Basic question on HDMI connection

Norm Apter

Very new to the Home Theater world, here, and thus have a question....

I've just bought an AVR with a few HDMI ports. I also have HD ready television with one HDMI port. But I do NOT have HD cable service (long story short is that basic cable is included in my rent so I just have basic cable) and at the moment I have only a STANDARD DVD player.

I will be picking up a BLU-RAY player some time in the coming months (and I've already picked up an HDMI 1.3 cable in anticipation), but given my current set-up, here's my basic question: would there be any added benefit at present to using the HDMI cable to link my AVR to TV (there is no HDMI port on my current DVD player).

Here's the way things are set up at present:
cable box --> TV (standard basic cable)
cable box --> AVR (RCA cables for audio)
DVD ---> TV (Component Cables for video)
AVR < ---> DVD (coax cable)

My AVR (Denon 2808ci) has tons of possibilities for connecting to other sources/components, but the manual --which, I am working my way through -- is pretty confusing.

So, in sum, the basic question is whether, with only basic (non-HD) cable service and a standard DVD player, an HDMI cable would bring any benefit in either video or audio (over the connections I've listed above)?

Norm

carpenter

Norm Apter wrote: »

So, in sum, the basic question is whether, with only basic (non-HD) cable service and a standard DVD player, an HDMI cable would bring any benefit in either video or audio (over the connections I've listed above)?

Norm

Yes there would be a benefit, at least for the DVD, maybe even for the cable.
The reason is that you get less analogue/ digital signal conversions which improves quality.

with a component cable:
If you play a DVD your signal is digital (DVD media is digital) -> then it's converted to analogue (for the component cables) -> then the TV converts it back to digital (because your TV can only play digital).


If you use a HDMI cable:
The signal remains digital from the DVD to the TV, and the only manipulation is the image processing in the TV.

If your cable box is digital then the same goes for cable.

SEH

I think the main benefits would be slightly less cabling, ability to hear Dolby Digital on your cable channels (you could also get that with coax or optical from the cable box), and upconversion of the video run through the 2808, which may or may not be better than what your TV already does. And also simplified source switching, since you'd be using the same TV input, but that kind of depends on what you're using for a remote.

Other than getting digital audio from the cable box, I don't think you'd see or hear any quality differences. Component and HDMI look the same from my cable box, and you said the DVD player has no digital video, so that's what it is unless you like the 2808 video upconversion.

grif32

SEH wrote: »

I think the main benefits would be slightly less cabling, ability to hear Dolby Digital on your cable channels (you could also get that with coax or optical from the cable box), and upconversion of the video run through the 2808, which may or may not be better than what your TV already does. And also simplified source switching, since you'd be using the same TV input, but that kind of depends on what you're using for a remote.

Other than getting digital audio from the cable box, I don't think you'd see or hear any quality differences. Component and HDMI look the same from my cable box, and you said the DVD player has no digital video, so that's what it is unless you like the 2808 video upconversion.

Agree highly doubt you will see any noticeable difference with basic cable via component vs HDMI.. Even with the DVD player you probably wont see a difference in PQ...