A/V tech questions and awnsers

[DrKnow65]

Het guy's, sorry for going AWOL for a bit but I"m committing some time each week to get in here and post (have been reading once in a while), thought it might be fun to field some tech questions as searching for awnsers is a good way to learn.

-for those who don't know I've just recently left a carrer as an automotive mechanic to enter the loew voltage A/V & Integration field-

[JThiessen]

I'll start you off with an easy one - do I spend 80 bucks on a Monster Brand HDMI cable, or 7 bucks on one from Monoprice?

[Arct1k]

Depends on your system - I heard a rule of thumb was 10% of your system cost on cabling..

[DrKnow65]

Wanna pay postage on a free one? I just threw one in my bag for a spare today :)

Monster is overrated (like Bose), ALL HDMI cables have to meet a minimum standard and the only real difference is the quality of the connectors (how often you can bend/straighten plug/unplug them befor they wear). If you are building a stationary fairly permanent system the cheaper cord will do.

There are different versions of HDMI cables (the full sized ones for TV/DVD type connectons and now a new one for smaller stuff like camcorders, v1.2, v1.2a, v1.3
The one I have is v1.3, the bigger one, and about 4ft long.

Spend money on good RCA connectors and quad shielded coax for your audio (assuming you are using more than the TV) and make sure all the components share a common ground. Some of the bigger houses have the low voltage room sooo far from the periferals that we have to use ground isolators because the ground for one part of the house is different from the other parts.

Other than that adjusting the setting on your display seems to be a biggie, the factory settings are hard on the display and your eyes :)

[JThiessen]

I already knew the answer.....just wanted to throw one of those gray ones at him!!! I've been running Monoprice cables for two years and nary an issue.

[DrKnow65]

:) The guys at work do that to me too :)


I love RCMonster forums, you guys make me feel right at home.

Going to take my smile with me to bed now, thanks JThiessen

[brijar]

How should you adjust the settings on the display? Any tips? We've got a Vizio 1080p. I've never really messed with the settings.

Thanx,
Brijar!!!

[Gee]

Here's one...

I got an LG VHS/DVD Recorder. I had a VHS Lockup during a rewind and something in it burnt up and now no power to it. You can smell a faint electrical burnt smell. The fuse is good. But on to the question is the DVD recording unit it a standard DVD Recorder that would work in a PC. It looks just like an internal DVD Recorder you would install in a PC. I haven't taken the time to try it in a pc yet but it is one that will record/read all kinds of the dvd formats +/- Ram etc.

in reponse to the HDMI cable question....with a digital signal you either get it or you dont and having a fatter cable and 24k gold connectors wont improve the signal unlike an analog signal.Unless yo have a true 1080p source you wont be able to tell the difference between component cables and an HDMI, such as HD reception you get from satellite it is broadcast @ 1080i. right now your only option for 1080p is a Blueray disc and from what I have heard 1080p will be skipped over as the next step in broadcasting to 1440i

[JThiessen]

Originally Posted by azjc

in reponse to the HDMI cable question....with a digital signal you either get it or you dont and having a fatter cable and 24k gold connectors wont improve the signal unlike an analog signal.Unless yo have a true 1080p source you wont be able to tell the difference between component cables and an HDMI, such as HD reception you get from satellite it is broadcast @ 1080i. right now your only option for 1080p is a Blueray disc and from what I have heard 1080p will be skipped over as the next step in broadcasting to 1440i

You are correct regarding the video. Howver, there is a difference in audio codec processing. Most higher end systems will only pass uncompressed PCM over HDMI now, thus it is your only option for high end audio.

I've referenced this site before, http://www.avsforum.com, but it is fairly equivelent to this site in the knowledge level. There are some folks who have waaay too much money and time on their hands.

Originally Posted by JThiessen

You are correct regarding the video. Howver, there is a difference in audio codec processing. Most higher end systems will only pass uncompressed PCM over HDMI now, thus it is your only option for high end audio.

I've referenced this site before, http://www.avsforum.com, but it is fairly equivelent to this site in the knowledge level. There are some folks who have waaay too much money and time on their hands.

the audio with HD programming gets very irratating to me< I dont know if its related to the uncompressed PCM but it seems to be all over the board as far as what channel you mat be watching

[DrKnow65]

brijar,

The setting killing the TV's is the back lighting. You want it set to no more than 2/3 the maximum. Brightness is actually how dark the black is during dark scenes (setting goes with how dark the room is while viewing), hue is almost never moved from default, sharpness you run at the maximum untill you start to see grains (especially around curved objects), "picture" is always better when you use "custom" and set yor own preferences.

For some reason it seems that the 1080i TV's have the setting names confused, just my opinion. Best advise is just to bump down the backlighting and play with everything else except the hue. Also I've seen a few very expensive 1080i TV's that were still at the default 780p ;)

If you can tell me the model I can see if the guys have a generic ~best~ setting for them.

Gee, kind of a hard one, no idea. But I would guess that even if it would plug into a component slot and turn on you'd most likley not get the correct software to make it run?

Cables...
Digital data has a thing called the "cliff effect" basically the processor can deal with a very low signal strength until it can no longer follow the data stream, then it drops off (i.e. cliff). So it either has the info or not. There is bandwidth issues where data packets have to be sent over and over to get complete strings, but with streaming video there is no time to wait for data so you get pauses or jumps in the picture... have yet to see a bad cable make that happen.

[DrKnow65]

azjc,

It seems to me that digital takes a finer tuning to realy sound pleasing? I can see where different channels or movies would not sound as good since the fine adjustments were made to a different exact source. Some of the programmers have be playing with the idea of getting settings established for "favorite" HD channels but the interface time delays the channel shift for so long it's not user friendly when surfing... but that realy is above my pay grade :) I'd just love to have 1/10th the system some of these people build.

[brijar]

Thanks for the reply. The Vizio is a GV42L FHDTV. (Just curious, but does the FHDTV stand for "Friggen High Definition Television" ?)

Also, don't know if any of you know much on this, but I've heard it's possible to use your universal programmable remote to control your Xbox 360. If there is a way to do this, that would make life a lot easier for my parents, as they're not very good with the Xbox remote .

Thanx for the help,
Brijar!!!

[DrKnow65]

Full High Definithion TeleVision, it's 1080p which is a step below 1080i (the "p" means progressive, in simple terms it changes portions of the picture each time it refreshes depending on what elements of the screen are different than the last frame. The "i" means interlaced, that means it replaces every other line -even/odd- each time it refreshes) the 1080i's are capable of a higher refresh rate since there is less processing, and during action scenes that are rapidly changing it appears smoother since half of the last frame is still there...

Why call it "full" hdtv, I have no idea.

I will ask the guys at work about the 360, we install alot of them for customers. The universal remotes usually use a IR (infra red) system and I think the 360 remote is RF (radio frequency). The RTI remotes we use have both IR and RF so I'm sure it would do the 360. I'm not sure if it would have the desired responce time though as each button press on the RTI has to go through the program to know what signal to send. Interesting idea though. Suppose it would work good (assuming the RF, IR thing) for watching movies or listening to music, just mabey not for gaming.