do you have to use an s-vidio cable and audio cables when you are using hdmi cable?

Question

when i'm hooking up my cables for my hd cable box to my hd tuner then to my hdtv, blu-ray disc palyer and vcr, do i have to use all the s-video cables and the audio cables too? or do i just use the hdmi cable for sound and picture for all the components? please explain in simple terms, i'm not very technical.

Answer 1

no u don't. the hdmi cable is comprised of both audio and video. Just plug one end into the cable box/ tuner and the other into ur hdtv and u should be good to go.

Answer 2

To fully answer your question, if the component in question has HDMI, use it. However, your VCR won't have it (HDMI) and not knowing what model surround receiver (I'm guessing that's what you mean by HD tuner) you own, I can't say with certainty that it will upscale the VCR connections to HDMI.

Check the owners manual on your receiver. If it upscales composite video and svideo to HDMI then wire the VCR using S or composite along with l/r audio to your receiver and send HDMI from the receiver to the TV. Use HDMI to connect your Bluray and your cable box to the receiver. Any 2 year old or newer receiver by Yamaha, Denon, Pioneer Elite, Marantz that costs $800+ will upscale for sure. Many others will too.

If your receiver won't upscale composite video/svideo to HDMI, then you will have to run an S or composite cable up to your TV from your receiver, or you could wire video directly from the VCR to the TV. (keep the l/r audio going to your receiver from your VCR.) You will still need to send HDMI from your receiver to your TV for Bluray and cable.

Answer 3

John is correct. The single HDMI cable is all you need.

There ARE some problems with HDMI, but the one-cable-to-connect-them-all design makes setup simple.

Eventually we will not have composite, svideo, component, scart, toslink optical, coaxial digital because HDMI replaces them all.