roboo7

which one is better? are they both only video? or does component have sound too? and what are the other standards that i should know about>?

thnx in advance

ufcrusher

THey are both only video. Component video is a better picture quality as it breaks down the signal into its red blue and green streams and provides less picture bleed. You should use Component video if you have the capability. However, we have set up the same tv with s and component video, and the picture was better with compaonent but when we did the same test on a different tv it wasnt as noticable. Thus, it depends on what kind of tv you have. If you have a HD capable tv or a higher lever, its worth it. If you have a cheaper tv it probably isnt. But remember the cables have lifetime warranties (if you go with monster) and you can always reuse them. It also depends on what source you are using, cheaper ones can bleed the signal too. Hope that helped

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roboo7

so that means either way i go i have to plug my dvd to my tv using rca right? my dvd player also has bitstream/pcm audio out. im not really sure what this is. as for the component cables being bad, is there anyway of telling? because i dont really have the money nor do i really want to spend that kind of cash on monstercables. i searched around the forums and found a site that has them for pretty cheap.

http://www.national-tech.com/catalog/componentvideo.htm

if anyone has these, please care to comment on them or on the reseller. i will most likely buy from them.
thnx

M_A_C

Here's a link to a thread someone posted with really cheap optical cables. I remember paying like 40 bucks for mine at BestBuy...

http://www.gotapex.com/forums/showth...threadid=25596 (Cheap Optical Cables - 3' $12.22 / 6' $13.33 / 9' $14.44 FREE Shipping)

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ufcrusher

Ever wonder why some things are so cheap? I wouldnt go around putting cheap cables on my equipment unless you are 100% sure of their make up. The cables may be expensive but they last forever, so why gamble.

Darkfury - when you are dealing with cables that long there is so much impedance in the line that you are not going to see a very noticeable difference. Like I said before, it depends on your equipment as to what you see.

Roboo7 - you go from the pcm/bitstream to your receiver to get your DD/DTS sound. The only reason you would be using an RCA would be if you dont have a receiver.

roboo7

another thing. for speaker cables, is it better if you have more gauges? i mean is 14 gauge better than 12? is there a significant difference in performance?

ufcrusher

The guage is the width of the wire itself with the smaller the number corresponding to a thicker wire. Depending on what you are trying to do, the distance you are running, the quality of your speakers, etc. Basically, this deals with impedance again and the guage of the wire should be increased (as in going from a 16 to a 12) with the distance.

The rule of thumb in the industry is that you never want to use any wire that is smaller than a 16 guage. If you are running 25 feet or less you can get away with a 16 guage. If you are running up to approximately 50 feet you can go with a 14 or 12 guage (usually its a 12 since 14 is hard to find unless you are going with in wall wire). After that you are going to 8 guage or even larger. Truthfully, the cost of running the wire would be so high that you could buy another stereo to set up closer to the speakers.

That deals with solely the distance and the resulting impedance in the wire. Then you get into other factors such as your speakers. THe larger the speaker, the more power you want to feed them, thus you want to use a thicker wire. I always told people to think of filling a swimming pool, would you rather use a garden hose or a firemans hose. Certain high end speakers are even bi-wired which separates the high, mids, and low signals for better clarity.

When looking at wire you need to see if it is timewound, how pure the material is, whether it is shielded, the guage, what you are powering, the type of receiver, speakers, etc. Once you have an idea of what you are trying to do, you can figure out your wires. For example my main speakers are run on 8 guage wire with bananas, but they are only 10 feet away from my reciver. I have my rears and secondary mains on 16 and 14 guage respectively,but they are about 30 feet of wire away. I have set up for customers outdoor speakers with 100 plus feet of wire and used a 14 guage which seemed to work fine. Not what I recommended, but they were happy with the sound and ok with straining their receiver.

Hope that helps