WEBVTT - A Bundle of TV Cables 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.960 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technologies? With 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:17.639 tech Stuff from how stuff looks dot com. Hello everyone, 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:20.520 and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Palette. 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:23.279 I'm an editor here at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:26.840 Sitting across from me again as usual, is senior writer 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:31.040 Jonathan Strickland. Hey there, and so today we want to 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:35.519 talk about those entanglements behind your television set. Yes, and 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:39.120 this actually comes courtesy of one of our listeners. I'll 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:45.800 go ahead and read the a listener many. This mail 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:51.400 comes from Brian from Iowa. What's up, Tech Stuff? Guys? 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:53.960 You rule? I have a quick question. Can you do 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:57.320 a podcast explaining the differences between all the high definition 0:00:57.360 --> 0:01:00.280 hook ups for TV? For example, why is it that 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:03.360 the video component cord now has three cables red, blue, 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:05.920 and green instead of the old one yellow one? And 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:08.520 move on from there to the HDM my stuff. I 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:10.559 know you could do this an email, but I feel 0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:12.559 like a lot of people are curious on this topic. 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:16.959 So if it's no bother, can it be a podcast? Thanks? Well, Brian, 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:21.040 it's a huge bother, but we're gonna do it anyway, 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:24.360 You're actually it's not a bother at all. I'm I'm 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:28.360 just I'm just giving you the business. So we're gonna 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:30.680 talk about the different kinds of cables you used to 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:34.800 send video feeds and audio feeds as well to and 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:38.800 from your television. Alright, then, so where to start. Let's 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:40.840 start with the old ones, like well, I mean we 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:44.600 CoA coaxial. Let's go with co axial. So coaxial cable. 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:48.720 This is the stuff that comes from cable boxes, satellite boxes, 0:01:48.800 --> 0:01:51.760 that kind of thing. And it carries a signal that 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:55.040 has both video and audio in it. Yeah, it's uh, 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:57.640 it actually can carry quite a bit of information, which 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:00.520 is why it's used in those connections. You know, it 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:03.040 can work on your cable modem and you know that's 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:06.440 a pretty high speed connection. Alternatives, of course, would be 0:02:06.640 --> 0:02:10.160 fiber optic, but that's not something that you uh uh 0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:12.840 you would plug into your TV. Actually, a co actually 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:14.959 has quite a quite a history. It was invented in 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:19.680 so it's been around quite a while, right, and it 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:22.880 it carries a modulated signal that means that you have 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:25.880 to have some sort of tuner in order to to 0:02:26.320 --> 0:02:30.520 uh tune into the signal that it that it's sending. Now, 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:33.600 that tuner might be a cable box or a satellite box, 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:36.000 or it might be a tuner that's actually in your 0:02:36.000 --> 0:02:40.200 television set. Um. It all depends on the TV. Actually, 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:43.200 most new TVs probably have a basic tuner in there, 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:45.520 so you can plug the cable directly from the wall 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:48.600 into your television if you so wished. Um. Some cable 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:52.240 providers do not like that so much, so you pretty 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:54.320 much have to get a cable box for that. But 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:57.120 that's your basic video feed and audio feed into a 0:02:57.200 --> 0:03:02.480 TV set. Um. And it's an antenna, I guess, because 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:06.000 you could get over the air broadcast antenna right right. Well, 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:09.080 basically it's his copper wire and and his sheathings. So 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:12.680 you know, that's it. It's it's not that fancy, but 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:15.520 it it works. Yeah yeah, Now, I mean that's not 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:21.440 it's not necessarily an ideal situation that you know, you're 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:23.920 not necessarily going to get the best quality stuff that way. 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:26.800 But let's let's let's talk about I wanted to go 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:30.400 straight to composite video really okay, yeah, that's that red, 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:33.200 white and yellow set of cables, and of course only 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:35.320 one of those is video. That's red and white are 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:37.920 the left and right audio channel. That's correct, and as 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:41.280 Brian pointed out, the yellow is video. Now he had said, 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:44.800 why our component cables come in why do they come 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:47.440 in threes instead of just ones like they used to 0:03:47.560 --> 0:03:51.600 well number and they never they never came in one 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:55.240 chord because it's composite video, not component video. They are 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:58.880 two different things. Now. Composite video carries the entire video 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:03.720 signal in one stream. YEP, it's compressed to get it 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:05.880 in there. And as a matter of fact, it's really 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:10.080 uh good for NTSC Standard definition video. Yeah, so we're 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:12.240 talking about stuff that was used back in the old 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:15.680 days when you'd have these things called v c rs. 