We live in a world of high-definition, and getting the best picture means using the best of everything-right down to the cables that connect your home theater system, to experience the best home theater experience.
HDMI cable definition: HDMI stands for High-Definition Multimedia Interface, which is a type of digital connection, capable to transmit high-definition videos and high-resolution audios over a single cable itself.
Component cable: It can be used for both HD (High Definition) and standard video signals. Component video is an analog signal that consists of red, blue, and green video cables. Component cables suggestively deliver video only and do not carry sound.
When you compare HDMI versus Component differences, truly they do not seem to be very different. The main difference is one is analog and one is digital which generally not concern most of the users as long as it works for their situation.
Although HDMI and component can both support 1080p video resolution, that doesn’t mean the picture quality is equal. HDMI is a digital cable, so there’s not much wasted conversion from digital Blu-ray disc, as compared to that over an analogue component cable.
HDMI supports high-definition content protection (HDCP), which is required by many high-definition downloads and Blu-ray discs. If you use component cable, you see a lower-resolution version of the content that will lessen the home theater experience. HDMI could deliver 1080p whereas component cables can only deliver 1080i.
If you want to get both video and digital sound into your television or your home theater system, use HDMI cable. One HDMI connector truly carries full video and audio signals. However a component video may require three plugs for video alone. You’ll need other plugs-possibly on other cables-to connect the audio.
HDMI is mainly renowned for its video quality, but it can also carry audios without the need for multiple cables. HDMI also supports audio return channel, which sends sound from your TV tuner to your receiver. So the picture and sound s of the home theater speakers and home theater TV will be in perfect sync.
This feature of 1080p Up-conversion function that converts standard-definition images (720×576 pixels) from DVD sources into high-definition images (1920×1080 pixels) is available in the home theater range from Panasonic.
So the biggest difference, for an average user, is that the sending device (cable box, DVD player, etc) will most likely not send HD quality signal on the component output. Mostly as these companies trying to support HDCP therefore things obviously moving to HDMI so you will most likely want to move sooner or later.