DVD hook up question (Component vs. S-video)

[JackTheTripper]

So I bought a new DVD player yesterday and I'm getting conflicting opinions on how to hood it up. An article I read on the web and a (geek) friend of mine both said S-video is the way to go but now I'm getting conflicting recommendations.

A little info that might help: I don't have top of the line stuff. I bought this player cause I had an 18 year old sony 5 disk CD changer that finly went bonkers on me this last weekend so I figured I'd move the current DVD to annother room and consolidate with a 5 disk CD/DVD/MP3/WMA/CIA/FBI... etc. etc. My TV is kind of new. About 8 months old and does support both methods. It's nothing fancy though. Not a plasma... not even a flat screen. So if that fact means it doesn't really matter what I use please let me know that too.

Thanks.

[shawnc]

Everything I've read say's s-video is the way to go though I don't know the technical reasons for it. I've had the same DVD hooked up with both cable and s-video and to be honest, I didn't notice the difference.

Having said that, I have all of my DVD players hooked connected with s-video.

[Falstaff]

I'd go with S-Video out of simplicity, I don't think most people would notice any difference, especially if it's not an extremely high quality HDTV. You can check out this site (http://nfg.2y.net/games/ntsc/) or this thread (http://forums.audioreview.com/showthread.php?t=2509) at AudioReview.com. Basically though, compnent is a better connection (capable of more bandwidth) but without the extremely high resolution of HDTV, you aren't going to notice any difference, which means S-video would probably be a better choice just because it's less cables to deal with.

[smashcasi]

I agree with Falstaff, it depends on your TV. If you have a big screen with component inputs (especially if it supports HD) go with component. Otherwise s-video is more than sufficient. Also, in almost all cases you can go with the cheapest cables you can find - you won't notice the difference.

[tanalasta]

Component video does provide the best quality output. However both S-video and component video are significantly above what the standard RCA jack provides.

To be honest, I'd have to agree you'd probably not notice any difference. I certainly didn't.

If you the cable(s), try component video. Otherwise, go S-video which is just the one plug. Don't let the picture quality decide because it's almost an arbitary point, go for whatever's more convenient.

[ironguy]

S-video will handle only up to a 480p signal (480 lines resolution, progressive scan). Component will deal with all available video resolutions - up to 1080; necessary for Hi-Def. That said, DVDs are 480 so s-video is fine.

The other issue to consider is that s-video cables are generally less expensive than component.

[milkman dan]

>>>
An article I read on the web and a (geek) friend of mine both said S-video is the way to go but now I'm getting conflicting recommendations.
<<<

That is advice you would be better without. If you have a big TV that has component-in, then by all means, use that! S-video is pretty useless on larger screens :( Especially if you want to plug a computer into it!

[JackTheTripper]

Thanks all. Like I said, my TV is nothing special so I went with S-vid for simplicity's sake. Plus it seems from everything I've read that the difference between S-vid and component is slight but they are both WAY better then a single RCA so that's fine for me.

[milkman dan]

I have heard that Svideo is only slightly better than a single RCA myself. Svideo is just RCA + an extra black and white channel from what I can gather by splicing an svideo cable into an RCA jack. Regardless, if you aren't running a computer into it it is more then good enough :D