Best HDTV Reviews

HD TV Audio and Video Cables Give You the Full Picture (and an Earful, Too!)

January 30th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed

To Get the Best Video and Audio Quality Possible, You’ll Need HD TV Audio and Video Cables.

You have your brand new HDTV (high definition television) set, and figure you’re well on your way to watching television shows and movies in glorious high definition. What you don’t know is that there may be a problem that will prevent you from watching 720p or 1080i/p content, and will instead turn your brand new television into a nice heavy $1,500 paperweight. What many people don’t realize is that they also need HD TV audio and video cables to watch their favorite content at full resolution, because they’re using old cables which just don’t cut it any more.

From Your HD Box to Your TV

Just because you have a high-definition cable box or a DISH Network receiver, or a Blu-ray or HD-DVD player, doesn’t mean that you’re watching it in beautiful, vivid 1080p resolution. The signal your box receives, or that which is included in HD-DVD or Blu-ray discs, doesn’t necessarily get transferred to your television. First, you’ll need HD TV audio and video cables. Why? Simply put, older cables were quite ample for transferring video at the old standard of 420p. Higher resolutions need more bandwidth, and that’s where HD TV audio and video cables come in.

Standards to Decide Between

When it comes to HD TV audio and video cables, there are several options you can choose from. HDMI (high definition media interface) and component HDTV cables are both great choices, although the latter is slowly being phased out in favor of HDMI, so older televisions should still be fine with component cables. They both transmit 1080p content, but the way they do it is slightly different. HDMI cables transmit the data all in one stream, while component cables split the picture into three streams: red, green, and blue pictures which help split the bandwidth requirements up. Together, those three RGB pictures are pieced back together by the television to form the picture you actually see.

However, HD TV audio and video cables aren’t limited to video alone. To get crystalline sound for you audiophiles out there, you’ll need to get high definition audio cables as well. Most cables can deliver great sound in two channels (most commonly left and right, although surround sound will also likely include one cable for the center channel and the subwoofer), and these are often delivered over analog cables although digital cables are becoming more popular. Both will deliver great sound, but you’ll need several of them for a surround sound system.

With all these cables running behind your HDTV set and over to your stereo system, you’ll want to organize them. Use twist-ties to group the like ones together, which will keep the area behind your HDTV and other electronics cleaner. This will also help whenever you move components, since you won’t be left with a big mess to sort through.

You can browse and purchase HD TV audio and video cables and thousands of other HDTV products at eBay and Amazon.com.