Yeah, you really
are confused. Let me clear a few things up for you.
First off: you probably want S-Video. Let's just get that out of the way right now.
Second off: the SNES, as far as I know, does not output Component. Period. You
might be able to mod some out of it, but out of the box, it supports RF, composite, S-Video and RGB, and that's
it. If you want component, an RGB->component converter box is your only recourse, and you already ruled that out.
Third: no, component is not the same as S-Video. See, here's a basic breakdown:
- RF: audio and video go through the same wire. Incredibly lossy, as such.
- Composite: audio is split off into red/white cables. Both chrominance and luminance are sent through the yellow cable. Still lossy.
- S-Video: chrominance and luminance are separated inside the wire. Not nearly as lossy, as such, but since all color data is still coming out of one pin, there's a little bit of fuzziness to it.
- Component: video is now three separate wires entirely. One is luminance, as before, but the other two are two of the three primary colors of light (red, green and blue - not sure which two are used off the top of my head) with luminance subtracted from it. Complicated math allows the TV to determine the third channel based on the values of the other three wires. I'm not 100% sure how it works, but the result is a very clean, crisp image - and it can do HD resolutions, too (if the console supports it - the SNES does not).
- RGB: the red, green and blue color values for each pixel are sent on individual wires. No complicated math; whatever each channel says that pixel should be, that pixel will be. Colors are better than component, allegedly. Doesn't support HD, however, to my understanding, and almost nothing NTSC-U supports this natively.
- HDMI: totally digital. All of the above were analog. I'm not 100% sure what the logic is for HDMI, but it's the only cable that supports 1080p and higher to my understanding. (Not sure if DVI counts, but that's for computer monitors.)
So no, S-Video is not component.
Fourth, no, S-Video will not get you 480p. That is exclusively in the domain of component and HDMI cables, and even then, the console has to support it; the SNES does not. The first Nintendo console to support 480p was the Gamecube.
Fifth: dunno if he still sells them, but I got my S-Video cables from Racketboy, and they all worked great for me.