HDMI vs. Component Video

A very interesting article done by Tom's Guide has analyzed the strong and weak points of using HDMI or Component Cables for your HD set-ups. The fact is that once you take away all of the bias about digital vs. analog, according to the article, you're not getting that much of a difference.

It states that HDMI cables, while having the convenience of carrying both high-def video and audio in one easy cable, is much more prone to have signal quality degrade over time. The problem is that most of the cables out there do not go under a strict quality assurance check to keep the cost down.

Component cables, while being analog, also have slight problems since a video signal needs to be converted from digital to analog and back to digital, which could cause a decrease of signal quality. However, since it is running on cheap analog technology, these cables can last a long time and run at longer distances then HDMI, while offering nearly identical picture quality.

The conclusion the article offers is that while we may be tempted to go with the newer technology, HDMI, it is not an absolute necessity since component offers nearly identical video quality, and most of the time it is cheaper as well.