Analog Connections Explained

Ok, so you now understand the path a signal will most likely take on it's way to your tv. Now let's get to the heart of the matter...The quality of connections. This page is dedicated to your understanding of what connection is better than what so you know if your Home Theater system is Flying High or just Puttering About.

Here's a quick listing of the different types of connections and what they are used for :

ANALOG Coaxial RF (F-Type) - Audio & Video Composite Video (RCA) - Audio & Video S-Video - Video Component Video - Video DIGITAL Optical Cables - Audio Coaxial Digital Cables - Audio DVI - Video HDMI - Audio & Video

Analog vs Digital? Which one should you use? The short of it is that digital connections are much less susceptible to interference and thus often yield a better result. When looking at this debate from a video point of view, digital is almost always the way to go. When you're talking about audio though, the choice sometimes isn't always as clear cut. Sound by it's nature is a dynamic thing. Digital on other hand is not...It's much more on and off by nature, much more black and white...no room in the middle for variety. (The preceding was a very crude and short synopsis of digital.) So sometimes when sound is represented in a digital format, it may sound cleaner, but sometimes it can also sound flat since sounds' subtle varieties may not always be picked up when sound is recorded/transferred to digital.

Modern Analog Connections

	Coaxial RF (F-Type) This is the worst connection you can have. No seriously. And if you're serious about Home Theater you gotta change this...like yesterday. Get digital cable or satellite, and depending on the box you have, hook it up to your TV with Composite cords at the very least.
	Composite (RCA) When talking about Home Theater, this is really the barebones as far as connections. Decent enough quality, but really nothing to write home about. With this connection, you'll usually see a yellow cord for video, a red cord for the left audio, and a white cord for the white audio.
	S-Video S-Video is nowadays considered a "decent" connection. What does the "S" stand for? Some say "Super", some say "Separate". Without getting too technical, current S-Video connections uses a 4 pin mockup that separates video information into two separate signals, one for color (chrominance), and the other for brightness (luminance).
	Component Video Even though not a digital connection, this is still pretty good. Component provides a better picture than S-Video by further subdiving the color information into two-color difference signals. Confused? Look, the further you sub-divide the video signal, the more quality you can devote to it's individual components, hence the better it looks. These cords only carry a video signal, so you would have to use RCA cables or something else for the audio.

Congratulations! You now have a working knowledge of analog connections! ...Too bad this isn't the 80's. If you wanna be in the know now, it's time you took the leap into digital. The next page of this article talks all about the coveted digital connection so if you're ready, "Let's Get SERIOUS".

1, 2, Page 3 (Digital Connections Explained)-->

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