Help! Is a cable a cable?

[Groundbeef]

I am reconfiguring my HT from the basement to the living room so the drywall construction can begin.

I am short 1 composite cable, and wondering if I can "cheat" and use some regular cables (IE, a yellow video, red & white audio) in place of the green,blue, red. The seem to be the same size, but I don't to screw anything up.

Thanks! Any help would be appreciated.

[Dusty Chalk]

You don't want to mix analog with digital or video (they have different bandwidths), but you can substitute one video cable for another, yes. Even for component vs. composite, yes.

[Groundbeef]

I must be dense. I miss what you are saying. Can I put the yellow, red,and white cables in place of the green,blue,red? Or are you saying no, that is not a good idea.

Frankly, I am just crunched for time and don't want to make a trip to the store. But if it would ruin the Reciever, then I won't mess with it until tommorow and buy the correct cable.

[Dusty Chalk]

The yellow one (video cable) is fine, but I wouldn't use the red and white ones (audio).

[Groundbeef]

I see. Ok, thanks for the info. I'll go to the store then, and do it tommorrow.

[ericl]

Digital RCA = Composite Video = Component Video. They're all the same and compatible with each other. Analog Audio RCA cables are a different story. Don't use those for video/digital audio, and vice versa.

[Groundbeef]

Digital RCA = Composite Video = Component Video. They're all the same and compatible with each other. Analog Audio RCA cables are a different story. Don't use those for video/digital audio, and vice versa.

Thanks for all the help. I had to go to Meijer for some stuff anyway so I perused the miniscule A/V section and picked up a 6' composite cable (blue,green,red) for $10.00 Now I know the signal will not be as good as the $79.00 pixie dusted solid gold Monster Cable they had, but oh well.

BTW I had to laugh as they have a pretty wide selection of LCD screens mounted in the area. All showing Cars, and every one of them looked like crap. Upon inspection I noticed that they are all hooked up to the "cable in", and not even using digital hookups. No wonder they don't sell many TV's!

[hermanv]

Video cable (that's the yellow in the old yellow, white, red sets) is coax and is 75 Ohms. Component video cables (red, green, blue) are also 75 Ohm coax. The red and white audio cables are shielded wire which is not coax and not a controlled impedance.

Why does this matter? Video signals have very wide bandwidth with lots of high frequency content. In the old NTSC system, video signals were up to 4.75 MHz. With HDTV frequencies as high as 35 MHz are carried in the cables. In perspective AM car radio signals were 0.54 to 1.6 MHz.

Using shielded wire for video signals could cause signal reflections seen as smear, ringing or overshoot in the picture.

[Smokey]

Why does this matter? Video signals have very wide bandwidth with lots of high frequency content. In the old NTSC system, video signals were up to 4.75 MHz. With HDTV frequencies as high as 35 MHz are carried in the cables.

Good point.

As you said, the frequency bandwidth of quality component cables should be 10 time of ordinary video cables :)