Blog About Cables

Okay, if you know anything about VGA Cables, you may be wondering why it’s worth discussion, since they have pretty much been replaced by DVI Cables in most scenarios. Although slightly outdated, the technology of VGA is definitely worth knowing, since the quest for knowledge never ends, right? Right.

A great example of a VGA display can be seen when you start up your computer. If you run Windows, you may notice that the initial start-up screen is of significantly lower quality than the one you see once booted up. This pixellized image is courtesy of VGA! VGA – short for Video Graphics Array – is the standard display setting for computers today. Even if you are using DVI cables rather than VGA ones, VGA will still be the default for your computer. This is a safety, if you will, in case something goes wrong, which is inevitable when it comes to computers. If you’ve ever run your computer in Safe Mode after a crash, it is running at VGA quality. See, when a computer crashes, it usually has something to do with the drivers (the little ‘brains’ inside your computer that tell your operating system how to interact with your software). By defaulting to VGA quality, it reduces the likelihood that it will crash a second time, because most of the display drivers will be disabled.

So what exactly is VGA? Basically, it is a base-level display setting which uses a very low resolution (640×480), which is why the images it produces are so 1980’s. The VGA color array will either include 16 or 256 colors, dependent upon the graphics card (if your computer is at all recent, it will probably have 256). It differs from DVI in that, although it begins as a digital signal, it is converted to an analog signal once it leaves the graphics card and crosses the cable. It is then turned back into a digital signal for display. In short, all this switching to and from a digital signal causes distortion once the image is displayed on your screen, like banding or blurring.

Now, although it sounds useless compared to DVI, VGA cables do have their place. Even today, they are commonly used to connect laptop computers to other display arrangements, such as projectors and even flat-screen computer monitors. Higher-end versions will also have an audio connection as well, to perform double-duty with less wires. Even though DVI is preferred in most cases, VGA is still widely available, because the transition to DVI isn’t quite complete. Many components manufactured today have the provisions for both.

An oldie but a goodie, if you will. Until next time…

-Laura

A picture of a VGA Connector

Welcome back! Okay, today I am going to talk about something that I think is extremely cool – flat wire! It actually makes me wonder what took them so long to come out with this concept!

Wires are ugly. They just hang there, all droopy and… ugly. Plastic raceway products help with this, but what do you use when you want the ultimate home theater set-up? You guessed it – FLAT WIRE! Okay, let me shake out some of this enthusiasm and get down to business.

Okay.

For starters, flat wire comes in three different types – audio, video, and data. The audio style works the same way as the speaker wire I have blogged about in the past. There are different gauges (AWG), and the smaller the gauge, the better the signal. The one thing to remember is that – when measuring using gauges – the larger number is actually the smaller diameter. So, an 18 AWG speaker cable is going to provide clearer audio than a 12 AWG one. How will you know which gauge to use for your set-up? If the wire will run 80 feet or less, a 16 or 18 AWG is fine. If you’re going 80 to 200 feet, you will want to stick with a 14 AWG, and if you’re running speaker wire over 200 ft., then you will need to use a 12 AWG. Most likely, the 16 or 18 AWG is fine for a home user. Instead of using standard speaker wires which are generally unappealing in appearance, you can go with Flat Wire! It is very simple to install (very much DIY), and the best part is that it can be painted over, so you don’t have to worry about connecting raceways or hooks or any other type of cable manager. I wish they had this 6 years ago, when I spent far too much time trying to paint my speaker wires to match the walls. Voila, seamless surround sound without drilling holes in your walls.

It seems to become a teensy bit more complicated when dealing with the connectors, but it’s really not. Connecting them is relatively easy (simple instructions for doing so are included with the wire), it’s just a matter of knowing which type you need. The type of connector that you will use is really just going to depend on your components, so you would want to consult the user’s manual on that. Banana plugs are available in either straight or right angle; there is no difference in function, it’s solely a matter of which you prefer (right angle plugs would be beneficial in an application where you don’t have a whole lot of room between the back of your component and the wall; straight banana plugs are pretty long – about 2 1/2″). Audio connector pins are another style available, as well as wall boxes (pretty much just an additional junction between the speakers and the component, usually for aesthetics or convenience), and connectors for subwoofers.

As mentioned earlier, Flat Wire is also available for video. There’s one for component cable connections and RCA style connections (both of which I’ve written about before, should you require more info), as well as S-Video connections.

I haven’t touched on S-Video before, so here’s a tidbit: Some older components have S-Video connections on the back… it was prevalent before HDMI. It’s basically an analog signal that carries the data as two separate signals unlike component cable which carries it as three, and composite cable which carries it as one signal. S-Video is – as the name entails – video only.

