Hello all! I will start out by listing my components so that you have an understanding of what I am working with:
Sony 50" SXRD Grand Wega HDTV Bose Lifestyles 28 Monster HTS2600 power center Motorola DCT6412III HDTV cable box w/ DVR
Alright, here goes. I am wondering if I should keep using my current monster component video cables or switch to HDMI? Will there be any gain in performance? The TV is capable of up to 1080p resolution so I don't want the cables to be a limiting factor. Also, from the cable box to the Bose receiver, should I use optical or coaxial? Both are all digital signals but is there a better choice? Also, one of my speaker wires has become frayed due to a hungry parrot, but since Bose uses it's own proprietary speaker wires, what should I do? I am not sure what gauge they are, maybe 12?, 14? The speaker wires have an RCA type hook up at one end but of course just the copper wire at the other. Should I get some decent speaker wire and solder the old connector onto it or just try to cut out the bad section and solder it up? I also would like to know if I should trim my speaker wires to length. All of the speaker wires are plenty long enough, is it harmful to coil the extra up and leave it? I know that colied wire with electricity running in it will produce and electromagnetic field but is the amperage thru the wire enough to be concerned with? Any help will be appriciated. Thanks. -Andy
Andrew without wanting to hurt your feelings, you are only going to get so much from that Lifestyle unit with those tiny cube speakers. You may notice an improvement your video by going to HDMI, but your cable box uses DVI. As far as Audio goes there won't be much improvment with this setup.
I am very well aware of the limitations of the Lifestyles system. I have had it for a couple years now and got it free. I don't plan on upgrading to a new surround system for at leaset some time. This isn't what I would buy if spending the money today but it's what I have. The speaker wire looks heavier than other 18 AWG that I have around my house (connecting my cheap Logitech Z5500 surround sound system in the bedroom to my computer). Also the cable box does have an HDMI hookup. Will that help with the picture quality? The salesperson I talked to at Best-Buy said they got the best picture on the in-store model using the component video. Is it worth the money to buy the cable to try it?
You can contact bose and get a adapter that takes the speaker rca outputs to a little end that you can put you own speaker wire in. Its about six inches long. They normaly send them out free but you might have a nominal shipping cost on them.
Hdmi translates to all digital from box to tv. Component will go analog then digital again. So in theroy you should see a difference in your Digital and Hd picture. Your analog if you still get those most cable providers send analog on lower channells are most likely not going to improve.