I currently own a Hitachi 51F510 tv and it only has two component video inputs. One is taken over by my HDMI cable for some reason, and the other is used by a DVD player. Now, I want to use a gaming console, as well, which supports progressive scan through component video. I was thinking of buying a component video switcher, but I happened to have a standard AV switcher lying around that has jacks for composite video and analog audio. From what I've been told, it's ok to plug my DVD player and gaming console component video cables into the yellow composite video and red/white analog audio jacks in the switch, since they operate differently than input jacks on the tv. What kind of video quality degradtion should I expect if I do this ? Thanks.
Using a stadard switching device like you stated should be fine. They are usually passive systems. If yours is active (you have to give it power from the wall), you may want to go another route. If it is passive, you may not notice any difference at all. The only thing you can do is try it and see what it looks like.
Do you have an AV receiver to run the video through? If so, then you can use that as your switcher.