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I just had to connect my blue Ray SAMSUNG bd-p1600 to my SAMSUNG 46" 720p tv using component cables (old MONSTER CV1000)to make room for a xbox and WOW! To my surprise, The picture is so much better than when connecting with HDMI! Better contrast, more natural colors. The HDMI cable I was using is the most expensive from uniqueproductsonline.com.
HDMI is supposedly better than component, so what is going on?
...store the user settings separately by input.
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Tin-eared audiofool and terrible competitive-pistol shootist.
http://community.webshots.com/user/jeffreybehr
Unless a calibration disc is used and the HDMI and component inputs are properly calibrated, the comparison, as it is now, is not being done properly. Another thing to consider is if there are controls on the player to change the look of the analog output. This will skew perception as well. However, I suspect that once the above is done (a proper calibration), the outcome will be different re: HDMI vs component.
As for HDMI cables, expensive doesn't necessarily equal performance. All one has to do is compare the cables at monoprice.com to any others to see that, at least for HDMI cables, $7 for a 6' cable, if it's from monoprice.com , will do the trick.
I recently posted a reply someplace on Audioasylum that I also have used the Monoprice HDMI cables and thought they were fine. Until I tried the Wireworld Starlight 5.2 HDMI cable - BIG IMPROVEMENT. Colors were richer, detail noticeably improved, holographic depth of the picture was much better. Even the sound got louder by some 20% or so and was improved also. I used the WW on the cable box and Blu-ray player to the TV.
While the Monoprice is well made, the critical area for an HDMI cable is the termination and the Wireworld is miles ahead - massive solid plug.
Of course, one would hope there would be an improvement given the difference in price: Wireworld lists for $250 for 2m but is available now for $95-99 because the new models came out.
My friend also bought the WW and noticed a nice improvement, though not as much as I did with my system and TV.
It is impossible for an HDMI cable alone to do this.
Something else was changed/adjusted/fixed and you're attributing your awakening to the cable.
The picture was significantly better and that's the main point.
There was a problem with your original cable. Digital is digital.
Better cable design, higher quality components and careful attention to specs/details will result in one HDMI cable bettering a lesser HDMI cable in many areas. And that's what digital is digital advocates most often fail to take into account. Changing the volume and curing cancer, however, will never be an end result.
I have no data, but I would bet that reliable differences could not be found between two properly functioning HDMI cables of relatively short length (say, 6 feet, just to pick a number), regardless of how much each one costs. But if we're talking out a much longer cable, then it would be much more likely for there to be interference, dropouts, digital noise on an inferior cable.
There is likely some "magical" length (3ft, 4ft, 6ft?) that no difference could be detected if one would test the majority of cables out there.
The Monoprice $8 cable and the Wireworld were both the same length of 6 feet. Sorry, length is not a factor here. The Wireworld was very much superior using both the cable box and Blu-ray player.
It would be nice to think that: (1) there is no difference between cables, (2) there is especially no difference between digital cables, (3) there is great value to be found in the giant killer Monoprice so that one doesn't have to spend more, or (4) the difference is attributable to some other factor so that, all things being equal, the Monoprice is in fact equal to the Wireworld.
My opinion: (1)WRONG (2)WRONG (3)WRONG AND (4)WRONG
Question: Why should there be less of a difference with an HDMI (digital) cable than with any other digital cable, where, it is widely accepted, there are signficant differences? (It ain't just a case of 0's and 1's always being identical no matter what).
I have found there to just as much diffences between digital cables (non HDMI interconnects and HDMI) as between analog cables.
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