TRIPLE THREAT! Flat wire is also available for data cable, whether you are using CAT5 Ethernet cable or coaxial cable.

Well worth the investment if you ask me! Until next time…

-Laura

My husband and I got off work early on Christmas Eve and, like the daredevils we are, we bee-lined over to the electronics store to pick us up a little Christmas gift. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the mob scene I was expecting, and we were in and out with our new LG BD300 Blu-Ray DVD player. This was a much needed upgrade; we originally were using the PlayStation 3 as our Blu-Ray player but then when the HD players came out, we purchased one of those instead, and sold the PS3 to a friend. Shortly after, we found out that they wouldn’t be making HD movies anymore (of course), so we were left with a $300 regular ol’ DVD player. We kind of fell out of the hype until we saw the BD300 online – yep, the one that streams Netflix movies. The movies look great, and we got an awesome deal on it. The only thing missing when I was watching The Dark Knight this weekend? Mind-blowing sound!

I visited my mother-in-law yesterday and noticed the same thing. She also has a brand spanking new home entertainment setup but no mind was paid towards adding high quality sound. The way I see it, if I’m paying $25 a pop for a movie to watch at home, I may as well be experiencing not only an awesome picture, but astounding audio as well.

I feel that so much attention is paid to the visual aspect of home entertainment – the resolution of the TV, the quality of the HDMI cables, Plasma vs. LCD vs. Rear-Projection, etc., – that the issue of audio kind of gets brushed under the rug, if you know what I mean. I delved into Digital Audio cables a bit last post, so today I am going to poke around in speaker cables a bit.

Speaker cables come in a few different shapes and sizes, metaphorically speaking. Most of them are basic (i.e. standard speaker cable that run from Point A to Point B in a typical application versus cable intended for use inside of the wall, which you probably won’t see very often if you are hooking up your own system), but there are some variations of the standard cable that could improve the quality of your sound, should you be willing to pay for it.

Speaker cable is pretty simple, in regards to it’s composition. Its really just an electrical link between two audio components (most commonly a receiver and speakers), and the shorter the cable, the better the sound quality. A smaller gauge (diameter, or thickness) wire will also assist with a clearer signal. The key factor to sound clarity with speaker wire is a low resistance, which is determined by both of the above factors. There is also a technique in which the oxidizing materials in the cable are purified, which creates a more flexible wire. This type of wire offers a reduced resistance also, although this is also more often used by the professional installer rather than the home user for it is usually sold in bulk.

Unless you have a fancy, professionally-installed home theater system, the speaker wire is most likely going to be visible, especially if you are running surround-sound along the ceiling. Sadly, not much is done to improve the aesthetics of speaker cabling; even the nicest, most expensive brands can be something of an eye sore. Although you can’t make the cable itself more attractive, you can conceal it using some nifty surface raceway. It’s cheap, can be painted (with a latex-based paint) and will really improve the appearance of your home theater system.

In short, if you are looking for some speaker cable of your own, go short and skinny for the best results! Below are some pics, for your reference. Until next time…

-Laura

Well, hello! I’ve got to switch it up today, you know? Kick it to another level. I’ve spent the last few posts educating you on the in’s and out’s of the ‘V’ side of AV, but not so much the ‘A’ side. So, here goes:

Audio signals have made the conversion from analog to digital for the same reason that video signals did – superior quality with quicker transmission (think audio cassette versus MP3). Thus, the digital audio cable was born. There are two players on the digital audio cable playing field: Optical Digital Cables and Coaxial Digital Cables. When it comes to sound quality, it isn’t likely that you will be able to tell the difference between the two unless you are running the cable for a long distance (5 feet or longer). Then you may want to lean towards the optical version.

Digital Optical Cables (also known as Digital Audio Cables), are unique from their coaxial counterparts in that they transmit sound as pulses of light whereas the signal on a coaxial cable is carried by boring ol’ copper. This can be very beneficial to the user because light isn’t affected by EMI (electromagnetic interference). Basically, if your home entertainment system is in close proximity to your computer, or any other lines transmitting power, then you will probably want to use the optical cable rather than the coaxial to keep the sound as crisp as possible. As I mentioned before, optical cables are also preferable if you are running the cable for an extended distance.

Although digital audio and coaxial audio cables perform the same function, they are not interchangeable; they both have distinctly different connectors. Digital audio cables have a connector commonly referred to as a Toslink connector, whereas coaxial audio cable uses an RCA style connector (scroll to the bottom of this post to see what I am referring to). Most modern components come with the provisions for either one.

So why doesn’t everyone use optical audio cables? Money – why else? Optical cables are far more expensive than the coaxial version. It’s all about your application; if the cable will be running a very short distance in, let’s say, your bedroom, you are perfectly fine using a cheaper coaxial audio cable. If you have a higher-end home theater set-up, then I would recommend going digital audio.

