If I hook my DVD player up by composite do I need a seperate cable for audio?

Factual Questions
1

Background: I recently bought a composite connector for the Nintendo Wii. It had five wires on it, with three dedicated for video and two for audio. I have thought of hooking the DVD player up by composite as well (instead of component) so that it will have a marginally better picture and so the wires won’t be sticking out of the side of the TV. However, the DVD player only has three outputs for composite and the composite cable I looked at only had three wires on it. So does this mean I need another separate cable for audio?

2

First, you’ve got your terms backwards. Composite uses one wire (normally yellow, and carrying all video signal information) for video, and two wires (red and white) for audio. Component uses three wires for video (red, green, and blue, each carrying a different part of the video signal information) and the same two wires for audio. So if your DVD player only has a yellow port, a red port, and a white port, then it is definitely running composite and a three-wire cable will take care of both audio and video.

Now, if your DVD player has a component output, there will be a red, blue, and green set of outputs. There may or may not be RCA red/white outputs for audio right next to the video outputs, but I’d guess that there would be. Component video only carries video, so yes, you will need to find a way to carry the audio signal. You can do that with the red/white RCA cables or you could use an optical or coaxial connection assuming your DVD player has it and that you can hook it up to your TV or receiver. If you have a 5.1 surround system, I’d connect your audio using optical or coaxial to it so that you’ll actually get surround.

3

Thanks for the clarification.

a small hijack

My DVD player is composite. I recently bought an LCD monitor to watch streamed movies with my netbook (VGA out, no DVD).

I’d like to stream movies to my TV and/or watch DVDS on the monitor. I realize I must deal with the audio separately.

I’ve looked at cables and converters on the net and it seems to me that the technology is not quite there.

Your views?

4

Not sure what you mean by “not quite there.” What are your inputs on the LCD monitor and on your TV? I have a MacBook with a mini-DVI port. I also have two converters for the mini-DVI, one to VGA and one to composite/S-video. (Both often go traveling with me as I have no way of knowing what I’ll find in a hotel room.) I have found that using the VGA input on my 720p TV (no DVI input on the TV) looks quite good (composite or S-video not as good, as would be expected) and that it’s normally a limitation of the source material when streaming video. I think each converter cost me about $30 at the Apple Store.

Now, as for going the other way, I’d expect it to look bad and the converter to cost a lot. Depending on how cheap your DVD player is (and if it’s composite only it’s either quite cheap or really old), I’d go looking for a new DVD player. Preferably something that can upscale or at least is capable of progressive scanning (that’d be 480p.) It’s hard to say for sure without model numbers and descriptions of inputs/outputs what the best solution is.

5

Monitor inputs
D-Sub
DVI-D 24pin

TV
Composite input and output

Now that I look:

It’a Magnavox DP100MWB. It has composite and component out, and S-Video out.

6

Okay, I think your D-Sub is probably the 15-pin VGA input. In most any case, it’s going to be ugly to do. Unfortunately, your DVI is DVI-D, meaning that it won’t take the analog input from the VGA. I’m not sure there is a good solution without having to buy a lot of hardware. I’d go ask the guys at the AVS Forum, since that’s a specialty forum.

7

Thanks for your responses.