finawin saying he can tell the diff between 85 and 100 fps, exactly what I was talking about


And Atensen, that's not quite the same thing

Insane high quality with full human audible range vs insane high quality with range way above/below human hearing is what I'm talking about

comparing low quality to high quality is kind of obvious that you'd tell the difference

Insane high quality stuff doesn't stop at 40khz. It usually goes pretty far beyond, thats my point.

Switching from a pair of Sony monoaurual headphones to Sennheiser HD500s made a world of difference. Trying to switch back down to Philips headphones sucked ass. You can tell you are losing out on signal quality. By high quality I mean high quality, not price by the way.

-Adam

[Arlos]

Also, some people DO have hearing ranges that go above the norms. My mom's like that, and so am I, actually. It used to be a real problem for me with older monitors back in the 80s and early 90s, as a large percentage of them would put out an incredibly annoying high-pitched whine that would drive me nuts and give me a bad headache, but which no one else could hear. (so when I'd get one at work and ask for a different monitor, I'd have real problems convincing them to do it, cause I was the only one who could hear it.)

During a physics class my first time in college, one prof had a tone generator that could generate tones of specific KHz values, and had the class test themselves on what they could hear as he cranked up the frequency knob. Turned out my audible range was well into the mid-high 30k range. Might not be quite so high NOW, since I'm 15+ years older, and have abused the hell out of my ears with loud music, but still, yes, some people can hear in those ranges, and the better speakers do make a difference.

-Arlos

[Jay]

Ok I bought an HDMI cable from target. Tried it, screen blank. Got pissed. Returned it. Was playing around in the ps3 settings. Noticed you have to put it in HDMI mode (like duh). Went to get a Monster HDMI cable from radio shack (80 bucks wtf...). Gonna try it tonight. So far my component cables only go as high as 1080i (which means my TV might not support 1080p). Gonna see if I can notice a difference with the HDMI cables.

The next question is:

1080i vs. 1080p What's the difference? What does the i mean vs. the p. How noticeable is it? I got a friend offering me a handsome amount for my TV and I might just buy a 1080p TV if it's that huge of a difference.

[Tossica]

i is interlaced, p is progressive. Theoretically, P is better because every pixel is being "lit up" every cycle whereas interlaced signals light up even lines on one pass and then odd lines on the next pass causing a "flicker" type effect. It was a much bigger deal back in the day.

[Tikker]

1080i resolution is 1368x768

1080p is 1920x1080

99% of "HDTV" is 1080i, or 720p, very little stuff is 1080p

that being said, everything will move towards 1080p

if your tv is just 1080i and your friend wants to give you money for it, do it, and get a good 1080p set

[Jay]

I'm eyeing a new Samsung 40 inch set at Circuit City that supports 1080p. Difference of about 400 to be 1080p ready if I take his offering price. I'm not sure if HDMI is required to activate 1080p or if component will do it. Wiki says that 1080p can be done on component but both the EBGames and the circuit city guy says it requires the HDMI cable. I swear by the time I'm done with this I'll be a home theater expert.

Also, I've run into some really good sales people and now I'm considering a DVR, satellite, home theater setup with a receiver and all that shit. I'm gonna go bankrupt >< Sad part is I spend maybe 2-4 hours at home daily.