So now you know!

-Laura

They say good things come in threes… or twos, or fours… well, I suppose that’s just a matter of perspective, but I’m a firm believer in threes. Think tri-flavored sherbet (the one with the raspberry) and those little three packs of Fererro Rocher chocolates. Not a big fan of sweets? Okay then, think of component video signals instead!

You’ve most likely seen/heard of/actually handled component video cable sometime or another, but you may not be familiar with how it works or exactly what it is for. There is also much confusion to be had by the layperson when it comes to component video and composite video. It’s okay though, I am here to clarify!

Let’s start with the mechanics of component video cable. Every color in the spectrum of colors can be created by using red, green, and blue in various intensities. This is known as RGB (it’s a fairly interesting concept; if you’re curious about how that works in further detail, you can read more about it on the RGB color model Wiki). The result is an image on your television screen that displays in colors as diverse as intended by nature.

So the question is how does all of that information – all of those different variations – get transmitted without taking using up all of your bandwidth (essentially the speed of and space available for data transmission)? The answer is by using the component video format. Component video is comprised of three different signals: Y, B-Y, and R-Y.

The Y component is the luminance signal, which transmits the black and white data from the original RGB signal. It also determines the brightness of the image. The B-Y and R-Y components are known as ‘color difference’ signals. They establish how much blue and red needs to be incorporated into the image – depending on the luminance – to get the colors just right.  Green is actually not sent as a separate signal; your television or other display device is smart enough to determine how much green is needed in the image, based on how much blue and red it already contains.

This format alone takes up way less bandwidth than it would in its original form but it’s just not enough! In order to broadcast a color television signal the data needs to be compressed further, which is why composite video was created by the NTSC (National Television Standards Committee) back when color TV was invented.

Here’s where many people get confused: the difference between component and composite cables themselves. The composite signal is transferred over one signal, identified by a yellow connector. The composite signal is video only, so it is then oftentimes paired with the audio cables as well. The audio connectors are usually identified by white and red connectors. You will see composite cables on older televisions and equipment because the technology has since been updated.

Once the composite signal is compressed, it cannot be uncompressed (received by your display device) without losing some of the integrity. That’s why component cables were created. A component cable has either three of five connectors. A cable with three connectors is only going to carry your video signal, but it is carrying each of those color signals separately, eliminating the need to compress/decompress the signal. This offers you a better picture than a composite cable. A component cable with five different connectors is going to carry the video as well as the audio, so you will have the red, green and blue connectors, as well as two additional ones for the audio, which are generally black with either a white or red strip on it.

So there you go, component video cables made simple. I have posted some images as well for your enjoyment. Until next time…

-Laura

So, you’ve read my previous blog entry and now you know everything you will ever need to know about HDMI, right? Right! This seems like a good point to bring you up to speed on DVI cables, because they actually have many similarities with HDMI cables.

DVI – which stands for Digital Visual Interface – actually came before HDMI, so it is a little less comprehensive. One of the main differences is that DVI cables only transmit the video signal, whereas HDMI cables carry both the picture and the sound. HDMI will always be preferable for your home entertainment system because you don’t need to run as many cables; you will see DVI used for components that don’t require audio input such as your computer monitor, DVD players, receivers, etc.

There is actually three different types of DVI cables: DVI-A, DVI-D, and DVI-I. Simply stated, DVI-A supports analog signals, DVI-D supports digital signals, and DVI-I supports both! DVI-D is the type that you are going to see for your home-use products. In the past, you would frequently see DVI hook-ups on a lot of your home theater components (usually the higher-end stuff), but now with the innovation of HDMI, you pretty much only see DVI for your computer.

So how does DVI work? It’s rather simple, actually. The brightness level of each individual pixel is converted into binary code. That code is sent directly through the cable, unconverted, and paired with a directly corresponding pixel on your display. Each pixel is independent of the others, offering a crisp display that isn’t affected by interference or crosstalk. Back when VGA was the standard, the necessary brightness of the display was ‘estimated’ (for lack of a better word) by the receiving device, thus producing distortion and the possibility of interference.

So there you have it, the in and out of DVI Cables! See you next time!

-Laura

For a more in-depth comparison between DVI and HDMI, click here!

Often people come to talk to me about their home theater systems, so I’m fairly familiar with the golden rule – ‘Thou shalt have High Definition or else Thou’s friends shalt not come over to watch Football’. I was skeptical of the hype at first, until my husband and I bought a new television – a really big one – and I began to realize how important HDTV is.

