Need advice on connecting DVD to HDTV.

[Dalixam]

Hi,

I've had a DVD player for years, but just a regular 4:3 tv, so the DVD has been connected by a SCART connector.

However, I recently purchased a Sony KDL-40W2000 HDTV and I want my DVD connected probably to get the best picture. I have no knowledge of the different ways to connect them though, but I have searched the net, these forums, and wikipedia and I think I mostly have it figured out.

The best way is component, true? (I also find something called RGB which some say is the best, is component and RGB the same thing?

How many cables does component have? I am confused if it's three or six.

My DVD player is rather old, but I'm not going to replace it. Unless it breaks it will do the job until I buy a Blu-Ray player My Player is a Panasonic DVD-S35 like this. As far as I can tell it is able of component (Progressive Video Out (Y, PB, PR)) and as far as I have learned ypbpr is the same as component. Although this wikipedia page confuses me

In case it's needed, here are the specs for the TV.

I could use some advice to help me clear things up

[Taxi]

Component uses three cables, typically colored Red, Green and Blue. With component connections you can get HD resolutions up to 1080i, so you should be good to go.

[rixrex]

Well, the wikipedia pages tend to get stuffed with a lot of techical info that can kind of make your head spin. The term 'component' just means that the video signal is separated into component parts, and this separation will keep signal cross-interference to a minimal, and provide a better quality image when recombined on screen. So, yes, component is close to the best viewing option, and it is commonly a three-cable hookup with RCA style plugs.

One thing that can help you gain understanding is if you know what the acronyms mean for these 'component' output terms: Y-Cb-Cr, Y-Pb-Pr, RGB

RGB is the oldest term, meaning Red, Green, Blue. You might recall these are the 3 primary colors of light from which all other colors are derived, and are the colors of the CRT monitor pixels commonly arranged in groups of 3, which will give the viewer all of the visual color possibilities depending upon the intensity of each individual color pixel in the triple-grouping. RGB is a perfectly good analog video system, if your set uses it, and it is what PC monitors use.

The other two terms are newer, and both are signal systems coming out of the RGB signal, and are very similar to each other. There's one important difference noted below.

The Y you might think means Yellow, but actually stands for the Luminence signal, or Luma, which is the signal of 'brightness' and is black and white. You can actually hook up only this cable and leave off the other two, and see a black and white image on your set.

The other four terms stand for the Chrominance signal, Chroma, which is the color intensity signal, and as you can probably guess Cb and Pb have to do with BLUE, where Cr and Pr have to do with RED. These outputs on your DVD player will be labelled either Y-Cb-Cr or Y-Pb-Pr.

The C in Y-Cb-Cr will mean it's a Component 480i (480 line interlace scan) output. The P in Y-Pb-Pr will mean it's a Progressive scan signal, like 480p. That's important to know depending upon what your set will accept, and many will accept either. Some older interlaced signal sets won't accept the Y-Pb-Pr, though.

Now this gets a little technical in regards to the recombination of these signals into the proper variation of colors, so you might not find it useful:

Cb and Pb are signals that are the difference between Blue and Luma, while Cr and Pr are signals that are the difference between Red and Luma. Remember, Luma is the 'black and white' signal, and so black is the absence of light or color, BUT white is the presence of ALL colors. So you must think of the LUMA signal as ALL colors combined in a signal along with the necessary 'contrast' information.

Therefore, the difference between Blue and Luma is all colors except Blue, and the difference between Red and Luma is all colors except Red, and hence the third necessary primary color of Green plus the variations needed to produce all other secondary colors are extrapolated from this. Kind of similar to the old two-color-strip technicolor film process. If you looked at any one of these two signals on your set without the other, which is possible, you would basically see that one is a great variety of purplish-hued tones and the other is a great variety of orangy-hued tones that cannot stand on their own to give you any sort of decent image to view, but when combined with the Luma or Y signal, they look fabulous and much better than any composite or S-video signal.

Just like the fact that there is no single film color sytem that can truly look as good as the old Technicolor film color system when done right.

[Dalixam]

Thank you both for the answers, especially rixrex for the thorough explanation. I really appreciate it. I understand how it works now and I'll go ahead and buy a set of cables to try it out

[Iguana Man]

SCART? What is that?

And I suspect either your TV and/or dvd player came with a component cable so there shouldn't be a need to buy one unless you want a 'higher' quality cable.

Have you any update on this?

Hows it look?

[rixrex]

SCART is the European 21 pin connector, standardized originally in France, for sets to receive in a single connective cable, all of the variety of analog video and audio signals, rather than having multiple inputs. This would include the necessary components for an RGB signal.

The Scart connector would "daisy chain" between multiple devices finally ending in a connection at the set. Each device had a Scart input and output, and would pass through signals when the device was off, much like the RF ch 3/4 connectors on NTSC VCRs.

What is useful to some people about Scart capable devices is that some NTSC devices were made with Scart connectors, such as certain LD players, and if you know how to do it and what pins are what, you can pull RGB from the scart output and get yourself a component signal.

[Iguana Man]

Originally Posted by rixrex

you can pull RGB from the scart output and get yourself a component signal.

Really? That's cool. Thanks for the other stuff. I do mean that since I often get confused on these issues.

This place rocks and rolls!

[Sehnzeleid]

Originally Posted by rixrex

What is useful to some people about Scart capable devices is that some NTSC devices were made with Scart connectors, such as certain LD players, and if you know how to do it and what pins are what, you can pull RGB from the scart output and get yourself a component signal.

My family's now retired 19 year old RCA ColorTrak 2000 CRT has what looks exactly like a SCART input named "EIA MULTIPORT - STEREO"

[rixrex]

EIA Multiport is the same thing as Scart connector, for US NTSC standards.

Both connectors also carry stereo audio.

One thing that these connectors were useful for was for videotape recording facilities, where a bevy of VCRs were linked together through such connectors solely for the recording of dupes from a single master. Most people don't realize that factory videotapes are recorded kind of like how you'd do home recording in real time recording, but with hundreds of machines all running simultaneously.

EIA Multiport allowed a pass through of signal without any considerable signal loss, and also enable certain 'sync' signals required for starting and stopping the units all together.