Are component and composite video cables made of the same materials?

January 23rd, 2010 | by admin |

They both have RCA jacks, so I was wondering exactly what the physical difference is: what kind of wire, shielding, etc.

In most cases they are exactly the same cable. 75Ω Nominal impedance for video bandwidth. It when you use a professional set up with the much different 110Ω impedance interconnects and/or the more exotic applications of high end cables where engineers have made specific changes to the characteristics of of the individual cables.

In a pinch a video cable can be used also as a digital coax connection for audio, but the bandwidth specific type should offer more room for performance.

  1. 5 Responses to “Are component and composite video cables made of the same materials?”

  2. By THE FLAP on Jan 23, 2010 | Reply

    In most cases they are exactly the same cable. 75Ω Nominal impedance for video bandwidth. It when you use a professional set up with the much different 110Ω impedance interconnects and/or the more exotic applications of high end cables where engineers have made specific changes to the characteristics of of the individual cables.

    In a pinch a video cable can be used also as a digital coax connection for audio, but the bandwidth specific type should offer more room for performance.
    References :
    MSEE

  3. By sirbobx on Jan 23, 2010 | Reply

    Component cables are just 3 composite video cables of identical length bundled together.

    All video cables should be made with 75 ohm impedance but you cannot tell by looking at a cable if it conforms to this.

    "Shielding" and "number of slits in the RCA plug" have been over-used marketing terms to try to get people to buy expensive cables.

    Go to the Belden website if you want to learn more. Belden makes and sells coax & wires sold to industry and they have some good articles about how to pick from their 100+ different wires for different applications.
    References :

  4. By PoohBearPenguin on Jan 23, 2010 | Reply

    There’s really not much difference. Component cables will have slightly higher quality requirements, but realistically, you could just any 3 RCA cables as component video cables, and maybe even as a digital coax (for surround sound) cable.
    References :

  5. By owsi87808 on Jan 24, 2010 | Reply

    Looks like I’m late to the party! The answer is yes. -everyone else has already explained the difference.
    References :

  6. By Ryan on Jan 24, 2010 | Reply

    the big secret—yes they are generally the same thing and are interchangable they all have the same components–a sheild, a center conductor, and a dielectric in between, but the quality is all over the board for these cables though
    here are two cable

    http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10241&cs_id=1024101&p_id=2196&seq=1&format=2

    http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10241&cs_id=1024102&p_id=2752&seq=1&format=2

    as you can probably see from the pictures, the 2nd cable is much thinner—that is bad—i would normally say that thicker is better, but there is an extent to the madness—–the first cable would be good for any application—-and yes you could run component video over left / right rca cables (and vice versa)
    References :

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