Working for one of the top manufacturers in Consumer Electronics everyday providing technical advice for our products, I have noticed that we get alot of the same questions over and over.  The number one question seems to be about basic connections.  This guide will help you understand certain cables and hopefully provide you with an idea of what cables are right for you and how to connect them with your electronic products. 

We will begin with the most basic connecting cable.  The coaxial cable.  This is your standard cable that links your TV with your cable from the wall or your cable box.  It has the one pin in the middle. This is an analog cable used for Standard Definition TV that carries both picture and sound.

DID YOU KNOW?  That when using this cable with a DVD Combination unit you do not have to use your RCA (red, yellow, and white) cables?  Anytime you have a combination unit all you have to do is connect your cable that comes from the wall or out of your cable box to the Antenna In on the back of your Combo.  Then connect a 2nd coax cable from the out on the back of your combo to the Antenna In on the back of your TV.  This connection does allow you to view or even record the DVD portion of your combination unit and if you are not too familiar with electronic products it is your simplest hookup. 

The next set of cable that I would like to introduce you to are the RCA Cables.  These cables are color coded red, yellow and white.  The yellow will always carry your video signal.  The white is for monoral sound.  The red is for your stereo sound.  Typically, the red is for your left channel sound and the white is for your right.  They are single ended analog connections used to connect your audio or video devices.

DID YOU KNOW?  The RCA Cables are most commonly referred to as A/V Cables or Audio Video Cables.  They can be used to connect your cable box to your TV or DVD/VCR Combo units.  They are also used for DVD Player connections to your TV.  Any time you use this connection  you will also have to access your video source input on the device you are connecting to.  For example.... If connecting from your cable box to your DVD/VCR Combo, you will then have to take your DVD remote and look for a button that says either TV Video, Input, or Aux, you will then press the button until you see either AV1 or 2 appear on the display of that unit.  If using the RCA Cables to connect your DVD or Cable Box to your TV, then you must press an Input button on your TV remote in order to access your Video Source Input on your TV.   RCA Cables are aka Composite Video.

The S Video cable is supposed to provide a better quality picture that Composite Video.  It does so by seperating the luminance and chrominance portions of a video signal.  It also provides less interference.  When it comes to cable connections it is all about personal preference. 

KEY FACT TO REMEMBER:  Since this cable carries a video signal only, you will need to also use audio cables for sound such as your red and white RCA cables.  IT HAS BEEN MY EXPERIENCE WITH THIS CABLE.... that when there are multiple devices connected, the S Video cable will cancel out your other cables.  For Example  When you go to change inputs on your TV from S Video to Video, you will not see your video input as an option.  I have yet to receive an answer as to why this is so.....

The last cables in part one of my guide are known as Component Video Cables.  They are your red, green, and blue color coded cables.  On the back of your electronics device, you will notice the letters Y, Pb, and Pr.this is just technical shorthand for component video.  Because the component video connection takes the video signal and splits it into 3 parts, 1 part brightness and 2 parts color,  it provides a more accurate picture with clearer color reproduction and less bleeding.  It is capable of providing a wider bandwidth video signals like progressive scan DVD and High definition digital television. 

IMPORTANT FACT TO REMEMBER about component cables is that you must have this connection to utilize progressive scan feature of your DVD player.  Also, component cables will not allow up converting copy protected materials to higher resolutions.