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:21.800 No no, not here either, but no, no, this is 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:23.480 pretty much the stuff you would see in the old 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:29.440 and an older home theater equipment. So VCRs, uh you know, 0:04:29.560 --> 0:04:32.760 super vhs even things like that. You would hook this 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:37.120 up with one of these yellow chords from the box 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:40.400 to your television set and that would give you the video. 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:43.840 And and not just you know, home theater, but also 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:47.240 video game consoles. A lot of video game consoles use 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:51.880 this as well. So for example, um Xbox, my old 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:56.440 Xbox came with the composite video cord. You would have 0:04:56.520 --> 0:04:59.880 to go out and buy a special HD chord if 0:04:59.880 --> 0:05:02.320 you wanted to get something in higher quality. And that's 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:05.919 the thing the composite video, because it is a compressed signal. 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:09.000 You're not going to get HD quality video out of 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:12.039 that signal. So even if you have let's say you 0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:15.560 bought a DVD player, I bought a DVD player, and 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:17.240 let's say that you bought an h D t V. 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:20.200 I bought an HDTV, And let's say that you're using 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:24.440 a composite video to hook the DVD player to your HDTV. Yeah, 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:27.120 that I did that, Okay, So this is where I 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:31.640 would say, you foolish consumer. You have bought all these 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:35.720 high quality products and you're using a subpar cable to 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:38.080 hook the two up. Now you may remember we did 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:42.560 a podcast ages ago about does cable quality matter? And 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:45.479 we kind of came to the conclusion that ultimately it 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:49.560 doesn't really matter. Well, that really only counts for within 0:05:49.680 --> 0:05:53.760 a specific kind of cable, right, Different kinds of cables 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:56.599 matter a lot, and this is one of them. So 0:05:56.680 --> 0:05:58.440 if you were to hook up your DVD player to 0:05:58.480 --> 0:06:00.320 your h D t V, with a with a posit 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:04.240 video chord, you would only get standard video out. You 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:07.039 wouldn't be able to view HD content at all because 0:06:07.960 --> 0:06:12.200 the cable itself is incapable of carrying that information. Yeah yeah, 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:16.839 so don't do it. Yeah you know. Uh, since I 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:19.839 have some older equipment and I'm saving up to actually 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:23.320 for real by an HDTV, UM, I still have a 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:26.960 jumble of composite chords behind my TV. In fact, I'm 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:30.719 using an ABC box to manage because I only have 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:34.560 a couple uh you know, inputs for it. Is it 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:39.159 as easy as one, two three? Um? Not quite, however, Um, 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:41.360 I do have one S video input on the back 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:45.840 of my television, so well, S video is better than 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:50.559 composit video. It's still not HD. No, it doesn't carry 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:54.560 an HD signal. Now S video. It separates the signal 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:58.440 into two signals. The video signal, I should say, Uh, 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:01.760 you have your luminants signal, which is the level of 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:04.760 white in whatever the images at the time, and the 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:09.520 chrominance signal, which is the color information. So brightness and 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:11.559 color essentially is what we're talking about. It get split 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:13.800 up into these two different signals. It's sent to your TV. 0:07:13.920 --> 0:07:16.000 It gives you a better quality image than you would 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:18.960 have with a composite video, but again it's still not 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:23.200 high definition. Now this is kind of confusing for people 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:25.480 who bought h D t V several years ago because 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:28.120 s video that was one of the new things on 0:07:28.160 --> 0:07:31.360 these TVs that people were unfamiliar with, and it was 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:34.160 on the backs of DVD players and they just thought, oh, well, 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:38.280 this is what h D is not quite it's not 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:40.560 going to give you the quality that your h D 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:43.960 t V is capable of showing. Um, you know, not 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:48.560 the full ten a DP experience. I guess if you're 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:52.640 on one of the smaller TVs. Uh yeah, D experience. 