DVI HDMI & Component

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Lord_Exodia

Supreme [H]ardness
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What are the bennefits that either that either of these technologies have over eachother and what are the bennefits of using HDMI over DVI for HDTV out support on Graphic cards. Isn't DVI just as good for running HDTV out?

I was told once that Component < DVI < HDMI is this true? and Why?
 
HDMI and DVI are the same with the exception of HDMI carries an audio stream along with the video stream (this doesn't apply to PCs yet). They're a digital interface which means that they're best for mantaining image quality.

Component is an analog interface like svideo but much higher quality (svideo is only 720x480 interlaced).

Think of them as comparing VGA to DVI.
 
The best thing about component interfaces is that they always work. With HDMI, you're sometimes taking a chance on a compatibility issue between source and destination.
 
masher said:
The best thing about component interfaces is that they always work. With HDMI, you're sometimes taking a chance on a compatibility issue between source and destination.
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How so? If you mean HDCP, so far that isn't an issue on the PC side.
 
CrimandEvil said:
How so? If you mean HDCP, so far that isn't an issue on the PC side.
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Usually HDCP is the culprit, though apparently there are other causes as well. And it may not be an issue on the PC side, but it certainly is on the display the PC plugs into.
 
No, what I mean is that the PC doesn't send a signal asking for the HDCP handshake so the TV doesn't need to do anything concerning HDCP. Like I said it's a non issue right now.

There are some problems with ATI's drivers, they're still be bit flaky on the whole HDTV out over DVI thing.

Other issues are if your TV uses rectangular pixels and (hence) a non standard resolution, so far with NVs cards you can fudge it alittle and get it near 1:1 Pixel mapping (ATI's drivers aren't flexible enough for this yet).
 
Without that handshake, though, some HDMI sets will already not accept the signal. Even with handshaking, there are numerous reports of certain displays not being able to talk to certain playback devices...or even causing firmware "crashes", requiring the player to be power-cycled. I don't know if its affecting PC playback...but I suspect it does in some cases.
 
Thats odd cause the TV isn't the one suppose to be asking for the hand shake, it's up to the device to request it since it has to make sure that anything it is connected to is a "trusted source."

The TV shouldn't be making the HDCP request, maybe some manufactures have gotten overal zealous about copy protection?

So far I haven't heard a word about this on the PC side, I think it just might be a CE deivce problem (that is until Vista ships).
 
both component and DVI looked awesome on my TV.

I had a DVI->HDMI cable so I can't do a direct comparison between that and a straight HDMI one, but, I probably wouldn't be able to notice.
 
werrrd said:
I had a DVI->HDMI cable so I can't do a direct comparison between that and a straight HDMI one, but, I probably wouldn't be able to notice.
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As I said they're the same thing, HDMI just bundles audio with it.
 
I have yet to see a visual difference between a high quality component feed, HDMI, and DVI. I work in the custom AV industry, and seriously... Component is damn good. One of the major reasons that DVI/HDMI is perceived to be "better" is because people in the industry say it is..... but the real motivation for promoting DVI/HDMI is because of HDCP. Copy protection is also the reason that DVI had about a 6 month life span... it couldn't provide the level of copy protection desired by the movie industry. HDMI is also, as stated above, a pain in the ass. There are major glitches in the system (the intracacies I'm not sure of) that do inadvertantly not allow some components to work with each other.

Depends on what you're hooking up I guess, but it's tough to beat good ole' component.

Just my $.02.
 
I have yet to see a visual difference between a high quality component feed, HDMI, and DVI. I work in the custom AV industry, and seriously... Component is damn good.
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It is...and if you have an analog source signal, component can in some cases actually be better than HDMI/DVI.

But in the (now common) case of digital source feeding a digital set, using component video forces the signal to be convertd to analog, then reconverted back to digital. So it does reduce signal integrity slightly.
 
I have found Component out to be much more reliable in the PC to HDTV scenario.

Also, one of the things that boggles me about HDMI and it true usage is that most setups have seperate audio and video now days so there is hardly any current "true" usage for it that DVI would have not have handled fine. That all said, HDMI plugs and cabling is much more user friendly than most DVI stuff that I have worked with. I have a Tosh DVD player that ($149) that has HDMI out and upsamples to 1080i and it also had optic audio out and I have to say that is pretty darn cool for watching DVDs. My HD Tivo also uses HDMI and optic audio and again, the setup process is so much easier than it was years ago. Two plugs and you are done. Anyway, I am rambling...HDMI will turn out to be very usefull when HDTV is the standard and devices can take advantage of both the video and audio being in one very easy to use cable.
 
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