Component vs HDMI

[mcmanus1000]

I was just about to order a Samsung HD850, but the sales guy said that I would get a better picture through a different DVD player connected by component. He said that the problem with the HD850 is that it would upscale the image then my plasma (Panasonic PHD8) would upscale it again, causing a worse picture than through component. Is this true? (sorry, but I am obviously not an AV expert!)

 

[flangemonkey]

Not necessarily. Although he might be right - it's more a case of suck it and see, although I'd be inclined to agree with him.

It really depends what resolution you feed the plasma from the Samsung (and if this matches your panel's native resolution). This is the only time you'd be able to avoid two scaling routines...one at the player and another at the panel's end.

Personally, I wouldn't bother with any of these upscaling players. Find one with a solid component output (like the Pioneer DV575 or similar) and use that instead.

The scaler/deinterlacer in my Hitachi LCD is superb, and gives a brilliant picture from my Pio player...

It's all a big gimmick really IMO that manufacturers can flog to customers who've just bought LCDs whilst they're waiting for true native HD material to display on them...waste of time.

The amount of problems a lot of these upscaling players seem to have renders them virtually pointless IMO as long as the scaler in your screen is one of good quality...

 

[mcmanus1000]

THanks. So what is the point of having an HDMI port on my plasma then?

 

[flangemonkey]

Well, using a true HD source, then HDMI will in theory give a better picture than component, but it all depends on the source and the quality of the electronics in the ports of the device you're feeding to the screen.

For instance, some players that have both HDMI and component ports have been confirmed to have far superior component output to the HDMI since it is just cheaply and shoddily implemented on these players...

Think of HDMI as the future replacement to SCART. It can carry digital audio as well as HD video, plus it's entirely digital, so there's no digital-analogue conversion needing to take place that there is with a component connection...

When true HD-DVD/Blu-Ray or HDTV decoders arrive in the UK, then you should see the HDMI port come into its own.

 

[gingerone]

The quality of component compared to HDMI depends on how good your player is with either connection and how well your display device is with either connection as well.
In my experience HDMI on my Z3 is far better than the component but this is on my display and it may not be the case on your plasma.
Personally if you are looking to use HDMI I'd go for the oppo rather than the samsung as it is meant to be a much better player.

 

[Nic Rhodes]

It is not a SD vs HD thing. HD component can be as impressive as HD HDMI, just like SD component and SD HDMI. What is better is always down to how you engineer these things. My HD HDMI player shows similar issues to my SD HDMI players re which is better HDMI or component.