Yellow-Tipped Video Cables

My Dad called me earlier today needing advice on how to connect a DVD player to a television. He was using composite video and wondered what the difference was between the yellow-tipped cable and the red-green-blue-tipped cables.

I told him that televisions display a picture by blending three colors - red, green and blue. The yellow cable combines the red, green and blue color signals into one unit. The red, green and blue cables are not combined by one cable but rather by a signal cable for each color. The separation of red, green and blue will provide a better overall picture.

Of course, the best overall signal would be via all-digital cables like HDMI or DVI but for an analog TV yellow is just fine.