Electrical connectors such as audio and video connectors carry audio and video signals in either analog or digital form. Audio connectors are designed to carry audio frequencies and video connectors are designed to carry only video signals.
RCA Connector
RCA(Radio Corporation of America) connector was introduced in the early 1940s. This is an electrical connector that is used in the audio and video equipments. This is called as the phono connector or the CINCH/AV connector. RCA is used as an RF connector, power connector and also as a connector for the cables of loud speaker. The plug is called as the RCA plug or a phono plug. RCA connector is used as a connector for the composite video signals. RCA connectors are designed to carry SPDIF formatted digital audio with all the plugs differentiated in orange colours. This consists of a central male connector(gender of fasteners and connectors) that is surrounded by a ring. The connection is made by pushing the plug of the cable in to the female jack(gender of fasteners and connectors). RCA connectors are differentiated by means of different colours such as yellow colour for the composite video, black or white for the left channel and red for the right channel. This pair or trio of connectors can be found at the back portion of all video and audio equipments. Sockets and plugs are usually colour coded to make correct connections.
Drawbacks of RCA Connector
One drawback of the RCA connector is that different signals require its own plug. Connecting a cassette deck may require four connectors, two for stereo output and the other two for the stereo input. This ultimately causes mess of cables. Though several attempts were made to bring combined audio and video, only the SCART connector has been successfully designed in Europe. A 5-pin DIN plug was initially used for connecting the audio and video equipments. All VCR, TV sets and DVD players come with SCART connector. RCA connectors are generally called as unbalanced.
Component Connector
A component video connector can be used for different standards and this ultimately creates unsatisfactory video signal. In order to indicate the type of the input and output used, the settings on the TV and the DVD player needs to be set properly, or else the image will not be displayed clearly.
A video signal that is split in to two or more components is called as the component Video. It can also be mentioned as an analog video signal type that can either carry or store in the form of three signals. Component video cables do not carry audio and they are usually paired with the audio cables.
Analog Component Video
A video signal can be reproduced easily on a display device. The method of maintaining the signal clarity by the way of separating the components of the video signal so that they do not interfere with each other is called as the component video. Analog component video are used for consumer level applications.
RGB Analog Component Video
Analog Component Video standards require larger bandwidths to carry the signals and they often contain redundant data as each channel comes with some black and white images. Though analog RGB are suitable and of high quality, they are not used extensively because they do not support digital rights management.
S-Video Analogue Component Video
S-Video (Separate Video) is a form of component video signal as the chroma and luma signals are carried in separate wires. This connection is not used for high definition standards as the carrier frequency have to be adjusted.