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:56.200 Isn't that a band? It should be patent pending. I'm 0:07:56.200 --> 0:07:58.960 just gonna throw that in there. I think that's number four. 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:01.400 If you love swers are keeping track, just let us 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:03.160 know how many patents we have pending, you know, and 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:05.560 they're gonna put that up out of sequence, so people 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:07.960 are gonna wonder why we had four patents pending before 0:08:08.040 --> 0:08:10.640 we had three. What we need is we need someone 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:14.200 to go out there and create a tech stuff Wikia, 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:17.280 create a tech stuff wiki and and and keep track 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:19.800 of all of our episodes and all of the patents 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:21.960 we have pending. That would be nice because then we 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:24.440 know what was that we've actually talked about. I'm sure 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:26.520 all of you out there have plenty of spare times 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:29.520 time on your hands. Uh, so go for it. So 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:32.840 getting back to the cables and stdo Actually, the fact 0:08:32.880 --> 0:08:35.360 that you mentioned the chrominence and luminance, I had the 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:38.000 feeling that's going to come up again very shortly. It 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:43.400 probably will, so, Uh. The nice thing about this the 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:46.600 S video cable, is that it's a it's a single cable, 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:49.960 that's true, except it doesn't have sound. You still have 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:52.280 to use the red and white cables for sure. But 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:55.240 the nice thing about the nice thing about for our video, Yeah, 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:58.240 it's just one cable as opposed to, uh to the 0:08:58.240 --> 0:09:01.360 the component cables, which we'll get to an minute. But 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:04.560 because it's just the one cable, that means less clutter 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:08.920 behind your entertainment system. UM. Now, I don't know about you. 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:12.960 My entertainment system is cluttered like crazy because I've got 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:15.960 you know, five or six video game consoles, hooful to it. 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:20.840 I've got a DVD player, UM, I've got my my 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:25.319 surround sound system. Um, there are a lot of components 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:28.360 to my entertainment system. So I've got a lot of cables. 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:30.560 So whenever I have an option to go with a 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:33.640 single cable, I think about that quite a bit before 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:38.560 going and moving forward and purchasing cables. Now. Unfortunately, I 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:42.240 didn't get in on the best option available right now 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:45.400 because I purchased a television before they it became the standard. 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:48.520 But we'll get to that as well. Alright then, so 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:51.680 I guess we can move on to the Component Video cables. 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:54.480 And these are the cables that Brian was mentioning before 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:58.320 right now that these come in red, green, and blue, 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:00.719 I believe if I'm not miss again, yes, red, green, 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:04.240 and blue, and you would you would might first think 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:08.760 that these cables split the video into those three colors, 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:11.800 and that each cable, you know, carries that color to 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:14.600 the your TV and then it magically combines and then 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:17.720 you've got a HD screen because Component Video is one 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:22.520 of the video cables that can transmit HD quality images. Well, 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:25.640 it's only partially magic, right, And it's also not not 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:29.559 true that it's each color. That's not exactly what's happening, um, 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:33.000 because one of them, it's actually split into chrominance and 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:36.120 luminance again, it's just that there's one luminance and two chrominans. 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:39.839 That is correct. Wow, you actually researched this one. I'm 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:43.520 not just making stuff. Yeah. The one wire carries the 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:46.920 brightness signals, that's the luminance, and the chrominans. You've got 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:49.760 one that that carries a signal that has the difference 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:53.959 between blue and the luminance, and then the other one 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:58.480 splits it between the difference in red and the Lumit that. Wow, 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:00.960 look at you. You know you and have an HDTV 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:03.520 and you know this stuff. Um. So there are a 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:05.880 lot of things on the market now that run that 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:10.000 use this these cables, including um like the Xbox. Again, 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:11.880 I have an old Xbox. I don't have the Xbox 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:14.400 three sixty, but I've got an old one and um 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:16.520 And one of the cables you could buy was a 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:21.960 component video cable source and again does not carry audio. 