The technology industry is an ever-changing one. Keeping track of the latest developments is often unachievable. The wonderful world of multimedia cables is not different, so to assist we have developed this top 5 guide.
This is a curent list the top 5 most popular cables within the home entertainment world. apart from listing the cables we will expalin a little about what each of them is used for.
HDMI Cable – HDMI cables are out-selling other leads by far. It’s rise to fame is all down to the introduction of High Definition televisions. It is primarily used for connecting high definition devices such as games consoles and Blu-Ray players to HD displays. Higher bandwidth and faster data transfer is acheived through the latest HDMI 1.4 cables. HDMI cables are one of the most versatile of the digital cable family.
Optical Cable – Optical cables are used for sending digital sound, normally to digital amps or hi-fi’s. Whilst HDMI Cables can carry both Audio and Video Signals, Optical cables can only carry sound. Also known as Toslink cables, which comes as an abreviation of Toshiba Link, and as the name would suggest was invented by Toshiba. The reason for the such high data transfer speeds found in optical cables is because they send their data as light signals. .
Component Cables – Component cables are a popular alternative to HDMI Cables for connecting High definition devices. The Biggest downfall of component is its inability to handle audio signals, unfortunately it is video only. Contrary to popular belief component cables are NOT digital cables, they in fact fall into the analogue category. However it is still possible to acheive 720p or 1080i resolution through a component cable.
SCART to USB – Beleive it or not, people are still using VHS videos to view old archieved video footage. These old movies can now be transtered on to your you computer with a SCART to USB kit. This clears the way for you to get rid of that aged Video recorder. SCART to USB kits are very simple to use and come complete with the software needed. It is worth remembering though that video files can be very large, so make sure you have enough room on your hard drive.
iPod/iPhone Cables – The iPod & iPhone have stormed on to the scence and both are up there as must have gadgets. There are 2 cables in particular that seem to be catching on. The cable used to connect iPods/iPhones to your computer. The second is 3.5mm stereo cables, these are used, for plugging iPods into your hi-fi or car stereo.
We hope this guide has helped you. Although given the speed that technology moves at, by the time you read this, they will probably all be out of date.