Desktops – Such as the Apple Mac Mini MC815LL/A Desktop, the HP TouchSmart 320-1030 Desktop Computer and Dell Optiplex GX620 Desktop Computer With LCD Monitor from name brands like Acer, Apple, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Shuttle, Sony, Systemax, Wyse and Zotac.

Laptops – Like the Apple MacBook Pro MD311LL/A 17-Inch Laptop, Sony VAIO EL2 VPCEL22FX/B 15.5″ Laptop, Samsung Series 5 Wi-Fi 12.1-Inch Chromebook and Dell D620 Laptop Duo Core with Windows XP from brand names including Acer, Apple, Asus, Dell, HP, IBM, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba.

Netbooks – Including the Toshiba Mini 300 Series NB305-N310 10.1-Inch Netbook, ASUS Eee PC 1015PX-PU17-RD 10.1-Inch Netbook, HP Mini 110-3530NR Netbook and the Samsung N145-JP02 10.1″ Black Netbook by brands such as Acer, Asus, Athena, Augen, Emtec, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba.

Tablets – Such as the Kindle Fire, Full Color 7″ Multi-touch Display with Wi-Fi, Coby Kyros 7-Inch Android 2.3 4 GB Internet Touchscreen Tablet – MID7012-4G, Samsung Galaxy Tab (10.1-Inch, 32GB, Wi-Fi) GT-P7510MAVXAB Tablet and the Blackberry Playbook 7-Inch Tablet (16GB) by brand names such as Amazon, Apple, Asus, BlackBerry, Coby, HP, Le Pan, Motorola, Samsung and Toshiba.

Servers – Including the ML110 G7 E3-1220 HP Sata Us Sv and the Globalscale DreamPlug 036000291452 GHz Class Linux Server by name brands like AMD, Belkin, Etasis, Fujitsu, Gateway, Globalscale Technologies, Inc., HP, IBM, LG and Teapo Electronics Corp.

External Data Storage – Such as External Floppy Drives, External Hard Drives, External Solid State Drives, Network Attached Storage, External Tape Drives, USB Flash Drives, External Zip Drives from name brands including Buffalo Technology, G-Technology, Kingston, LaCie, SanDisk, Seagate, Teac, Toshiba and Western Digital.

Networking Products – Including Device Servers, Digital Media Devices, Hubs, Modems, Network Adapters, Network Attached Storage, Network Transceivers, Print Servers, Routers, Switches, Wireless Access Points from brand names like Asus, Belkin, Cisco, D-Link, Medialink, Motorola, Plugable Technologies, Roku, Samsung and Western Digital.

Printers – Including All-In-One Printers, Laser Printers, Inkjet Printers, Dot Matrix Printers, Photo PrintersPlotters like the Brother HL-2270DW Compact Laser Printer with Wireless Networking and Duplex, Hewlett Packard 3050A Wireless All-in-One Color Photo Printer and HP LaserJet Pro P1102w Printer by brands such as Brother, Canon, Epson, HP, Lexmark, Oki Data, Samsung, Smart Shopper and SummitVuPoint.

Scanners – Like the Canon CanoScan LiDE110 Color Image Scanner (4507B002), NeatDesk Desktop Scanner and Digital Filing System, Epson Perfection V300 Photo Color Scanner and the Epson WorkForce Pro GT-S50 Document Imaging Scanner including name brand scanners by Canon, CardScan, DYMO, Epson, ION Audio, Ion, Neat Receipts, NeatDesk, The Neat Company and VuPoint Solutions.

Monitors – Such as the Viewsonic VX2453MH-LED 24-Inch Ultra-thin Widescreen LED Monitor, HP 2011x 20-Inch LED Monitor, Acer V173 Djb 17-Inch LCD Monitor and ASUS VH236H 23 Inch Widescreen LCD Monitor from brand names like AOC, Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, LG, Lenovo, Samsung, ViewSonic and eMachines.

Video Projectors – Like the ViewSonic PJD5123 SVGA DLP Projector 120Hz/3D Ready, 2700 Lumens, 3000:1 DCR, Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 8350 and Optoma HD20 High Definition 1080p DLP Home Theater Projector from brands such as AAXA, AAXA Technologies, Acer, BenQ, Digital Galaxy, Discovery, Epsonand , FAVI, Optoma and ViewSonic.

PDAs, Handhelds & Accessories – Inluding PDAs & Handhelds, PDA & Handheld Accessories like the Palm Tungsten E2 Handheld, HP iPAQ 111 Classic Handheld and AlphaSmart Dana Handheld Palm OS 4.1 by Adonit, Bargaincell, Bluecell, BoxWave, HTC, Luvvitt, OtterBox, Palm, Simple Mobile and Tascam.

Game Hardware – PC Game Hardware, Mac Game Hardware such as the Ear Force X12 Gaming Headset and Amplified Stereo Sound, Microsoft Xbox 360 Wireless Controller for Windows and the Logitech Wireless Gaming Mouse G700 by brand names like Bang & Olufsen, Blizzard Entertainment, Logitech, Mad Catz Inc, Microsoft, Razer, Saitek, Snakebyte, Thrustmaster and Turtle Beach.

Webcams – Like the Logitech HD Webcam C525, Portable HD 720p Video Calling with Autofocus, Microsoft LifeCam Cinema 720p HD Webcam and Hootoo U19-A Night Vision Webcam 12.0MP, Microphone Built In from name brands such as CubeternetD-Link, Electrone, Generic, Hootoo, Ipevo, Logitech, Microsoft and eForCity.

