Which hole do I stick it in

(Or, what's the difference between HDMI and component?)

In the dark ages of Home Theater your choices were limited. Most people should be familiar with RCA, or Composite cables (insert picture here). These were your standard Red, White and Yellow cables.

Back in those days the Red and White wires channeled the stereo sound, while the Yellow cable channeled the Video.

Nowadays we have Component cables and HDMI.

First off Component. It's simple enough to understand the name, the familiar old yellow cable has been split into three cables, Red, Blue and Green. Each of these three cables carries a different Component of your Video. These wires are usually labeled: Y Pr and Pb. This can be confusing for most consumers, but there's no need to fear, in most cases just make sure that your inputs match the colors of your cables. (If you want a more thorough explanations of Component cables click one Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_video or Wisegeek http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-component-video.htm).

One key thing to know is that if the quality of your cables is below Component you can't get HDTV. Only Component and HDMI cables can provide you with HDTV. (in some cases you can get it through and old fashioned coaxial cable, but that's another story)

Also, most Component Cables have the old White and Red cables from our old friend the composite cable to provide some stereo sound. We're intereste din hooking you up with a Home Theater, so we don't need no lousy Stereo!

HDMI, kind of a scary name huh? Well, some people think HDMI is a bit scary. Some might be scared by the price they see for the cables at Best Buy (don't worry I'll show you how to get them cheaper). Others might be concerned about a thing called Digital Rights Management (or DRM for short). But youwho just want the home theater hookup don't need to be worried.

For you, HDMI does one thing, it takes all the cables we talked about before and puts them into one cable. An HDMI cable kind of resembles a USB plug for your computer, and it works the same way. All of the information your Component cables pass in Analog, HDMI does in Digital. (click here for the difference between analog and digital: find link)

What this means to the consumer is a simpler, more unified experience when hooking up your home theater. All of your video and your sound are in one cable.

Next we'll talk about what audio cable you should use in hooking up your home theater.