The other day I mentioned that I used HDMI cables when I was re-arranging my console. I stated that they were easy to use and allowed me to get the best graphics out of the my consoles. I wanted to go into a little more of an explanation of that particular cable.
I remember when I hooked up my daughter’s PlayStation 2 (and before that the PS1) to the television. There were three outputs from the console: video, left channel audio, and right channel audio. The cable bundle wasn’t that thick, and there wasn’t a problem running that through the access holes in the cabinet, even with the VCR’s cables there. Later on we subscribed to a cable service and the that added the video/audio coaxial cable that ported into the TV. Still no real serious problems with three power cords, two cable bundles, and finally, the cable service cable. But, like rust, technology never sleeps, we purchase a larger television, with a 27 inch monitor, and it had additional video/audio input plugs plus the external antenna/cable coaxial hook up. The additional plugs allowed us to upgrade our cable service to take advantage of more offerings, but this required a cable box and the extra video and audio cable bundle. We could have continued using the coaxial cable, but I had read that the use of the three cable bundle produced a better image. Four more cables to deal, luckily the only new cord that had to fit through the access hole was the power line, but the small power plug just barely fit. But I thought this was it, and settled back to enjoy technological nirvana. It never sleeps, remember. DVDs appear with all the benefits over the VHS tapes, but I still had a collection of tapes. I noticed as scanned the ads that some of the stores offer a set up service and I wondered why anyone would need that service. This opinion would be change shortly. I’m sure you can see where this is going. Ultimately we got a DVD player. It was on sale, an open box unit, that was originally 350 dollars on sale for $195. It had the standard video output, plus something called component output. A higher quality video output that broke the video signal into three color components. So the back of the DVD had two audio channel RCA output jacks, a single video output, the three component jacks, an S-video plug, and an additional sound out plug. At the time our TV didn’t have that video option. So I didn’t bother with it, but I did check out the S-video standard, which of course was a better output that the standard video hook up. The television did have that, so one six foot S-video cable was purchased. That didn’t really change the number of cables and fitting it through the access hole was a bit of a problem. The S-video plug head is larger than the RCA plug. As I twisted myself up to squeeze behind the larger TV, I realized why somebody would pay to have this kind of work. But the best was yet to come. The next cable box we got had a record function and a component output. My brain became fascinated with component mode output, but not what its physical components were (5 thick cables).
Holy smoke, I can’t believe I did all that, even though it happened over a period of, maybe, ten years. I haven’t even gotten to the benefits of the HDMI hookup. If I were reading this I would have stopped awhile ago. My compliments to you if you’ve gotten here.
The bottom line is the old standard hookup required 3 cables (1 video and 2 audio), the component cable hookup required 5 cables (3 video and 2 audio), and HDMI hookup uses 1 cable. An industry standard has been established for HDMI. There are two classes (so far), that are based upon the cables ability to handle signal speed, of course the higher number handles the highest speed (Class 2). If you have any questions related to HDMI there is a website with a frequently asked questions (FAQ) section-http://www.hdmi.org/learningcenter/faq.aspx.
Oh, HDMI is the acronym for High-Definition Multimedia Interface.
Hopefully, I’ll try to be a bit less wordy in the future.
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