Are component cables universal ?

[Douglas B]

Hello all, have a bit of a situation which needs some attention so I hope you guys can help. The wife and I live in Budapest, having moved from the States just a couple of months ago. We finally bought an HDTV, the LG 32LH3000. Seems a decent set but I'm getting no love with it and my silly little Karaoke/DVD player.

Thing is, we had to leave our real dvd player back in the states because it wasn't dual voltage. Then I remembered that I bought my wife a Karaoke/DVD player last Christmas, and we had never used it, so we've been using it here in Hungary as it is 110/220 50/60 Hz compliant. Been using it with my Samsung LCD PC monitor and it's ok.. Not the best but works.

Now the problem: I've tried hooking the dvd player up to the HDTV via component cables (haven't gotten an HDMI cable yet) and no joy. I checked the connections and they were solid, and in the right order. I even switched them around just in case. But nothing.

Is it possible that the component cables I bought back in the States aren't compliant here in Europe ? I tried two different pairs even. I have a third, but doubt it would be any different. Now here's something else which is biting my @ss... I can get audio using the component inputs but no video. On the other hand..

I hooked up my PC VGA cable to the karaoke/dvd player and can get video (crappy looking kind of) BUT.. No audio ? I can't seem to find a standard analog rca audio input on this thing, which makes NO SENSE to me. There are A/V inputs on the side of the tv, but I believe these are for gaming consoles, and am not sure the audio part of it is supposed to work with the dvd player.

Either way.. it's like wtf ? Never used to have these problems before stupid HD ! Just plug in and go. Now it's just a lot more complicated than it needs to be.

In any case, I'd love to know what you guys think about this. Oh.. and one more BIG thing I forgot to mention. My karaoke/dvd player doesn't have any HDMI ports !

So getting an HDMI cable would be utterly useless to me at this point. The component ports are there to be used and not just take up space. So what do you guys think the story is ? Do I need different component cables or is the tv not working properly ?

Doug

[MilesAhead]

This page seems to have some good detail about component cable:

http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/34579/123129.html

[Douglas B]

Thanks. I read the article but it didn't delve into whether or not component cables made in the U.S. vs Europe are the same or different. I'm Googling the hell out of this and am coming up empty handed.

Doug

[MilesAhead]

Yeah, it is kind of thick. Instead of trying to find that out maybe look on the docs for the DVD player that doesn't work and see what it says for the component outputs. If it names them the same with the b or Y or whatever notation for each connection, then I think it would be the same. If the devices are running and the input is a DVD I don't see what Europe has to do with it. Seems to me when I ordered a component cable set a few weeks ago there was more than one type. This site might have some useful info:

http://www.cablesforless.com/

btw all this electronic mumbo jumbo is new to me too. All I know is my TV seems willing to upconvert a progressive scan signal to HD if it is 16x9 over component connections using the cables I bought at the above site with the 'b' and other letter modifiers. All that jazz with prime,b,Y notation I don't get.

edit: sorry I can't be more helpful. For this you really need a hardware guy. There are a few around here so I'll check to their experience. You might also try

https://www.videohelp.com

http://forums.afterdawn.com/

both have forums on HD playback, home theater etc..

[Douglas B]

Hey, I really appreciate your help a lot, if that means anything.

Doug

[admin]

There shouldn't be any difference in terms of component cables, which is basically just composite cables that you use for composite connections or audio connections, except they come in threes and come in different colours (you can use composite cables perfectly for component, and the reverse). What I would check though it to make sure that your DVD player and TV are asking for the same thing, because there is RGB and there is YPbPr/YUV, which both use the same 3 cable setup. I think RGB is more popular in Europe.

RGB has red, green, blue connectors, the same as YPbPr/YUV, so it can be confusing. The TV's manual, or even any labeling next to the connectors, might tell you which type the connectors are. There are RGB to YUV (and vice versa) adapters though.

[MilesAhead]

Hey, I really appreciate your help a lot, if that means anything.

Doug

Not at all. I'm just being honest. There are others on this forum with much more hardware knowledge. I'm more of a software guy. Plus I'm just getting into the HDTV thing. I've had an HDTV for a few years but I've just been doing standard DVD with an upconverting DVD player until the last few weeks. Admin knows his stuff so I would take his advice seriously.