Whats the difference between composite, S-Video and component video?
Composite video is the most common of all video connections and has been around for at least thirty years. A 75-ohm interface, composite video carries both the black-and-white and color information on a single coaxial cable. Robust and inexpensive, composite is a workhorse interface with maximum resolution of about 400 lines. S-Video made its debut in the early 1980’s with the advent of S-VHS and ED-Beta. S-Video is fundamentally different from composite in that it delivers the black-and-white (luminance) signal on one 75-ohm cable and the color (chrominance) information on another. While this system doesn’t allow for greater resolution than composite per se, it does allow for significantly better color saturation and performance. All digital video signals, whether from DVD, DBS, digital cable or ATSC off-air digital transmissions will look better using the S-Video interface than they will with a composite interface. Component is sometimes referred to as 770.3. This is the common analo
