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Merry Christmas!!!

By now many of you have already opened your gifts and are starting to play around with all of your gadgets and electronics. One thing that Im sure many have gotten for the first time are those big nice LCD or Plasma HDTV’s, or HTDV’s in general. Last year I wrote a multipage blog post outlining a lot of things that many may want to know about setting up their HDTV’s but with the questions and such that I have been getting lately, I think there is something that many people are still confused about. That is the connections on the back of your TV.

What are those connections? Which ones do I use? Whats the difference?

Composite (sometimes called RCA or AV)

This is your plain Jane connection to your TV, what many are use to using when connecting a VCR to a television. With the composite connection, you are going to get very minimal picture quality. Now that you have a new HDTV, this connection is one that you want to avoid if there are other options. There is a red, white and yellow cable. The red and white is sound, and the yellow is video. Many times there will be one of these inputs in the front or side of the TV. When using these connections, you will only be able to receive a standard definition signal, no HDTV or Progressive scan.

S-Video

The S-Video connection is the next step up as far as image quality. Like component, you will still only be able to receive a standard definition signal. You still have a red and white cable used for sound. The S-Video portion of the cable is a little different than the yellow cable you have with composite. Sometimes you will have to use this connection with deferent inputs, but like composite, you should try to avoid it if better inputs are available.

Coax

This input is a pretty standard input. it is used sometimes to connect cable TV or an antennae to your TV. There are usually 2 different coax style inputs on your TV, one for cable and one for a over the air antennae. The tricky thing about this input now that you have an HDTV is many TVs can use the over the air input to receive your local stations in high definition. the cable input can receive a digital signal but it will still be standard definition.

Component.

Heres where we start to get the cables that HDTV owners should start paying attention too. With component you have 3 cables: red, green and blue. Component cables are capable of receiving standard and high definition signals. In standard definition, component cables will bring you greater image quality than all Ive mentioned so far. When it comes to high definition, component cables are capable of progressive scan (480P), 720p, and 1080i inputs. Your TV still dictates which signal is supported but high definition begins with using component cables. One thing to note is that component are video only cables. The three cables each carry a different color spectrum so you have to make sure you have the colors on the cable matching the colors on the inputs and outputs on your TV and Media box (receiver, dvd player, game system etc) As far as sound, you will still have to use regular AV (red and white) cables, or optical audio cables.

Optical Audio cables (sound only)

Now that Ive mentioned Optical, I know you are wondering what the heck it is. Basically, Optical is the cable you would use if you have 5.1, 7.1, Dolby digital, or DTS sound. It is a single cable and most high definition signals also have the higher quality sound options such as the ones I just mentioned. To use this connection, you will most likely have a reciever. if you are connecting directly to your television, with no receiver or surround sound system, this will not apply to you and you will most likely use the regular red and white audio connection.

HDMI

HDMI is the connection that is pretty popular, and is the newest of all of the connections. This is a digital connection and it has video and sound in the same connection. It looks a little like a USB cable. This cable is also capable of carrying a 1080P signal which most component cable cannot do.

There are a few other connections but those are the most common that many will com across when they are connecting their new HDTV’s.

The last thing to remember is that an HDTV doesn’t automatically mean high definition. You will always need some type of HD inputs, like a video game system, HD-DVD or Bluray, or a HD receiver of some sort. for more info on that you can check here where I talk about it a little more. And when you go to buy more cables, check monoprice.com, thier prices are a lot better than the price of the cables you’ll find at your local bestbuy