HDTV Connections

• A source that produces video and sound for a high definition television system usually has separate analog and digital outputs to go to the viewing screen and speakers. An HDMI connection has a 19 pin port that plugs into a slot with edge connectors to carry digital video and audio in a single cable. Composite or component connections use coaxial cables with RCA push-in connectors. Composite uses a single cable, while component uses three to carry the analog video and two more to carry the audio.
  
  

Analog Signals

• Analog signals travel in waves, just like sound waves that vary from a positive peak to a negative peak without ever stopping. Music originates as analog signals that travel through microphones and amplifiers to speakers. The analog sound waves remain continuous from the original music source to the listener. However, analog signals can pick up noise and interference along the way. Although electronics can filter out much of the noise and interference, analog cannot produce a pure, unchanged signal from the source.
  
  

Digital Signals

• In a digital sound system, the music gets converted into a digital code. There are so many bits of information in the code that virtually any sound can be distinguished from any other. At the receiving end, a decoder reads the code and recreates a signal that -- according to the code -- is the same as the original signal. A digital signal also picks up noise and distortion while traveling along the system, but if the decoder can read the code at all, it recreates new signals without the distortion.
  
  

Sound Quality

• Although the digital signal winds up cleaner and devoid of noise or static, some listeners consider the digital sound unnatural and prefer the softer analog sound. Some types of music or voices may please some listeners on one system, while other types of sounds do not. While most HDTV system components have options for both HDMI cables or analog video and audio cables, the only way you can find out if the HDMI improves the sound for you is to listen to both and make a comparison. It is purely the listener's call.