When we went to the super-mega-electronics store looking for the TV, we wandered around for quite some time. My husband was talking numbers and letters and resolutions with the sales guy while I stood there, eyes glazing over, thinking about smoothies. We (read: he) settled with a 52″ flat screen television and, of course, an HDMI cable. I wasn’t expecting anything grand at first, but once I saw that picture I was sold like a 52″ flat screen television on Black Friday.

HDMI cables are the icing on the cake, essentially. HDMI stands for High-Definition Multimedia Interface, and yes, they are awesome. Before HDMI was created, television was analog format (ever notice that cable with those little multicolored connectors? That’s the analog cable!). Analog format is inferior because of the way the visual signals is transmitted: the digital signal is first converted into a less-perfect analog signal and sent along the analog line. Once it is received by the display (your TV), it is then converted back into a digital signal and displayed. The problem is that a lot of the quality is lost in all that converting. Conversely, HDMI cables keep the signal digital for the entire process, allowing you to see the signal as it was intended. As if that wasn’t good enough, HDMI signals are also transmitted much faster than analog, and they carry the audio signal as well so you won’t need to use an additional cable.

So what if you are watching a high definition channel but are still using analog cables? You are cheating yourself! HD signals, when sent along an analog line, are sometimes compressed which results in a lower quality signal. HDMI cables ensure that your HD signal remains uncompressed so that you can enjoy a crystal clear picture. Watching that on plasma or LCD TV? Heavenly.

Let me take a slight detour into some tidbits of information about your television. The quality of your picture doesn’t solely rely on HDMI cabling. The resolution that your television displays is important as well. Most TV’s in stores these days either display 720p, 1080p or 1080i. The number references the pixels displayed on the screen (the more, the better!) and the letter references whether it’s progressive scan or interlaced. Progressive scan is better as it makes for a sharper image.

Okay, back to HDMI, what you came here for. HDMI cables also enable many more technical capabilities which I am not going to get too deep into, but one that I will touch on is the benefit of using them if you are using a Blu-Ray player and HDTV. HDMI enables a neat little thing known as  Automatic Format Intelligence. So if you’ve got HDTV and a Blu-Ray Player, AFI allows them to talk to each other, and make adjustments to your picture automatically to enhance the display. Does an analog signal do that? No sir/ma’am.

So basically, that’s the science of HDMI for you, just one of many AV cables I will be writing about! See? Not that complicated! More questions on HDMI? Check some of these links below for some additional info!

Are some HDMI cables better than others? Find out here!

HDMI vs. DVI: The Battle Ensues.

-Laura

The other day, I found myself having one of those ‘Aghh!’ moments. Not to be confused with the ‘A-ha!’ moment which preempts a great idea, the ‘Aghh’ moment is the one that makes you realize that you may be a bit off course.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Laura and I am the Customer Service Supervisor here at CableOrganizer.com. I’ve worked here for just over four years (love it!) and I have found myself in a predicament of sorts. I’ve always prided myself on being the ‘Go-To Girl’ here at the big CO; I have a ton of product knowledge and I’ve been around here long enough to know what’s up, yet there appears to be a tiny little gap as far as my expertise goes.

Last week I was asked by Juan, a co-worker/guy who likes to make fun of me, to list types of cable for a marketing project he was working on. Quick to answer (as always), I blurted out ‘Monitor cables!’. Apparently that was the wrong answer, and the win went to my pal Tiff in New Products who so eloquently referred to them by their fancy proper name, DVI cables. Well whatever, I could so beat her in a Being-Totally-Awesome-to-my-Customers contest. This got me thinking, though. Our company and product focus has evolved greatly since I was manning the front lines on the phones, and I really need to brush up on the more technical aspects of the products we sell. Then, being the thinker that I am, it occurred to me that if I lack this knowledge of products I work with on nearly a daily basis, then there must be other people out there who could use some guidance in this area as well. Hence, this blog was born!

If you are a professional installer or someone who is very familiar with audio/visual/home entertainment setups, then you are probably well versed in much of the content that I am going to cover. This blog is really intended for the beginner, the individual who wants to create their own home entertainment arrangement or maybe even the Average Joe (or Jane!) who just wants to know a little more about something that they aren’t familiar with! Maybe you work in an office around people who are slightly more technologically adept than you are and you want to learn all of their fun jargon so that you can chat with them and they won’t make fun of you when they ask you questions that you can’t answer although you should be able to… well, maybe that’s just me.

What I am going to do here is essentially take something that may seem complicated to some and make it simple to understand. I will talk about all kinds of audio/visual cables – what they are called, how they are used, anything else pertinent – to hopefully allow those of you who are a little lost out there to learn with me! There will be pictures, definitions, explanations and all other kinds of knowledge to be had should you check back. So go ahead and read on! You just might learn something; I know I will!

-Laura