When it comes to connecting your TV or monitor to your DVD player or gaming console, it’s important to understand the different types of connectors available. One common type of connector is the RCA cable, which is sometimes called a composite cable. This cable has three connectors – red, white, and yellow – and is often used to transmit audio and video signals.
Another type of cable is the component video cable, which also has three connectors but is colored differently – red, blue, and green. It’s important to note that while the colors may be similar, the signals they carry are not the same.
The green connector, also known as Y, carries the luminance signal, while the red connector (Pr) carries the red deviation from the luminance and the blue connector (Pb) carries the blue deviation from the luminance. When all three component video cables are plugged in correctly, the colors on the TV look normal.
It’s worth noting that if you don’t have any component video cables, you can still use composite video cables instead. However, you’ll need to make sure you’re plugging them into the correct connectors. For example, use red for red, white for blue, and yellow for green.
If you unplug both the color cables and leave only the luminance cable connected, the TV goes grayscale. If you plug in Pb but not Pr, or Pr but not Pb, you’ll see deviations in the colors on your screen.
Additionally, if you touch the end of the color cables, it makes faint colored horizontal lines come up across the grayscale image. If you touch Pr, the lines are red and cyan, while if you touch Pb, the lines are blue and yellow.
What happens if you plug the color cables in the wrong way round? Blue turns red and red turns blue, while green stays green. If you unplug the luminance cable but leave the color cables plugged in, the TV says ‘No Signal’.
It’s important to make sure that you don’t plug the luminance cable into one of the color ports. If you do, the TV says ‘Mode Not Supported’. Similarly, if you plug the color cables into the luminance port while the luminance cable is plugged into the composite video port, you’ll see some strange results.
Finally, if you plug the color cables into the audio ports while the luminance cable is plugged into the correct port, you won’t see anything while in the menu because there is no audio. However, if you switch to live TV which has audio, there are colorful horizontal lines across the grayscale image.
In conclusion, understanding the different connectors and making sure you’re plugging them in correctly can make a big difference in the quality of the audio and video signals you receive.