SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME OUT(DVI or Component)! I'M A NEWBIE!!!!!!!!

[msm718]

I just recently purchased a Hitachi 57inch monitor along with the Sony HD 200 receiver. I have both component and DVI connections or my TV and receiver. I want to know what will give me the best picture quality DVI or Component? Also, do I invest in Monster brand of cables or is there something better? I have heard great things about Acoustic Research and couple of others but Monster seems to be the name popping up the most. Please help me out guys; I want the best picture possible for my TV!

[Martyva]

DVI should be better, by far. It's capable of passing the uncompressed digital information directly to your TV. If you can find DVI cables, any should work IMHO.

[Bill D]

I agree unless you are doing a long run don't spend a lot of money on monster or any expensive consumer rip-off. My favorite is the $70 component cable when in fact a high quality RG-59 works fine for.

[BobMurdoch]

the DVI will give the best picture as it is a true digital connection without any analog artifacts. The new 921 receiver will have a DVI input if you thinking about going that route.

[HTguy]

In theory, DVI offers more bandwidth capabilty.

In practice, in feeding the output of your SAT HD200 to your Hitachi HDTV there will not be a noticable difference in the PQ.

The DVI connections are there to prevent recording HD content on an HD capable recording device should the content provider choose to disallow it.

[Cheyenne]

If possible, try both. Just because it is digital, means you may view more artifacts from the compression than expected. Going analog CAV may be best viewing due to D>A convertors in STB may be better than convertors internal to the Hitachi.
Really a subjective viewing preference. No need to invest in super expensive cables unless going over twenty feet or so. If going with discrete analog CAV cable solution, make sure all cables are same lenth.
Enjoy !!!

[Mike123abc]

To say DVI is the best connection is not always correct. It depends on a number of factors:

1. Is there scaling involved (i.e. 1080i to 720p or vice versa). If the receiver is doing the scaling and sending the output via DVI you are at the mercy of the scaler in the receiver. It may or may not be a good one.

2. The same could be said about the MPEG-2 decoder. What is its precision. If you are using a cheap 8 bit decoder you are stuck because again you cannot process the DVI.

The best connection could arguably be a box that outputs component, DVI and Firewire. You could then invest in a good outboard processor with Firewire and have it take the original MPEG-2 stream and scale it up/down as needed. If you did not want to make the investment then you could use DVI.

This will of course solve itself someday. One day there will be a super MPEG decoder chip that will do absolutely amazing jobs with scaling, color decoding, and artifact minimizing and cost almost nothing. We are not quite there yet.