Composite vídeo is one of the most popular video connection types and uses a RCA connector (older videoprojectors can use a BNC connector for this connection). Composite video is used on the popular “video in” and “video out” connectors, found in VCRs, TVs, DVD players and video projectors. On PCs, some video cards can provide this output.
This is the best option to connect your VCR to your TV set, assuming that they don’t have a S-Video connector (usually newer TV sets have this connector, but VCRs usually don’t have S-Video output). But for other devices, like DVD players, videoprojectors and even PCs, you should not use this connection, because S-Video, Component Video and other standards offer better video quality and usually you can find at least S-Video on those devices.
On Figure 7 you can see the composite video input on a TV set and on Figure 8 on a VCR. Usually the female RCA connector used by composite video is yellow, in order to be differentiated from other commonly found RCA connectors, specially audio, where red indicates the right channel and white or black indicates the left channel. Pay attention that the TV set from Figure 7 also has S-video input, our next subject.
Since VCRs allow you to record videos, it has two composite connectors, one being an input and the other one being an output. You should connect the VCR output to the TV set input to make the proper connection. Its input should be used in the case you are willing to record something from another video source, like another VCR (for copying tapes) or even a PC with composite video output.
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Figure 7: Composite video on a TV set.
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Figure 8: Composite video on a VCR.
On Figure 9 you can see the outputs of a typical DVD player. Even though it has a composite video output, it shouldn’t be use to connect the player to your TV or videoprojector, since usually it has S-Video and/or video component outputs, which provide a better video quality. We only see two uses of the composite video output of a DVD player: if your TV set is very old or if you want to record on VHS tape the contents of a DVD.
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Figure 9: Outputs found on a typical DVD player.
Some video cards have a RCA connector, thus providing composite video. This output can be used to connect your PC to a TV (so you can use your TV as a video monitor) or to a VCR, to record images and videos on a VHS tape. The image quality of a TV set, however, is far below any video monitor. There are two reasons. First, the TV screen works at 640x480 resolution, lower than the most common screen resolutions nowadays. Secondly, TV sets work with interlaced scanning, while video monitors work with non-interlaced scanning (a.k.a. progressive scanning), which provides a far better video quality.
You can also connect your video card to your TV using S-Video, if both devices have this connector. Also, S-Video output from video cards can be transformed into composite video by the use of an adaptor, as we will explain on next page.
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Figure 10: A video card with composite video output.
Of course you will also find composite video on video capture cards, allowing you to connect your VCR on your computer in order to transform VHS tapes into computer video.
On Figure 11 we can see the famous RCA male connector used by composite video. The cable on the picture has two more connectors, for carrying audio (one cable for left channel and the other one for right channel). The composite video cable uses the yellow plug.
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Figure 11: Composite video cable.
Since RCA connectors are used for several different things (take a look on Figure 9), they are usually colored. In order to help you, here is a small list of the most used colors for RCA connectors and cables:
- Yellow: Composite video.
- Red: Right channel (audio).
- White or black: Left channel (audio).
- Orange: Digital audio (a.k.a. SPDIF).
- Green: Component video.
- Blue: Component video.
- Red: Component video.
