DVI or Component - which is better

[ehr]

Hi,

I have a customer who bought a 42" TV which has no DVI input. He was very unhappy with the quality of the picture through SCART and then overrjoyed when he saw how good it is through component.

An engineer who advised him insisted to me afterwards that component is far better than DVI for HDTV. Is this correct?

Also, the screen is 1910 x 1100. Is there any to use this resoluton without DVI input?

Patrick (feeling particualry clueless today)

 

[gareth78]

DVI or HDMI are both superior to component as both these connections are true digital, component only offers a analogue signal.

 

[ehr]

So are 42" tellies with no DVI or HDMI input going to be worth having in a digital world? Feeling a bit worried I might have bought a set of lemons :-(

 

[neilmcl]

DVI or HDMI are both superior to component as both these connections are true digital, component only offers a analogue signal.

Not necessarily true. Try reading the following: http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/34579/122868.html

 

[neilmcl]

So are 42" tellies with no DVI or HDMI input going to be worth having in a digital world? Feeling a bit worried I might have bought a set of lemons :-(

The only reason you may feel at a loss is if you planned to watch HD TV in the future. Although HiDef can be displayed via component, if the content it is HDCP encoded then you'll need a DVI or HDMI connection.

 

[jimg]

So are 42" tellies with no DVI or HDMI input going to be worth having in a digital world? Feeling a bit worried I might have bought a set of lemons :-(

I am bit worried that you are a retailer and do not the answers!

 

[David Mackenzie]

All isn't lost. You can still buy 'black boxes' that convert DVI-HDCP to Analogue VGA, if your display has such an input. As far as I know, they are entirely legal for this very legitimate purpose.

Go to www.keene.co.uk and search product code DVIFIX.

 

[ehr]

Thanks all for both the info and the very useful links.

So in summary, a 42" TV with a 1920 x 1080 reslution screen but no DVI is a good investment for anyone except those who expect to need access to HDCP encoded content.

Not bad. thought I'd have to sell them as big monitors

 

[ehr]

I am bit worried that you are a retailer and do not the answers!

Me too ;-)

Seriously, I'm easily pleased. I've learnt not to assume that just because is good enough for me that its good enough to offer to the public.

 

[chowells]

All isn't lost. You can still buy 'black boxes' that convert DVI-HDCP to Analogue VGA, if your display has such an input. As far as I know, they are entirely legal for this very legitimate purpose.

You'd be in trouble in the US due to the DMCA but I suspect you'd be OK in europe. Does it have a legitimate HDCP licence? If so there's always the problem that the it could stop working if the licence was revoked.

 

[David Mackenzie]

I have no idea, but I'll be buying it soon. It'll be worth it even it's just to extend the life of my display for awhile longer. I'll need a VGA to Component transcoder AS WELL though

 

[rik1471]

Component will provide a very very close 2nd best image to DVI/HDMI - most people won't be able to notice any difference at all.

Remember XBox 360 HD will be component only, Sky+ HD will have component output, so all is not lost.