0:11:22.559 --> 0:11:26.959 So you need a different audio cable to be able 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:30.079 to get sound out of your whatever system it is, 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:34.120 whether it's a DVD player, video game console, whatever. Otherwise 0:11:34.120 --> 0:11:37.560 you're gonna have really cool video but no sounds. So 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:40.520 unless you really like silent movies that look really really crisp, 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:44.520 you're gonna need another set of cables. Um, you know, 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:47.400 it would be really nice if we had I don't know, 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:53.000 one cable that would carry all this stuff, one cable 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:56.319 to rule them all, cable to bind them, so to speak. 0:11:57.679 --> 0:12:00.280 Depends on how long the cable is. But okay, right, 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:04.840 so U h d M I Okay, that'll work. That's 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:09.640 your high Definition Multimedia interface cable. And this has become 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:14.240 more or less the standard for HD cables with televisions 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:17.760 and components moving forward. And uh, it's a darn good 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:21.840 one because it does carry HDI uncompressed video. It can 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:25.120 carry uncompressed video and audio, so now you can get 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:29.480 high quality audio and video using one cable. And uh, 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:33.600 it's it's really impressive stuff. Now. As I was mentioning earlier, 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:37.240 the reason why I used the component video cables is 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:40.120 because my television does not have an h d M 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:45.240 I uh input port, so I can't use it. And 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:47.800 even if I could, I don't think that my DVD 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:50.319 player has one either, so I wouldn't have anything to 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:54.720 plug it to. UM and uh, plus my DVD player 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:58.920 broke ages ago, so I'm I'm in desperate straits. I 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:02.120 watch all my DVDs. I'm Mac now, um, and I 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:04.719 use my PlayStation two to watch DVDs. So yeah, here 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:07.079 we aren't talking about high quality cables and we're like, 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:11.240 all my equipment broke. I Actually I do have it 0:13:11.280 --> 0:13:13.959 on my list of things to do buy new stuff, 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:17.360 but that's gonna have to wait for a little while anyway. 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:20.840 H d M I. So there's some great things about 0:13:20.920 --> 0:13:22.520 h d M I. For one thing, you've got that 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:26.920 one single cable that carries everything. Um, that's uh that 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:30.959 and it's also always being updated with new features. So 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:34.920 it's it's one of those standards that's constantly evolving. UM, 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:37.280 it's not going to be something that that is out 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:40.719 of date in three or four months, because fortunately they 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:44.720 work on they being the organizations behind the HDMI standard, 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:47.800 work on making sure that it continues to meet the 0:13:47.840 --> 0:13:53.439 needs of consumers. So that's a good thing about h 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:55.000 d M I as well as opposed to some of 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:58.440 the older methods which were invented, uh serve their purpose 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:01.079 and now I mean they still work, they just don't 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:05.480 work any better than they did way back when. Uh, 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:09.120 and uh there's some other things that are maybe not 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:13.400 quite as good. There's no locking mechanism on an HD 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:15.520 in my cable. So anybody could just rip rip it 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:17.800 right off the back of your TV and take off. Well, 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:20.120 that could happen, or you could, you know, jostle it 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:23.280 while you're moving your components around falls out. And if 0:14:23.320 --> 0:14:25.440 you're like me and you have a television system where 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:27.520 if something falls, it means you have to pull the 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:29.880 damn TV all the way back out from the wall. Again. 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:32.800 I've got a fifty one inch television and it's the 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:35.640 kind on wheels. It's not a flat panel We're not, 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:39.360 we're talking, you know, it's off flat panel display. So, uh, 0:14:39.440 --> 0:14:42.240 if something falls, then I have to move the whole 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:43.960 TV out. And of course, since I've got so many 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:46.480 cables connected to the thing from all the different video 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:50.040 game systems, and some of them are rather taught, it 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:52.520 means I have to start disconnecting stuff from other things 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:54.920 in order to get this one cable that's fallen out. Now, granted, 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:57.360 unless you're moving your your system around a lot, it's 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:02.160 probably not gonna happen. Um probably being the operative word here. 