Jason Unger

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Searching for a new format war?

Look no further than HDMI vs. Component Video. Yeah, it's not a new battle, but it sure is one that's being fought pretty tooth and nail by custom installers.

In the HDMI vs. component debate, plenty of people have strong opinions on the subject. CE Pro recently solicited these opinions via an e-mail blast.

The vast majority of respondents far prefer to use component video for a number of reasons. Most of the complaints about HDMI center around distance issues, the challenge of terminating in the field, the fact that the connections easily disconnect, the fragility of the cables, the large connector size and HDMI’s far greater expense.

There were also a number of complaints about compatibility issues, the lack of HDMI standards, HDCP issues and a negligible quality improvement.

In the Unger household, we use both: component from our cable box, and HDMI from our upconverting DVD player. It's a pretty simple solution and we haven't yet run into any problems.

But for guys who are making their living setting up home entertainment systems, non-functioning equipment is a huge problem. And as much as you may argue otherwise, a lot of it has to do with HDCP (the content protection scheme used in HDMI to "prevent piracy."

When I caught up with Steve Venuti of HDMI Licensing at EHX, he pretty much admitted that a lot of the early problems could have been avoided if HDCP didn't exist.

HDMI would have entered the market easier without HDCP, but the studios wouldn't have let it happen. "It's a situation not everyone is happy with," he says. "But the reality is, they own the content."

So if I buy a Blu-ray disc, they still own the content? That's the problem with content "protection" in general: it assumes that consumers are thieves. What business gets away with treating its customers like that?

Component video does not have HDCP. And that's one of the big reasons installers like it — there's no handshakes to go along with it.

But this war is not new: it's not like component video has come out as an alternative to HDMI — it's been around for much longer. So think of it more as SACD vs. CD — which one do you buy?

Exactly.

PS - thanks to Gordon for making the comparison to HD DVD to me, which inspired this post.