To get the most from your A/V equipment it is a good idea to have the right amount of cabling and the right lengths.
When cables are included with your components, they're almost always low-quality. Low-quality cables or in the box cables can rob you of the performance you paid for when you bought your system
Many A/V components don't include all the cables you need; some may include a cable with a length that isn't right for your setup.
Good quality, well-sheilded cable is the best option, however you can get by with the cheaper, lower quality versions. Good RCA connectors provide constant, high-pressure contact with your component's jacks, and are usually gold-plated to prevent corrosion. This results in high-quality signal transfer that won't cut out intermittently or degrade over time.
Digital audio cables
In order for you recieve the surround sound experience you need to connect from a source (DVD player) to a reciever (Reciever amplifier) via a digital audio connection.
There are two types: optical and coaxial.
1. Optical Cables transmit digital audio signals as pulses of light. Optical cables use Toslink connectors.
2. Coaxial Cables use electrical impulses to transmit audio signals and use RCA connectors. If you are using Coaxial cables (usually for long runs or because there are not enough optical inputs), it's important to avoid using a standard audio cable to transfer a coaxial digital signal. They may look similar, but Coaxial cable is engineered specifically to pass a digital signal and provides 75-ohm impedance which is a wider frequency bandwidth, ensuring superior signal transfer.
Common video cable conections
Video signals can travel over many different types of cabling, but the majority of video components are equipped with at least one of the following four types of jacks (listed in order from lowest-quality signal transfer to highest) and are analog:
Coaxial RF, also known as F-type not to be confused with coaxial digital audio cable is used for connecting antennas, cable boxes, VCRs, TVs and more.
Composite video, also known as RCA plug into the composite video jacks found on many kinds of A/V components, including DVD players, VCRs, receivers. These jacks are marked in yellow, and grouped with corresponding red and white stereo audio jacks. Composite video cables use standard RCA-type connectors.
S-video have round, 4-pin connectors, and transmit the chrominance (colour) and luminance (brightness) portions of a video signal along different paths. As a result, they provide better colour accuracy and detail than either RF or composite connections.
Component video is capable of passing high-definition and progressive-scan video signals and are found on most DVD players, HDTV tuners, A/V receivers and on most new TV's. By splitting the video signal into three parts, component can deliver better colour accuracy than the previous mentioned connections by transmitting each part via its own cable. Component also uses the RCA type connector.
Digital video cable
The two main digital video connections/cables are DVI cables and HDMI cables.
DVI (Digital Visual Interface) and HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface). These cables allow the video signal to remain in digital form all the way to the screen, avoiding the slight picture degradation that can happen with translating the signal from digital to analog, and back.
DVI and HDMI cables can carry standard-definition and high-definition digital video signals.
HDMI can carry both digital video and 2 to 8 discrete channels of digital audio. Capable of outputting 1080p
Important for pay TV viewers
Australian pay TV Decoders use SCART ( this type of connector is popular in the UK and Europe) to composite connections. If you want the best out of your Pay TV cable or satelite connection and you have a plasma or LCD TV then it is worth your while to purchase a SCART to Component cable or SCART to S-video. Please note that not all pay TV decoder boxes are compatable with Component output so it is wise to ask for the box that is compatable before getting pay tv installed in your home.
Save yourself the trouble and a service call fee to re-connect and trouble shoot your system.
If you are planning to have your NEW TV installed it is strongly recommeded to wait till after your pay TV eg: satelite or cable TV has been installed especially if you have a lot of equipment!
Has the cable guy already been around?
Something changed and now you cant use some other part of your TV setup ?
Give MAXTV a call, we can fix it.
Call Carlos
These days you will find a lot of components with DVI or HDMI terminals; a few high-end components have both.
