Question on Home Entertainment systems

[Slick Fork]

So Santa was good this year and brought us our first new television in 10 years and wow is the picture ever fantastic. We got the Bravia WL 40" series (1080p, 120hz) so now i'm trying to figure out the best way to hook everything up.

The only peripherals we have is a Nintendo Wii, a 2 year old DVD player with S-video and the fancy component input and a satellite TV box with S-video/coaxial/or basic red white yellow component input. The TV has only one s-video port so I was hoping to put the dvd player on the fancy component input and the cable box to S-Video but I went out looking for the component input cords and they were like $50. Not really wanting to pay $50 for cables when odds are I will buy a blu-ray in the next year so I have maybe a goofy question, could I use the basic component cable (red yellow white) to connect the 3 ports in the higher end component (Y,PR,PB) or is it a completely different cable???

Also, a quick question on Blu-Ray, I looked at a few on boxing day sales and noticed that while you can pick up a Blu-Ray player for anywhere from $199, I saw HDMI cables for $150??? I thought, are you kidding me... they expect you to pay as much for the cable as the machine itself? I also noticed different rated HDMI 750, 850, 1000, etc. Is there a real difference?

And for those of you who already have Blu-Ray, do you feel it was worth the jump yet or should a guy wait a while?

Thanks

[xtreme]

Try Home Depot, you should be able to get component video cables for less than $50. The red, white and yellow will not work as the yellow is video and the red and white are audio. Component uses three different video signals and you still need to connect audio somehow on top of that. As for HDMI/DVI cables don't buy the $150 monster cables, you get the exact same quality with a much cheaper cable that you could pick up online or somewhere like memory express for probably around 15 bucks.

[Powertec]

For question number one...No you can't they are totally different cables.

For the blue ray with the hdmi i have one rocket something for my satellite that we paid like 100.00 for and then we got a blu ray for xmas and just bought a 30.00 one from best buy and i see no difference..

You can get resonable priced s video cables from Walmart. I have them on my daughters t.v and she still has pretty darn good picture.

Just my thoughts on it though

[mark]

You can use the r/w/y cables for component video, maybe not 100% ideal but will work. Cheap place for good cables is Princess Auto. What's also works is just get a roll of RG59 and RCA plugs (there's solder and twist type) and make your own.

HDMI 6' cables are less than $30 at places like Costco, Memory Express etc.

I've just got a cheap Sharp Blu-ray player and works well with my new Plasma. What's also nice is the regular DVDs player better as well.

[Trigger Man]

U can go to costco and the cables are way cheaper.

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by mark

You can use the r/w/y cables for component video, maybe not 100% ideal but will work. Cheap place for good cables is Princess Auto. What's also works is just get a roll of RG59 and RCA plugs (there's solder and twist type) and make your own.

HDMI 6' cables are less than $30 at places like Costco, Memory Express etc.

I've just got a cheap Sharp Blu-ray player and works well with my new Plasma. What's also nice is the regular DVDs player better as well.

Ok...maybe I am wrong then

I did notice a huge difference though between the cheaper one and the expensive one. Maybe it depends on the TV?

[atcguy]

why would you spend so much on a new tv then cheap out on the component thats going to get the signal to the TV.. While you may not notice the biggest difference from a med priced cable to the super expensive ones.... you need to buy good cables..... makes me laugh when you hear people spending 3000 on a tv at best buy etc.. and then you here them say give me the cheapest cables...... spend the money.... and you are a reefer... we know you like to spend money

[midgetwaiter]

Originally Posted by GreenSpottedPuffer

Ok...maybe I am wrong then

I did notice a huge difference though between the cheaper one and the expensive one. Maybe it depends on the TV?

It does. If you have a really nice TV that is doing 1080p at 120hz then it makes sense to get a decent cable. These are serious high end units though.

For most people running 1080p at 60hz you won't see much difference in cables 2m or shorter.

Check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDw2ZSDzlMw

[dsaundry]

Check ebay as well..some good deals on high quality stuff..dont skimp on quality....you will enjoy the system much better that way

[mark]

Marketplace $12 to $200+ cable the same (comparison around minute 7).

If I was running a projector and had a really long run back to the player might consider a higher end cable.