Computer Components – Computer Cases, CPU Processors, Desktop Barebones, Fans & Cooling, Graphics Cards, I/O Port Cards, Internal Floppy Drives, Internal Hard Drives, Internal Optical Drives, Internal Sound Cards, Internal Tape Drives, Memory, Motherboards, Network Cards, Power Supplies, Video Capture Cards, Internal Modems, Internal Solid State Drives, Internal Memory Card Readers from brands including Cooler Master, Corsair, Crucial, Intel, Kingston, Lite-On, Mad Dog Multimedia, Samsung, Seagate and Western Digital.

Computer Accessories – Blank Media, Cable Security Devices, Cables & Interconnects, Cleaning & Repair, Computer Cable Adapters, Computer Speakers, Hard Drive Bags, Hard Drive Enclosures, Headsets & Microphones, Keyboard & Mice Accessories, Keyboards, Mice & Input Devices, Laptop & Netbook Computer Accessories, Memory Card Adapters, Memory Card Readers, Memory Cards, Monitor Accessories, Printer Accessories, Printer Ink & Toner, Scanner Accessories, Surge Protectors, Touch Screen Tablet Accessories, Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS), USB Gadgets, Video Projector Accessories by name brands like AmazonBasics, Bargaincell, CaseCrown, Generic, GreatShield, Handhelditems, Marware, Newgen, Portta and SanDisk.

External Components – Such as KVM Switches, Optical Drives like the Samsung USB 2.0 External Optical Drive SE-S084D/TSBS Super WriteMaster, Slim External DVD Writer and TRENDnet 2-Port USB KVM Switch Kit with Audio (Includes 2x KVM Cables) TK-209K by brand names including Aftermarket, Brainydeal, Cblwhl, Iogear, LG, Samsung, Sunvalleytek, TRENDnet and cBear.

Warranties & Services – Such as Computer Equipment Warranties, Installation Services, Replacement Plans, Service Plans like the AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Laptops 13 Inches and Below and SquareTrade 3-Year Electronics Warranty ($75-100 Items) from brands such as Apple, Brother, Canon, Canopy, Epson, HP, Keystone, PROLITEX, SquareTrade and Titan.

Upon connecting our Toshiba standard DVD player to the new LCD (liquid crystal display) TV, we noticed the picture quality was good, but not great.

Moving close to the HD television revealed a bit of granularity and slightly visible pixels in the picture quality. This was basically what we had suspected would occur. Surprisingly, the picture quality using standard cable television line looks incredible. We are in no hurry to upgrade to HD cable, although this will also probably be done in the future as well.

But the connection from the DVD player to the HDTV was made with standard AV cables (using the red, white and yellow RCA jacks) that are customarily available with standard television sets. Then it occurred to us that S-video (sometimes known as super or separated video) was available on both the DVD player and new HDTV systems. We wondered if it would make much difference, so we decided to do a little research on the difference between the video formats.

It was determined that S-video is a form of component video where the yellow AV cable using the RCA jacks is referred to as composite. It’s called composite because all of the parts of the video signal are mixed and travel on the one single line. S-video splits the video signal into two parts, the luma or luminance and the chroma or colour (chrominance). These video signals are carried on two separate line using usually a 4-pin mini DIN connector.

When these parts of the video signal are mixed on the single composite line, the video signal and quality are degraded since there is only so much bandwidth that can be used to transfer the video signal. Keeping the luma and chroma separate in component video using the S-video cable results in less signal degradation and a better picture quality. We were convinced that it was time to purchase an S-video cable.

But looking into it further, we found out that there is another form of component video that transfers the video signal on three separate lines. This is the RGB (red, green, blue), also known as RGB component video or RCA jacks you find on better quality DVD players and televisions. This form of component video is often labeled as YPbPr where the Y component represents the green line and also carries other components of the video signal. The Pb is the blue line and the Pr is the red line.

This RGB form of component video was described as delivering even better video quality than S-video. So we gave it a try and the results were great. The granularity and slightly visible pixels noted with the standard AV composite connection (single yellow video cable) had disappeared. The picture quality had improved by using the component connection. Now the new HDTV was getting utilized to more of it’s capability. Note that the RGB carries only the video signal. That means the right and left audio cables (usually red and white) are still required in addition to the RGB cables. That’s a total of five lines that need to be connected between the DVD player and television.

Some day, we will move to Blu-ray and HDMI connectors and all of this component versus composite video talk will be ancient history. But we will leave that discussion to a whole new post. But if your not ready to make the leap to a new Blu-ray player and not ready to buy a whole new set of Blu-ray DVD’s just yet, this is a fairly simple interim step that will get you better picture quality for only a few dollars. The RGB component video cables in the electronics department of most stores can be obtained for $10 to $20 depending on the length of the cables that you need.

So if you want to invoke a few blank stares from the sales people at your local electronics or video store, ask them if it’s better to use composite or component video. Then explain to them that you want to utilize component video because it’s better quality than composite video. Just make sure you have the RGB connectors on both your DVD or video player and television before purchasing the RGB cables. If you give it a try, feel free to leave your comments here so we can compare notes and hear about your results.

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At the Electronics Vault Store you can find all the audio, video, camera, photo, automotive, computer, GPS, navigation, home automation & security, office electronics and many more items as well.

We have CD players & recorders, stereos, DVD players, equalizers, home theater systems, iPods & MP3 players, satellite radio, speakers, tuners, TV & HDTV, VCRs and many more audio and video components here at the Electronics Vault.

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You will find hundreds of major electronic brands here, like Apple, Canon, Garmin, Hewlett Packard, Lynksys, Palm, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba, just to name a few.