how much diff does it make? (1 Viewer)

[sam_sark]

i just noticed yesterday the sound difference when i have an optical cable attached and when i do not have one..it was really a lot....just had me wondering..at present i have analog video output to my receiver and the same from receiver to my normal tv.....how good a picture will i get if for instance i replace it with a s-video or component connection ? is it worth it ? also is s-video the same as s-vhs ?

 

[chris_everett]

IMHO,
S-video is a solid improvment over composite, and well worth it. Component is a solid step above that, and if your TV and DVD player both have component I/O, I would use it. s-video and s-vhs are different, although most s-vhs decks do have s-video out and regular VHS decks usually don't.
Keep in mind that most recievers will not upconvert from one format to the other, i.e. you can't plug your VCR in with composite, your DVD with s-video, and the attach your TV with just the component.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

Do you mean optical as opposed to a digital coax connection? They pass the same material, and should sound identical. Those who claim to be able to hear a difference between the two will choose the coax, although.

Or do you mean optical as opposed to a stereo pair of RCA cables? Then the difference SHOULD be huge, and you had your DVD player and reciever connected incorrectly. A digital connection is NECESSARY to get Dolby Digital and DTS, unless you have on-board decoders on your DVD player (which most do not)and are using a full 6-cable set to connect to your reciever's 5.1 Pre-ins. Some from a while back did, but nowadays almost all DVD players do not have on-board decoding (other than for 2-channel). If you were connected via stereo pairs, then you can only get pro-logic type sound, which is quite inferior.

Or do you mean optical as opposed to nothing? Obviously with nothing, you get no sound.

As for your video connection, the improvement can vary, although it most likely is worth it. If you have an HDTV and a progressive-scan DVD player, component outputs are NECESSARy to take advantage of progressive scan. And you have to enable progressive on the player usually. Also, IMO, the difference in video cables is worthless unless you've calibrated your video with Avia or VE.

More information would help us help you more.

 

[Michael Reuben]

i just noticed yesterday the sound difference when i have an optical cable attached and when i do not have one..it was really a lot....

If your receiver has 5.1 decoding, I'm not surprised.

M.

 

[hitendra]

Go for component - they are the best, provided, of course, your DVD player and TV support it.

Also, if you have only one video source, best to connect it directly to your TV - no need to put it thru your receiver.

 

[John Garcia]

Do you mean optical as opposed to a digital coax connection? They pass the same material, and should sound identical.

If it were that simple, a coat hangar would do the trick. The reality is, there is a difference, not just between types of connections, but even the quality of the cables and wires.

On my system, there is a noticeable difference between coax and optical, and I prefer the sound of coax. I ran a back to back comparison with my SACD player recently while comparing my new receiver's DACs to the SACD's DACs. My SACDP has both coax and optical, and there is more detail via coax, though I am using a higher quality coax cable compared to the basic optical. It seemed like there was a little more bass with optical, but that could just be because the midrange was less prominent.

As far as video, I agree with what has already been said.

 

[HienD]

There isn't gonna be a noticeable difference between component and s-video connection on a average tv. There little difference between my AR pro-series ps2 component cable and a cheapo s-video cable. I also have my dvd player connected with both component and s-video and don't notice a big difference. Better video signal isn't always gonna yield better picture if your tv is the weak link. I have a 24" toshiba flatscreen TV BTW.

 

[John Garcia]

Also, IMO, the difference in video cables is worthless unless you've calibrated your video with Avia or VE.

If you don't recalibrate when switching between cables, you will see bascially NO DIFFERENCE.

Below 27" the difference is not usually that significant. The larger the display, the more noticable the difference typically is.

 

[Cees Alons]

I also have my dvd player connected with both component and s-video and don't notice a big difference.

There wouldn't be. The video data is stored as S-Video on the DVD, so the only difference is the quality of the "decoders": the one inside your DVD player (if it has one) or in your monitor/projector. S-Video actually is component, just represented a bit differently to offer backward compatibility with old-fashioned B/W monitors.

The difference between coax and optical for the sound can only be minimal, because it's digital bits that are transferred, not any analogue signal. And bits are either right or wrong - but they carry error-correction/detection data. You cannot standardly lose "some part" of the data (you can, of course, but it would constitute a communication error). Put it another way: assume you had both connections in operation and a circuit on the receiving end compared the two byte-streams: it would find no differences if the connections were correct.

Same for the "quality" of the cables involved: either they are poor (and many transport errors may occur), or they are "good enough" (meaning: no errors).

Cees