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Why HDMI? What you need to know before going digital

By Randolph Ramsay and Ty Pendlebury on 16 February 2009

Tired of all those messy home theatre cables ruining your living room's feng shui? Wondering why analog cables are still connecting your all-digital gear? There is a solution — HDMI.

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Comments (66)

  • Dave Murray commented on 03/03/2007 15:27

    The reviews, comments and explanations of new technology are excellent and extremely useful when considering upgrades. Well done and keep up the good work.

  • Jman commented on 03/03/2007 09:17

    This is a great explanation of HDMI cables

  • Costas Sal commented on 23/12/2006 23:14

    I have a DVD player Denon 1930.What HDMI connector sould be buy to watch on my HDTV Sony 32" the best picture?

  • Mogivite commented on 15/10/2006 08:35

    I have a DVI STB and need to connect it to a hdmi lcd tv. the STB allows optical audio and composite audio but how will i get that to work on my hdmi tv, or is there a cable that will connect my sound and my dvi and turn it into hdmi? HELP!

    im not sure if my tv will play sound from the composite input while watching hdmi source.

    the tv only has an optical audio out

  • reiserb2003@yahoo.com commented on 20/05/2006 14:33

    GVA2: Basically they're talking about a technology that aircraft have been using for a while. Basically, instead of having to have one cable (or 3 for component) going to the TV, and one going to the reciever from your DVD player you can connect one cable from the DVD player to the reciever, then another of the same cable to the TV, and you're done. That's where the "universal remote" and two-way communication it referenced came from. Basically this type of hookup should make for cleaner, less cluttered installs. And I haven't tested the "two-way/universal" stuff yet, but in theory even different brands would be able to communicate, and if you're watching TV and hit play on the DVD player, it would turn on the DVD player, change the reciever's source and play the DVD. Once again, in theory and as I understand it, will test as more products use this type of connection.

  • gkilov@netspace.net.au commented on 01/05/2006 23:36

    I can understand DVI connections to the display unit, but why HDMI?
    I want my audio to be directed to my AV unit, not my display.
    I would have thought HDMI from source, eg DVD to AV amp/receiver and DVI from AV processor to display.
    Am I missing something?

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