If you’re familiar with composite cables (red, yellow, white) you may have seen the similar looking component cables (red, blue, green). Why are they different colors? What does every color mean? How are these cables different? In Lamens terms think of it like composite cables being a car, but a base model car without leather, air conditioning, power windows, etc. Where-as component cables can be thought of as the same car WITH all those options. Both are the same tangible object, one is just better due to more features. Another major feature of component cables is that they can carry HD signal, whereas composite cables can only transmit in standard definition (480i).

What is 480i you ask? The number is the number of lines of resolution on the screen. The higher the number, the better (in most case). The only exception would be 720p being better than 1080i. The letter that corresponds afterwards stands for either progressive scan (p), or interlaced (I). Progressive scan is a one of the ways of displaying an image by means of each line in the frame are drawn in sequence. Progressive scan provides a higher quality picture than interlaced. Progressive scan is a relatively new technology (last 10 years). Progressive scan provides a higher resolution than interlaced. The images move across the screen in a smoother manner due to the lack of intentional blurring. The only downfall is progressive scan uses up a lot of bandwidth. Interlaced has been around since the first TV was invented. This process “paints” the image on the screen through a series of lines. It was designed to run using minimal bandwidth, so use on CRT devices would be much smoother. While 1080i makes a great picture, it can’t compete with the smoothness and consistency of 1080p.

Component cable is defined as the video signal which is separated into two or more signals. Stored video signals in the devices (DVD, cable box, video game console) transmit the data by breaking it into multiple signals so there is no chance of the signals interfering with each other. This process is called component video; which allows the higher quality instead of composite and sends all video through one cable, allowing possible interference. When using standard home devices such as your DVD player, you need an outlet for your audio to travel. For this you need component cables. FireFold carries both component video with audio and component video cables. Component cables can either be DIGITAL or ANALOG. Analog is the more common of the two. Very few devices can utilize digital component cables at the current time; mostly used in large-scale home theater set-ups and computer applications. Component cables are a good alternative to HDMI if your TV doesn’t have an HDMI input. I would still recommend investing in an HDMI cable if your TV has the ports for it, as you will see a noticeable increase in quality due to the all digital signal transmitted by an HDMI cable. Contrary to popular belief, component cables will carry all signal resolutions, even 1080p. Even though component will carry 1080p, the majority will not be able to utilize it. The main reason for this would be that most 1080p signals, such as Blu Ray require an HDCP signal to be transmitted. HDCP is also another major difference between component and HDMI is that HDMI has HDCP integrated into it. HDCP is High-bandwidth digital-content protection. This was developed by Intel specifically to protect the content that the user watches through an HDMI cable or DVI cable. This is not done to prevent illegal copying of the material, but specifically to protect the stability of the signal to always provide the best signal possible. When using an HDMI cable, the cable has data internally which will only accept content if the device it is receiving it from has the required license’s programed in, or the data is not allowed to pass. This is beneficial to keep stealing of the data from occurring from other devices. This process is possible by the data being encrypted.

You might hear the term YPbPr; this is just another term for analog component cables. The colored plugs are separated into: red (Pr), green (Y), and blue (Pb). YPbPr was created to replace the outdated RGB components due to the data redundancy that consumes the RGB signal. The YpbPr uses a non-colored signal, better known as luma. Luma combines with “chroma”, chroma specifically gives color data. With this luma and chroma signal, only one image becomes transmitted instead of three.

Some consumers worry about signal loss with certain lengths of cables. If you have a single, un-interrupted cable anything up to 100 feet will have no noticeable loss, even with an HD signal. At FireFold we sell up to 100 foot Component cable with or without audio connections.

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We carry a few different types of component connections:

• Component to Component: This would be the ideal cable to hook your HD cable box to your TV, or your DVD player to your TV. Click here to check out our Component to Component cables.
• Component Video to SVGA: This is the ideal cable needed to hook your HD or regular projector up to your TV. Click here to check out our Component Video to SVGA cables.
• Component Video to DVI: This cable would be used to hook your computer via the graphics card to a TV. You can also use to hook your a/v receiver to your TV. Click here to check out our Component Video to DVI cables.

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Component cables have been around for a few years, and should continue to stick around in the near future, but most manufactures seem to be gravitating towards HDMI. As stated before, component is a great alternative if it’s your only option when watching HD movies/TV. Here at FireFold we carry cable lengths from 3FT up to 100FT.