HDV or Blu-Ray?

[MichaelD]

DVI / HDMI and Component Video are all video standards which support a variety of resolutions, but which deliver the signal from the source to the display in very different ways.

The difference is that DVI/HDMI delivers the signal in a digital format and Component Video is an analogue format - delivering the signal not as a bitstream but as a set of continuously varying voltages.

***Having said all that the jury is still out as to which is best as it is dependent on the equipment that you are using. ***

[TimKennelly]

But for crying out loud, is HDMI *that* much better?

Yes.

I mean, I can't see the footage you are referring to so this was/is just an educated guess, but we are talking HDV.

If you are watching it on a Hi-Def monitor/tv many do not handle/playback SD footage exceptionally well and if you are going in component the system is getting the footage essentially in SD resolution and will handle it appropriately with the relative way it handles SD footage which may be bad, mediocre or decent.

Going in HDMI allows full HD resolution which is what HD monitors/tvs are tweaked to show.

Again, there are variables here depending on both the monitor/tv and personal taste/observance, but to know if it is the actual footage or a playback issue you have to compare apples to apples so I recommend connecting your cam via HDMI to the monitor to know whether this is an actual export degradation or just a monitoring path degradation.