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:05.280 Another thing that it has is um, well, it has 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:09.200 HDCP copy protection. Yes, and you're a fan of the 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:12.440 copy protection, as I remember Oh, yeah, I love copy protection. 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:14.000 Let me tell you. You You know, he goes on and 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:16.040 on about that. Anybody who will listen, you know, because 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:19.200 you know, I just love copy protection. I think it's 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:23.280 the best thing ever to prevent made from from exercising 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:27.560 fair use of your stuff, the stuff that I own. 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:30.800 I you know what, I think it's the best thing 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:32.640 in the world. If I purchased something and I have 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:35.320 absolutely no way of creating a backup copy for my 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:39.360 own personal use, so that Heaven forbid something happens to 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:41.360 the original, I don't have to go out and purchase 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:45.360 the thing that I've already bought. Once again, is that 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:51.240 a soapbox on the floor. I'm sorry, I like it. 0:15:51.360 --> 0:15:54.720 I'm just asking so. So, Yeah, the copy protection is 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:59.160 actually built into the cable. Yeah, it's um that's kind 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:05.040 of irritating. And then there's some incompeted incompetibility issues that 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:08.440 we're in some of the early HD my cables, UM, 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:12.520 where you couldn't get the h D content from one 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:15.120 source to your TV. Most of those have been worked 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:19.440 out in in subsequent cables, but if you bought them 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:23.200 early on, you might have experienced some problems. Now that's 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:24.880 not the only kind of cables that you can hook 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:28.040 up to your TV. Uh And so we can talk 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:32.800 about a few others. There's the Digital Visual Interface d I. Yes, 0:16:32.880 --> 0:16:34.840 d v I. It's actually very similar to h d 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:37.440 M I, is it not. It's it's pretty similar, although 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:41.560 it has one advantage. Let me guess, no copy protection. Well, 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:44.840 I was gonna talk more about Well some of them 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:48.840 don't support hd CP, so, but it does have copy protection, 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:50.920 so that's not it. No, it has as a little 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:53.200 screws that you can screw in. Okay, you were so 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:55.040 excited about it. I figured it was the copy prodection. 0:16:56.120 --> 0:17:00.120 D I does have copy protections, Yes it does. And 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:05.359 if um, yeah, if you have a a monitor or 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:09.680 a television that doesn't support h d C p um, 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:13.240 it's not going to be compatible with whatever the source 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:16.560 is for your video, so then you won't be able 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:19.280 to display it. And uh So this is one of 0:17:19.320 --> 0:17:20.720 those things where you have to make sure that your 0:17:20.760 --> 0:17:24.359 devices are compatible with one another before you use it. 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:26.800 It looks like a little computer port, the kind that 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:28.240 you would have on the back of any you know, 0:17:28.359 --> 0:17:32.080 monitor or on a computer card and you're on your 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:35.520 desktop PC that kind of thing. Uh, and like I said, 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:38.000 you can actually secure that one with little screws so 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:41.119 it doesn't pop off like the h d M I could. 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:44.159 So there's that. Then there's a well, I mean, if 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:45.520 you want to take a step back, there's the v 0:17:45.600 --> 0:17:50.240 g A uh connectors as well, which also looks like again, 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:52.520 this is something that you would see in computer monitors usually, 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:55.000 but some televisions have them, and it would allow you 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:58.320 to to maybe hook up your computer to your your 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:00.080 television so that you can use your TV as a 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:06.800 giant computer monitor. So uh, some old HDTVs have them, 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:09.720 some old set top boxes have them. Um, it does 0:18:09.800 --> 0:18:12.080 have the little thumb screws again, so you can secure 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:17.439 your cable to your TV. It's a not really common so, 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:19.760 I mean hardly anyone talks about it. Really. The most 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:24.879 common ones you're gonna see are the composite component, S 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:27.639 video and h d M. I Actually, I wouldn't be 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:30.760 surprised if S video started to kind of quietly go away. 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:35.119 Um yeah, I mean it's you know, composite has been 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:38.399 around and it's it's still leading a hearty, robust life. 