The home theater system is becoming almost as common as a microwave in modern households, yet like the microwave, all that most people know about it is that they can't live with out it.  Luckily a firm understanding of, non-ionizing microwave radiation is unnecessary to master your home theater, rather this simple guide should suffice.  This guide can be read over or simply be referred to as needed, it is meant to be used a companion to our wiring guide.  Below is a list of the most common connections used in home theater systems today.  This section will describe what each connection does as well as some of its strengths and weaknesses. 

 Video

 RF or coaxial cable-

 The Coaxial cable is likely the most familiar of all the cables, as it has been connecting America’s televisions to cable TV for some years now.  An advantage of this cable is that it carries both picture and sound and is capable of doing so in high quality inexpensively.  To properly install a coaxial cable push the thin copper wire that protrudes from the front in the center hole of the coaxial receptacle and screw the metal sleeve clockwise until hand tight.  Push on only variations are also available and make installation much easier, but offer less security against the cable being accidentally pulled off.    

Composite video-

Another cable that has been around for some time now, often referred to as RCA cables after the Radio Corporation of America, who designed the plug style.  A group of composite cables includes three wires, one yellow, one red, and one white.  The yellow cable is the only one that carries video; the other two will be discussed below in the audio section.  This video cable carries the entire video signal in one wire, which while easy to set up scarifies a good amount of picture quality.  Composite video should be avoided for use in any application where high quality is desired.  Installation of composite cables simply requires you to push the plug into the proper receptacle.

S-Video-

S-Video, or separate video, is a cable that separates the video signal to the different pins, commonly 4, at the connector of this cable.  This separation allows for a higher quality than a composite cable, but remains in the realm of standard definition.  This video only cable is best suited to applications such as VHS, or other sources where high definition is unnecessary.  It is important to take some care when installing this type of cable as improper installation can damage the pins of the plug.  In addition to the four pins there will be a plastic “pin” that will only fit into the receptacle when in the correct position. 

 Component video-

Component video cable is the more common and easier to remember name for YPbPr Video cables.  Component video is a group of three wires that all carry a separate video signal and feature a standard RCA style plug.  Component Video is capable of high definition video easily carrying the 1080p signal common on many of today’s high definition sources such as Blue Ray discs.  The three wires that make up component video are usually color coded green (Y), blue (Pb/Cb), and red (Pr/Cr), which corresponds to what signal that wire carries.  This is a great choice for connecting devices such as DVD players and other devices that you desire high quality from and is widely featured on televisions in the past couple of years where as other high definition receptacles are rarer.  Instillation is as easy as matching the color of the cable to the color of the receptacle and pushing in the RCA type plug.

HDMI-

HDMI, which stands for High-Definition Multimedia Interface, is an all in one digital cable that carries video and audio.  HDMI is a 19 pin connector that is able to provide digital high definition for both video and audio.  It is less common on devices as it wasn’t really used widely until 2006 but is becoming more common.  The major advantage of this cable is that is carries 8 channel audio and separate high quality video all in one cable, it would take 9 analog cables to carry this same signal.  Installation is straight forward as the plug will only fit into the receptacle one direction and has internal flat pins to avoid damaging them in the event of someone attempting to push the pin in the wrong way.

DVI-

A Digital Video Interface (DVI) cable is another pin type high definition cable.  It differs from the HDMI in that it carries only video signals where the HDMI carries both video and audio.  The strengths of DVI lay in its versatility as a video source.  There are different versions of the DVI that work with digital, analog or both as well as a number of compatible adapters to let DVI work on a wide range of devices.  As with HDMI and component video DVI boasts good high definition capabilities making it a good choice for devices where quality matters.  Installation requires you to simply push the connector into place but as with S-Video correct orientation is required to not damage pins although the pins on a DVI connector are much sturdier.

Audio

 Composite-

As mentioned in the video section two of the three composite cables carry audio.  These RCA style, or phono plugs have been widely used since the 40’s for transferring audio signals.  More often than not the audio wires are color coded white, which is the left or mono channel, and red, which carries the signal for the right channel.  Composite audio is one of the lowest qualities of audio still in use on home theater components but works well where high quality audio is not a must.  Price and compatibly are the main advantages of composite as nearly every audio device there is features composite audio as an option and they are the most affordable of all home theater cables.

 Fiber Optic or TOSLINK-

TOSLINK is simply a shorting of Toshiba link, as Toshiba designed the TOSLINK which has evolved into the most common form of fiber optic audio available on home theater devices.  Fiber optic audio delivers a high quality digital audio signal perfect for getting the most out of sources like high definition movies or even some video game consoles.  A noteworthy advantage of optic sound is as follows.  There will no doubt be quite a few wires behind the scenes of your home theater, and all of these wires carry a signal.  This is of interest because the signal produced by all of these wires can create audible interference with some types of audio signals, but since the signal is optic in a TOSLINK it is immune to any such interference.  There are two main drawbacks to fiber optic audio, the first of these being price, fiber optic wire is often much more expensive than other digital audio cables.  The second drawback to fiber optic audio is signal strength, while it is usually no problem at all, it does become a problem if for some reason you need to run a cable more than 10 feet, at this point some sort of signal booster is required.  Care should be taken installing this cable as the end may be damaged if not properly oriented. 

 Digital audio or Coaxial-

This is referring to the single, often orange, audio cable with RCA style ends that are commonly referred to as Coax, digital, or even S/PDIF audio by manufacturers.  The names are rather confusing as they technically could apply to a number of different wires but whenever you see this, for instance on the box of a TV or DVD player they are referring to the single cable mentioned above.  This form of digital audio has a number of advantages; it is cheap, simple, and capable of reproducing reliable high quality audio.  If you choose to use this style wire it is important that you purchase a cable that features good shielding to protect it from the interference mentioned above.  Installation is just as simple as other RCA style connectors.

HDMI-

As detailed in the video section on HDMI, in addition to video it also carries a high quality audio signal.

Speaker wire-

Speaker wire has long remained the favored way to get a signal from an amplifier to your speakers.  Speaker wire consists of two wires one that will carry the positive (+) signal and one that will carry the negative (-) signal.  The wires will feature some marking to tell the two sides apart, often one wire will have a red line or +’s marked all along the wire.  The important thing is to connect which ever wire you attach to the positive terminal on the speaker to the positive terminal on the amplifier, same goes for the negative side.  There are many different sizes and qualities of speaker wire on the market today to meet various needs.  Size 14AWG speaker wire will be more than sufficient in the majority of applications.  If wires aren’t for you there are a few wireless speakers on the market, though high prices and lower quality sound are more common for wireless applications.

** A note about cables that have RCA style plugs, all of these types of connections, composite, component, and digital/coax audio, all use the same type of cable.  The only difference between these cables is that they are color coded for ease in installation, yet they are all completely interchangeable.

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