Comments | chef_manny: Tech Question

chef_manny

Tech Question

Dec 01, 2008 15:41

I have a question for all my tech savy friends. Crystal and I were fortunate enough to purchase a brand new 37" 1080i HDTV. My question to all of you is, do I really need all those fancy cables that are out there, or can I do just fine with my standard cables? And if I do need them, is this a good deal?

i love technology

Comments 5

sidbyrd December 1 2008, 22:53:23 UTC

If you use a single round-plug cable (often but not always yellow; this is called a composite connection, and the round plug is called an RCA plug) for the video, you won't get HD, and you won't even get the best SD (standard def) picture. The best SD comes from three RCA-plug cables (red, green, and blue; called a component connection). You might not have noticed the difference on your old TV, but on the new nicer one, there should be a noticeable jump going from composite to component for SD. This is the best connection for you Wii, for example, because the Wii doesn't make an HD signal. (The Wii, unfortunately, requires a special Wii-only component cable because Nintendo wants all your money ( ... )

scottdp December 1 2008, 23:21:26 UTC

Sid, as usual, has good info.

To be a bit more explicit about something Sid mentions, what are you using for audio? Built-in TV speakers? Separate stereo? If the latter, please describe it: number of speakers, what kind of inputs it has in the back, etc.

chef_manny December 2 2008, 03:14:52 UTC

Well, I had not considered the audio. Ok, here is really the equipment I want to hook up to our new tv. We have a standard DVD home theater system with surround sound which is being connected to the old tv using the three RCA cables (red, white, yellow). We have the digital cable box using the standard cable. And then there is the wii. So I have to get the nintendo official wii cables. OK. What about the others? More than anything I am interested in the cable box. I don't want to pay that much money just to not take advantage of the Hi Def.

sidbyrd December 2 2008, 04:04:40 UTC

It sounds like the surround speakers are plugged directly into the DVD player because it's a combo system with the surround receiver built in. If that's right, then any other device that has a surround sound output will have to plug into the DVD/surround receiver box, too (and using S/PDIF or HDMI as described above, not the red and white cables ( ... )

scottdp December 2 2008, 04:45:37 UTC

Your best bet, Manny, for actually interpreting what this acronym soup means might be to post a picture of the back of your receiver, where all the cables plug in. That way there won't need to be speculation, it should be possible to simply say what's necessary. Barring that, a brand and model number may suffice. It's hard to say what kind of options you'll have with that kind of combo system, what with the wide range of possible feature sets, so narrowing it down would be very helpful.