I have an HDTV with 1 HDMI port.....?

Question

I have an HDTV with 1 HDMI port. I have two options. 1. Should I hook up my HD DVR Digital Cable box up using the HDMI? OR 2. Should I hook up my upconvert DVD player with the HDMI instead? In either case, if I don't use the HDMI cable, what cable should I use to get the second best picture? Thanks!

Answer 1

If you only have 1 HDMI ort then always use it for your cable box. Your cable box is true HD quality. An upconvert DVD player uses something called a line doubler to get the picture to HD resolution. The gains are not big because DVDs tend to look really good no matter what. Always Always Alwasy use the HDMI for the true HD source. The other option is to buy a switcher for like a $100, but probably not worth it for an upconvert DVd palyer.

Answer 2

What you should do is hook up the Cable box with Component cables and the DVD player witht the HDMI and here is why

Most likely you DVD player will only upconvert via the HDMI and this is where you will get the largest gain

If you hook up your cable box via component you will probably not see much difference

The other solution is to buy an HDMI switch or a receiver that has HDMI switching.

The HDMI Switch is a good option and what I would choose if I did not need a new receiver

Answer 3

Have to agree with grdmiller. The Cable box has the true HD signal so should get the best (HDMI) input. You'd be wasting your HDMI input with the DVD player. If you have a component video input I'd use that with the DVD player set to 480p

Answer 4

hook the box to the hdmi

Answer 5

well, if you watch alot of dvd's... then hook it up to the dvd player... personally i don't so i'd hook it up to the DVR...

in order to get the second best picture, you would use the component input - the one with the 5 RCA jacks...

Answer 6

you need a HDMI switcher box, then you gonna have plenty of ports , you can search on line for the prices , you might wanna buy one that not diminish the quality of the signals.
good luck