If you have ever looked at the back of a modern TV, you will know there is a wide range of connection choices for your devices. Home theater has come a long way over the past couple of decades, and each TV set has to have the widest choice of connections possible.

Here we shall outline the most popular connections and discuss their various advantages and disadvantages.

The newest type of connection is HDMI, which as the name suggests carries HD video and audio signals to and from your TV. If you have an HD ready TV and an HD source then this is the connection to use. It’s a pure digital connection that has the bandwidth necessary to carry the HD signal. HDMI means that the signal can remain in digital form from the source to the screen without having to be converted to or from analog. This provides for the best signal quality available at the moment, which is 1080p.

EIA Multiport is also a popular connection type which carries both audio and video signals from the source to the TV. It is an analog connection so digital conversion has to take place, but it is the highest quality analog connection available. It can carry RGB, composite and S-video signals as well as stereo audio. It also allows for automatic switching between devices, which was the first to allow the TV to detect and change to a particular input when it was switched on.

S-video is the middle ground between composite and component video signals. These were popular a few years ago and are often now only used for connecting older equipment or camcorders. They offer lower quality than component but better than composite, hence the middle ground. It’s an analog connection with a maximum resolution of 576i.

Composite video is the most basic connection type. The plug is similar to an audio jack plug but without the ridges on the pin. It uses a single signal to transmit the video which is why the quality leaves much to be desired. The maximum resolution composite can support is 576i.

Many later TV sets also have VGA or DVI connections to enable them to be connected to a computer. DVI is digital and can provide a good quality signal, but is only video. VGA is an analog connection so the signal has to undergo digital conversion. This is a lower quality but more widely supported in TV’s than DVI. Both will need a separate audio connection in order to produce sound. The resolutions supported depend entirely on the computer hardware.

Audio will be taken care of by either S/PDIF connections, optical or jack. S/PDIF connections are for signals provided by an AV receiver and offers great sound quality. Optical is a fiber optic connection between the AV receiver and the TV, this is the best possible audio connection. The jack is an analog connection and is what it most often used when using S-video, composite, DVI or VGA.