[Theodoric]

When I was a young lad, electronic equipment had 2 inputs, mains and an aerial and no outputs. Nowadays, let's say I'm confused.

My new DVD has 4 sets of outputs, Composite Video, S-Video, Component Video and SCART. Can anyone briefly explain the differences between these, in particular, which would give the best final picture on the screen?

My elderly TV has 4 sets of inputs; Video input (phono jack) + Audio inputs (phono jacks), S-Video (4 pin DIN) and 2 SCART sockets (1 RGB/video input, TV output and 2 S-video/video input, TV output).

This gives 4 x 3 = 12 different types of connecting cable. Now, I'm sure not all of these are available, so what are the combinations commonly found in the shops and which would be the best one? At the moment I am using a completely unoriginal SCART to SCART one. Also, as there's also the ntl STB and a VCR to take into account, I assume that I'm going to need some sort of switch if I carry on just using the SCART connections.