Written by James Fohl

If you are looking to purchase a new television set, or have just recently purchased a new television set, than you will probably be surprised at all the hook ups that are on televisions these days, whether you are buying a cheap twenty inch or a huge projection television.

Looking back just five years ago, if you were to purchase a twenty inch television for around a hundred and fifty dollars, then you would get a pretty basic television set. The only type of inputs these cheap television sets would have would be a cable / antennae input, and if you were lucky a video and one channel composite input.

Today however if you went to purchase a twenty inch television, you could get a lot more bang for your buck. First off, you could get a flat screen television, so the picture is more sharper and produces less glare from sunlight. Not only that, but you would have a wide variety of inputs on the back, sides, and even front of the television set. Most twenty inch television sets in the one hundred fifty dollar price range come with the standard cable / antennae input, a handful of composite video and stereo inputs and outputs, and a large percent also have a S-video input.


You are probably wondering what you are going to do with all of these inputs. Well, you know how the old saying goes, more is always good. That statement is true if you want to use a bunch of VCRs, DVD players, and video game systems with your television set. Gone are the days of when you have to switch and swap cables in order to use different components with your television set.

First off, the cable / antennae input is pretty much standard on all television sets that are manufactured in the last twenty years. This input is for connecting the cable television cable into the television, however you can also use this input for your antennae, or your VCR.

Next you have your composite cables, which are the three color cables; red white and yellow. Red and white are for two channels of sound, while yellow is for a video signal. Most DVD players, and game systems utilize this type of input, which is why new television sets usually ship with two or more inputs.

Some television sets also have composite outputs. A lot of people accidently plug their DVD players into the outputs and find themselves curious to why their DVD players are not working. Composite outputs allow you to output the television sound to a home theatre system, which is really convenient.

Another new type of input that is starting to pop up in entry level television sets is the S-video input, which stands for "separated video" and is aimed to be the direct successor to the old yellow composite video. S-video splits the video signal apart, so the picture it delivers is a lot better than the old composite video cables. Unfortunately, S-video is only available for video, so while many people use a S-video cable for their DVD players for video output, then still have to use composite audio cables in order to output sound. This can become a problem with some television sets, because while you have the television set to output video from the S-video cable, it is ignoring the composite audio signals. Because of this, many people find that they either have to go back to using composite video cables, or output the DVD player's sound to a home theatre system.

As you can see, a lot of things have changed in smaller television sets in the past five years. Prices have dropped on smaller television sets, while the amount of inputs and overall features have dramatically increased. A lot of people in the past wanted to purchase smaller twenty inch television sets, however they were forced to purchase bigger television sets in order to attain all the desired inputs, but now times have changed, as smaller television sets are becoming as feature rich as their larger, more expensive counterparts.

So if you were thinking about purchasing a new smaller television set, then get ready to do a little comparison shopping. Lots of new models of televisions are available with all kinds of inputs and features that will make everybody happy.