What Type of Cables Should I Buy for my High-def TV? 

Your television’s back panel, full of inputs, outputs, letters, and colors, can be frustrating to newcomers in the world of home theater. That rainbow of different inputs and outputs is there for a reason, however, and it’s well worth learning what connections will make your home theater experience as immersive as possible.

A trinity of high-definition cables 

There are three major high-definition video connections available for home theater as of 2008: HDMI, DVI, and component. We’ll skip the technicalities and just get to which connections will give you the gorgeous video you’re looking for.

Component = Good 

Component video is the most common video connection. Component delivers the highest level of visual quality that current televisions allow, but it uses a compressed analog signal instead of a raw digital signal. Component video splits the video signal into three signals: green (represented by Y), blue (Pb), and red (Pr). If you have a DVD player, this is the connection you should be using. It gives a higher quality signal than the often-used composite (red, yellow, white) cables. Component will likely be replaced by HDMI in the future because it lacks the copy protection of HDMI as well as the ability to carry an audio signal. For now though, it’s the only choice for DVD players and DVRs such as TiVo.

DVI = Better 

DVI (or Digital Visual Interface) began in the computer realm. For home theater, DVI is going the way of the dinosaurs. It’s similar to HDMI in that it doesn’t compress the video signal, but it doesn’t carry audio at all. It’s also bulky compared to other options.

HDMI = Best 

HDMI (or High-Definition Multimedia Interface) is the newcomer in the world of home theater. It supports both audio and video at the highest available quality. It also tends to be pretty expensive; a 12 foot HDMI cable costs around $70 from Radioshack. HDMI doesn’t compress your video or audio signal; meaning it doesn’t take out bits and pieces of information. This increases the quality of your home theater experience. If you have HDMI, use it. On most TV types, HDMI looks a bit better than component video or DVI and the fact that it carries an audio signal as well as video makes setting up your home theater even easier.

The Digital Dictatorship 

HDMI, DVI, and component can all carry the highest quality video signal: 1080p. Just because they can, however, doesn’t mean that your TV’s manufacturer will allow them to. The reasons for this have to do with bandwidth and copy-protection. The most common offender is component video cables, which don’t have any copy-protection features integrated into the cable itself. If you own a 1080p TV, read the manual to see if there are any video cables that aren’t allowed to transmit 1080p signals. Otherwise you could end up spending hundreds of dollars on premium cables that don’t live up to their full potential.

Keep your money in your wallet 

Lastly, one piece of advice: it’s fun to buy the best, but when it comes to home theater cables, some people tend to go a tad overboard. If your TV accepts HDMI, use it, but you don’t need to buy the $200 cable from the “premium” brand. Very few people will ever notice the difference. Don’t go too cheap either though. It’s a shame when someone spends a small fortune on their new flat-screen TV, only to buy crummy cables that mess up the pristine signal they should be getting. Buy cables that are fairly average in price that seem to get good reviews from people who use them. Whether your TV is old or new, the crystal clear contrasts and vibrant colors will blow you away if you take the time to use the best cables available.