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:42.560 Well and if you have any legacy UH hardware, like 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:45.639 any VHS type stuff for old laser disc players or 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:48.200 anything like that. Yeah, if you have anything like that, 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:51.840 you need that composite video input or else you know, 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:55.920 your your your That's when your equipment really becomes obsolete 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:58.560 because you no longer have anything that can display the video. 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:00.679 We'll put it this way. I've got to see stuff 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:04.520 that's already got um some you know, tons and tons 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:08.280 of composite cables and then one s video input on 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:10.320 my older TV. When I do upgrade to h D, 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:15.040 I'm gonna want h D M I. Right. Well, I 0:19:15.080 --> 0:19:18.000 gotta say that one thing about component video that's kind 0:19:18.000 --> 0:19:24.000 of nice is that it does not have copy protection. Ah, 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:27.040 so you might want to go with that because you 0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:29.120 don't have to worry about, you know, no longer being 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:32.399 able to make copies. So let's talk about audio for 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:35.000 a second. Okay, let's talk about audio for a second. 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:36.840 So you really have a couple of different options. I mean, 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:39.080 you've got the HDM I, which carries audio on its own, 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:42.679 but then you also have the the the red and 0:19:42.720 --> 0:19:46.240 white cables which, as you pointed out, carry the right 0:19:46.280 --> 0:19:50.040 and left speakers audio signals. But you also have one 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:56.560 other option digital digital optical. Yeah, the optical audio I'll 0:19:56.600 --> 0:20:00.840 put this is a users fiber optics and it transmits 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:05.280 audio through light. Oh that sounds like fun? Is that? 0:20:05.359 --> 0:20:06.800 Is that the best way to listen to I don't know, 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:10.720 l O Electrical Orchestra. Yes, it's the only way to 0:20:10.760 --> 0:20:14.159 listen to the l that's any way I listened to 0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:18.199 l O. Fiber optic does have an enormous bandwidth, just 0:20:18.240 --> 0:20:21.679 a very fragile cable right and it it's um, it 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:25.000 provides really good sound. It's not necessarily the full stereo 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:28.680 sound that you would expect from a real like big 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:31.840 home theater system for those you usually have. You will 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:35.600 actually have a a setup where, um, you'll have feeds 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:41.480 going to very specific speakers, so a front right, front, left, center, back, left, back, right, 0:20:41.840 --> 0:20:45.760 and then you know your left sub woffer is what 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:49.240 I was going to say. But all right, so um yeah, 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:52.880 so but the the optical cable, it provides pretty good sound. 0:20:52.960 --> 0:20:54.800 I mean really good sound. Really. That's and that's what 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:57.000 I have with my Xbox. You know my Xbox with 0:20:57.080 --> 0:21:00.800 the component video cord. I have an opt cold uh 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:04.960 audio cord which connects from the Xbox directly to my 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:10.040 sound system bypasses the television completely. Um, So those are 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:13.160 the other kind of audio cables you might have. UM, 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:15.399 let's say, I think we pretty much covered all the 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:18.120 basic cables on a television. As we said, the ones 0:21:18.160 --> 0:21:21.520 you're more likely to see our your your composite component 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:23.879 S video and h D M I UM component might 0:21:23.920 --> 0:21:27.960 actually go away as well, not because it's a an 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:33.119 inferior product, but because it doesn't support copy protection. So 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:36.120 you're you were starting to see movie studios and UH 0:21:36.160 --> 0:21:40.080 and television studios really put pressure on manufacturers to stop 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:46.640 supporting component video cables because they don't want their their 0:21:46.680 --> 0:21:51.800 material to get copied like crazy. So that's unfortunate because 0:21:51.840 --> 0:21:55.800 it does provide a very good picture. Well you know, 0:21:56.280 --> 0:22:00.320 once uh, once DRM gets involved, people are very very 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:06.240 serious about protecting their intellectual property from perceived threats. Yeah, 0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:08.879 let's not go there. That's just gonna make me angry 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:11.879 all over again. Okay, how about we, Uh, do you 0:22:11.880 --> 0:22:14.240 have anything else to say about cables? All right, we're 0:22:14.240 --> 0:22:16.760 all tied up on the cables thing, so Brian, I 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:19.359 hope that answers your question. Matt, Um, you can write 0:22:19.359 --> 0:22:20.920 to us later and tell us all the things we 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:23.199 got wrong, or you can talk to us as soon 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:26.840 as we stop recording. I mean he is capable of speaking, folks. 0:22:27.760 --> 0:22:31.000 He's not a mime or a mute. But this brings 0:22:31.080 --> 0:22:37.440 us to our second about of a listener mail. Thank 0:22:37.480 --> 0:22:40.320 you now this listener mail, we actually have a duo. 0:22:40.960 --> 0:22:44.760 I have to listener mails, so strap yourselves in alright. 0:22:44.840 --> 0:22:47.520