What's the difference with A/V and Component

[mortimor]

I'm trying to get the right cables for my tv but I am little confused on the difference between red/white/yellow cables versus the red/green/blue cables abd so forth. The cables appear to be the same except for the colors on the outside.

 

[MDS]

The cables are the same on the inside. Sometimes the red/white audio cables are slightly different (50 Ohm vs 75 Ohm characteristic impedance) but usually companies just make them all the same 75 Ohm cables and change the color of the connector.

The single yellow cable is for Composite video and it is the lowest quality because composite video carries the luminance (brightness) and chrominance (color) all together, hence 'composite'. The three cable set of red/blue/green is Component Video and is the best analog video format. Component Video carries the luminance on one cable and color difference signals on the other two - so basically red, green, and blue separately instead of munged together.

 

[mortimor]

So in theory you could use red/white/yellow cables for your component hook up? There is just so many cables for so many different prices. Seems then there is no real difference, correct?

 

[landonspop]

So in theory you could use red/white/yellow cables for your component hook up? There is just so many cables for so many different prices. Seems then there is no real difference, correct?

Cables lose signal the further they run. The better the cable is made, the less of a loss will be noticed. 2-6 ft probably will not make much difference. Any longer and you might want to go with the best you can afford, especially if this distance starts approaching 10' or more. The red, green and blue colors make it easier to make the correct connections, when using component inputs.

 

[jonnythan]

Yellow/red/white are A/V. The yellow is the single video cable and the red/white are audio cables.

In component, the red/blue/green are all video cables. Yellow composite video is the lowest quality there is. Component lets you get 480p, 720p, 1080i, and sometimes 1080p. Yellow maxes out at something that's worse than 480i.

Quality yellow/red/white cables will function just fine as red/blue/green cables. But most cheap yellow/red/white aren't the 75 ohm cables you need for component video.

Go to Monoprice.com and get proper component cables. They're cheap.