Dave Farley

My mother finally convinced my father to get a DVD player for their house. They called me up for help in getting one. I picked up a Sony DVP-NS775V for them.

Their TV is a Sony 32FV300. It's an analog set that was bought new 4.5 years ago. Nice TV. They have no plans to buy an HDTV. This set has 2 sets of component inputs on it. I always figured this was a waste on an analog set. Money isn't an issue but I have a spare S-Video cable here. I was wondering if going with component instead of S-video would improve picture quality for DVD on an analog set?

Thanks.

ChuckSolo

It did on my Panasonic 32" although not as much as one would think. Component is always a better connection than S-Video which is better than composite. On a 32" screen a DVD is going to look pretty good anyway, as long as the DVD itself is mastered well and the film itself looked good to begin with. The aforementioned Panasonic is still in action at my parent's house and I am amazed at how good DirectTV looks on it via the RF connection. As long as you have 2 Component connections, use one. If I were you and was balking at paying 50-100 bucks on a component cable, I would just get one at Wal-Mart. I have seen Component cables at Wal-Mart for way less than 30 bucks.

Philip Hamm

Why? Component is an analog connection. How much of a practical difference it makes I don't know, but theoretically it's definitely a much better connection.Python component cables are available at www.cablesforless.com and www.trianglecables.com for less than $10, and probably better than the Wal*Mart cables also.

Philip Hamm
Moderator Emeritus

John Garcia

PQ will not be dramatically different, but color will be noticably improved. I've always used component whenever available.

"The trouble with the world is not that people know too little, but that they know so many things that ain't so." - Mark Twain

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Shane Martin

I'd use the component connection as well. I did on my 32". I wouldn't use the cheap cables though.

Dave Farley

Thanks for the replies everyone. Component it is. Thanks for the advice on where to get a good deal on a set of cables.

Philip,

Thanks for the advice and the links. I realize that component is a better connection than S-Video but in my own experience I actually saw a better picture for SD broadcasts through composite and S-Video with an HD cable box. I made the mistake of extrapolating the SD cable result to interlaced DVD playback. Never having owned an analog set in the past with component connections, I always looked at S-Video as the best input for interlaced material and just figured that component input with an analog set was a case of the law of diminishing returns. It looks like I made an incorrect assumption.

Allan Jayne

Sometimes some of the cable channels come through better using composite.

Component is a better connection, but then somebody has to comb filter the composite video channels. The cable box usually does a worse job compared with sending out composite and letting the TV comb filter it.

Digital channels are much better off with component video, 9or at least S-video out of the box.

Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

Dave Farley

Thanks for the information and the link, Allan.