Best type/quality Audio and Video Cables?

Question

I was wondering what are the types of Quality Cables?

I heard HDMI is the best,

But then is COmponent or S-Video Better?

FOr Sound is a Coaxial cable better or an Optical cable?

If possible can you give me all the types of Audio/Video Cables there are from greatest to worstest quality?

Thank You

Answer 1

HDMI is the best for both audio and video. It maintains a pure digital connection for all of your digital sources (DVD, Digital Cable, Satellite, etc.). Also on the audio side it is the only cable that will carry a full 7.1 signal UNCOMPRESSED. The coax and the optical will carry a signal but it must be compressed and therefore some quality loss will happen. As the other answer stated they carry the same signal, however because the optical cable is light based, there will not be any interference from outside sources, so in a situation where you have a long run of cable optical would be a better solution.
Last resort in this case would be to run analog audio cables (red & white).
As for the video:
Component video will be your next best option and will carry a full 1080P signal. The biggest downfall is that this is an analog connection and therefore some conversion from digital to analog and back to digital must be performed for your television to display the signal and with any conversion of this type there will be some loss and signal degradation.
Your next best option would be S-video, followed by composite video. I believe the 25% stated in the previous post was for S-video vs. Composite video.
Your last resort for video source should be a Coax (RG6) cable.

Answer 2

Depends on your application. All cables have their purpose. HDMI is good cause it integrate video and audio into one cable.

It doesn't solve all the problem though. There are still some glitches with HDMI and some transport issues regarding HDCP.

Component cables is better than S-video. The trouble is there are still equipment that uses S-video such as your DVR. which doesn't have component video out. Thus you still need S-video. Same goes with the composite cable.

I was told to go with a coaxial cable if it's present. Optical cables can be expensive and they are very fragile.

Quality wise...

HDMI
DVI
Component
VGA
S-video
Composite

Audio Side:
It depends on your application, I think analog audio is as important at the coax and optical.

Answer 3

HDMI is the most handy because it carries both video and audio in 1 cable. It can handle standard def up to 1080p.

Good HD-video rated component cables can also handle all video up to 1080p.

To handle HD video you must use HDMI, DVI or Component cables.

For standard video - you can use Composite, SVideo or Component. They differ like this:

Composite (single RCA cable): baseline
SVideo (2 wires with a 'keyboard-looking' plug): 20% improvement over Composite

Component: (3 RCA cables): 25% improvement over Composite.

AUDIO

Both optical and coaxial-digital cables carry the exact same signals so neither 'sounds' better. I tend to prefer coaxial cables but that is just a preference.