Easy connectivity steps for your electronic products: TV, PC, Home Theater

Article by Jack R

The technology is always with one step in front of us, challenging our knowledge and impresses us. Most of us ask for information at our local dealers before choosing your appliances. Because it’s all about money and selling the product you’ll not get a complete picture of the product but a mere overview. Who didn’t spent a lot of time understanding how to make a HDMI connection or a simple network for your home, how many people bought a dvd-player with hdmi support, realizing after the purchase that you can’t have high definition picture from a simple dvd-player?

I’ll start with HDMI standard (High Definition Multimedia Interface). The following versions are on the market: 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.2a, 1.3, 1.3a, 1.3b, 1.3b1 and 1.3c. The differences between these standards are in resolution, sound and color. Before you make any purchase check your products hdmi specifications, use the most out of them. You’re TV set can have one of the following accepted video signals: 480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p, 1440p and 1600p. Actually a HD TV set has the resolution starting from 720p/1080i which means 1280×720 progressive or 1920?1080 interlaced. I’ll go with progressive as it’s more eye friendly even if it’s smaller in resolution. The TV is the most important tool, so choose wisely, go for a tv that has more than one hdmi connections, connect your pc with hdmi-hdmi or hdmi-dvi cable. The difference between hdmi and dvi is that dvi can’t carry the sound signal. If you have a playstation, blu-ray, hd-player, a camera or different hd equipment you’ll find lots of cables, mini hdmi, flat hdmi, swivel, male to female.

Another way of connecting your products with your tv is the component cable (YPbPr) which can also carry the 1080p signal, but because some products use the HDCP standard and it’s only available in hdmi cables. But it’s a good alternative if you don’t have an extra hdmi entrance. This cables can be component to component, component to dvi and component to s-video (this one is a bad choice, because s-video has a very bad signal, max 480i standard resolution).

Got a home-theater system? Messy cables, no? But there’s always an alternative, on the market you’ll find many wall plates designed to deliver quality sound and picture connectivity, an inexpensive, clean way to add that finishing touch to your system. The wall plates are available for your 5.2, 6.2, 7.2 speaker system, hdmi single/dual port plates or HDMI Wall Plate with Component Video & RCA Audio. No more bulky cables with this plates, or if you have cash to spend go for wireless.

Beauty is also in the ear of the beholder, not only the eye. The Toslink digital optical cable delivers sound experience that complete the high definition picture. Optical cables transfer the signal using light; thus completely eliminating any chance for RFI, EMI or ground loop interference. Connect to your DVD, CD, Mini Disc, DAT other digital audio equipment for clear, full and richly detailed sound. Toslink Digital Audio Cable provides you the cleanest possible signal, even at extreme volume levels. Because it’s optical, the length it’s not a problem, you can go up to 75 foot!

Making a network was easy and most people think it still is, but I?m afraid it’s a complex job. You’ll say, ok, I?ll go to my hardware supplier and ask for a network cable. Which one, and why don’t you go wireless? There is the Cat5E cable that can deliver high performance at 100 MHz, the Cat6 cable that work at 250Mhz and Cat6A operates at frequencies up to 500 MHz?twice that of Cat 6. Cat6a can support 10 Gbit/s applications (especially 10GBaseT) up to a maximum distance of 100 m (328 ft). Almost all Ethernet cabling has the category of cabling printed on the side. Don?t use cable in your network if it is rated less than the maximum speed of the network. Don’t buy overpriced “super-high-quality” cable. If a cable is rated as Cat. 5e then it will perform at that rating. Use a patch cable when connecting a computer to a router or hub, use a cross over cable when connecting two computers directly together. If you are unsure, buy a patch cable, if the cable is not labeled as “patch” or “cross over” it is a patch cable. If you go for wireless you must know the following standards: IEEE802.11g/b and IEEE802.11n (Draft 2.0) that can provide up to 300Mbps stable transmission rate. Go for a router that has firewall and protect the wireless connection with a password. Even if the n standard is the best on speed and distances it also has the highest price rate. If you want full connectivity choose one with all 3 standards. Also you should see what is the distance for your computers and how many walls are in the signal path; maybe a wired connection is the best price/quality solution. Those who can?t afford to pay for precut and wired cables, or who don?t know what kind of lengths they will need can use the Platinum Tools which provides tools for networking sollution.

For reviews, details and frequently asked questions you should check FireFold. A good tip when you make a purchase is to buy only from one supplier, it saves you of wasted time if you got problems with any component and also a seller can point you in the right direction.

About the Author

Jack R. – you may copy this article, but leave my name.