[mythtv-users] coax vs. composite

Robert Johnston anaerin at gmail.com
Mon May 15 20:45:50 EDT 2006


On 5/15/06, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> If it hasn't been made clear (I just had 63 messages in my inbox and
> may have missed a few):
>
> In home consumer systems:
>
> RCA connectors are used for composite video, and are also used (in
> groups of three) for component video.
>
> When used for composite video they are sometimes color-coded yellow,
> and when used for component video they are sometimes color coded red,
> blue and green.
>
> They are also used for unbalanced audio, and when in this service
> they are sometimes color-coded red and white.
>
> RCA connectors are also sometimes (not very often these days) used
> for RF signals in radio receiver systems.
>
> An RCA connector is probably the worst connector ever designed (IMHO)
> for either video or audio. They have no real "nominal" impedance, are
> difficult to solder properly, make the "hot" connection before the
> ground (thus rendering audio systems susceptible to loud hums and
> pops). The provision for strain-relieving the cable is poor to non-
> existent and they tend to get noisy easily. They depend on friction
> to "lock" the connector in the socket. Whwn used in audio systems
> they make no provision for keeping left and right oriented properly
> (except for color, if that's used correctly,which is rare).
>
> In short, they suck. Why are they used? You can guess that, they are
> cheap.

Hand-wired Balanced XLR3's all the way... For Audio, anyways (Though
some would argue you should be using ST Fibre Optics).

For Video (Or more accurately, A/V) we SHOULD be using RGB over SCART
(Or "Péritel" in France).
-- 
Robert "Anaerin" Johnston


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