Quote:
brucek wrote:
 So component provides a better picture? Is cable length a factor when comparing the two?
brucek |
Component video provides a picture essentially equivalent to HDMI. It is slightly softer, but that can be a good thing on a 720p projector which may be prone to SDE. Your Panny has the "soft screen" feature which optically fuzzies-up the SDE, so you wouldn't see any difference between component and HDMI.
Cable length is a really big issue, however. Professional installer routinely run component video >100 feet using RG-6. HDMI becomes chancy beyond 30 feet, and very chancy beyond 60 feet. The problem is that the slight clock skews between the three channels build up on the longer cable runs, and HDMI will abruptly show "sparkles", which signals the breakdown of the digital differential timimg. Component just gets softer as longer runs lower bandwidth. I don't know what the max length for component is, but it is a long way.
In my own installation, I had a 35 foot 28 gauge DVI cable between my Oppo 971 and Infocus SP5000 pj. It worked. When I replaced the Oppo with a Toshiba HD-A2, I got sparkles. I had to replace that cable with a 24 gauge version. The 24 gauge HDMI cable wants to fall out of the back of the equipment rack because all of the twisted pairs are as thick as your thumb, and the cable is too stiff. Going into the wall to the PJ, I am still using DVI connectors because they can be screwed down. I would not use HDMI if it weren't forced on us by the content providers. No current DVD player upscales over component, and some day no high definition player will provide HD over component either. So we are stuck with HDMI, but I don't care for it, and I use component whenever I can.