You Don’t Know Jacks
October 31st, 2005
Rachel writes “Confused about your connections? We fill in the holes behind your A/V equipment.
You’ve bought a new DVD player. The box opens to reveal a new shiny, sleek device that your home entertainment center is just screaming for. With manual in hand, you squeeze behind your equipment rack to hook up the latest addition—only to find out that you’re one jack short.
While some may be satisfied switching back and forth, destined to crouch behind the cabinet every time the family wants to watch a movie, there is a way to avoid this disaster that so many of us have already endured.
All of your digital dreams can come true if you know what you’re buying. “The types and numbers of jacks affect your ability to connect your present and future home theater products,” says Marty Zanfino, director of product development at Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America, Inc. But with the ever-changing standards for both audio and video, it’s getting harder to keep up.
“You need multiple inputs and outputs, preferably as many as you have sources,” says Dan Fulmer, president of FulTech Solutions in Jacksonville, Florida. In other words, our audio and video equipment has become something that resembles Swiss cheese. Super sound and other technological advances aside, it won’t take too much time before you find yourself longing for the good old days of the coaxial cable jack.
Component, composite, optical, coaxial and now something called HDMI—when exactly does the madness stop? The bad news is, it never does. The good news is that you may be able to buy equipment that will help you save your system from near extinction. “