Many of our customers ask a simple question like this one: Which will give me the best picture, component video cables, or HDMI cables?

As it turns out, the answer is not as simple as the question.  It is very common to tout a digital connection as the superior option, but I suspect that a lot of the people who are making that claim have either never experienced a high-performance component video connection, or have a vested interest in the advancement of the digital video interface.  We currently have some excellent offerings for both connection methods, so I believe that we could be considered to be neutral on this subject.

It is important to realize that the quality of component video cables varies widely, so for example, an individual that has a marginal component video cable might make the switch to DVI or HDMI and see a big improvement.  On the other hand, we have seen any number of cases where high-quality component video cables actually out-performed DVI or HDMI cables with a given equipment mix.

The next problem has to do with the lack of consistency in many consumer brand cables.  For example, we have tested Monster Cables that performed very well, only to find that another sample of the same brand and model cable did not perform very well at all.  By comparison, we have found that our own Pro and Signature Series cables have proven to be highly consistent.  Performance problems are virtually non-existent.

You will find a wide variation in quality and performance among DVI and HDMI cable offerings as well.  Take a 2-meter (6.6 foot) HDMI cable as an example.  In a recent eBay search, I found “Buy it now” prices ranging from under $4.00 to over $200.00.  How is a buyer to know which to choose?  If money were no object, one might opt for the most expensive cable, in hopes that price would relate directly quality.  There is a relationship between price and quality, to be sure, but unfortunately, the highest price does not ensure the highest quality.  Name brands may offer some semblance of a security blanket, but we have proven to ourselves, many times, that a big name does not directly relate to optimal performance.

This is one area where empirical knowledge has great value.  For example, at Cable Solutions, we simply know that some cables don’t work very well, so we don’t sell them.  On the other hand, the Gefen branded cables have proven to be highly consistent performers.  They are not the least expensive cables, by any means, but they are certainly not the most expensive either. 

Here is an interesting fact: at the time of this writing, we have never had a Gefen cable returned for performance reasons – even though we offer a money-back guarantee on all of our cables.  I think this speaks volumes about how well these cables work in the real world.  So at this point, after selling thousands of cables, we have some empirical knowledge about the quality and consistency of Gefen and the other cables that we offer.  It’s definitely a case of learning something the hard way, but once you’ve learned it this way, it is very powerful.

Of course, that leads to a new problem – while we may know that certain cables work very well, that doesn’t mean that our potential customers know it.  Peer reviews can give you a hint, if you can find a consensus, but again, the performance of many cable brands tends to vary from one sample to the next, so opinions tend to vary as well.  Professional reviews can be helpful, but I know from personal experience that such reviews can be driven by “relationships”.   Interestingly enough, I have never seen any review that attempted to address the issue of consistency, so I must assume that this factor has an influence on the accuracy of the reviews as well.

So after all of that, I still haven’t answered the original question.  The fact of the matter is that both transmission formats have the potential to deliver outstanding results.  The best examples of each connection method would be indistinguishable from one another in a side-by-side comparison.  Don’t get hung up too much on digital versus analog.  Digital is the buzzword these days, but the universe, and everything in it, is analog, as are human eyes. Every moment that has ever been captured on video started its life as an analog signal, and no matter what happens in between, it must be returned to analog before a human can view it.

There is no way to definitively say that one connection method will out-perform the other.  In the real world, the best choice usually comes down to other issues.  For example, digital video formats are currently difficult and expensive to distribute, so if you have a long run, or if you are planning to distribute video to multiple monitors, you may very well want to go with component video on that basis alone.  Runs up to about 200 feet are practical simply by using high-performance cables.  If you need even longer runs, or if you have multiple monitor locations, you might opt for a component video distribution system.  On the other hand, if you have copy-protected content, DVI or HDMI may be your best option, as both of those formats support the HDCP protocol.  The fact that HDMI can carry digital audio on the same cable with the video signal also may have value in some installations.

If you can’t decide, I encourage you to ask questions.  A dealer’s service and support tend to distinguish the best from the rest, so if you don’t get the kind of answer that you want from one dealer, try another one!