Sales people claim that the RCA/phono cable labeled "audio" will not work for carrying video a very short distance (less than a foot). The "audio" cable will be used to interconnect two yellow-colored "video" RCA/phono cables. My concern is video picture quality will look much worse than if expensive cables labeled "video" are used.
2007-08-28 16:07:14 · 9 answers · asked by truth_seeker 2 in Consumer Electronics ➔ Home Theater
Similarily, is there a difference between the yellow and red/white/black connectors ?
2007-08-28 16:09:06 · update #1
I'm sure the AV-philes will cringe at this, but in most situations, a RCA cable is a RCA cable is a RCA cable.
There is no difference, electrically, between the red, white and yellow RCA cables. The color coding is just to help you make sure you keep your cables in the right order.
However you may also notice that there are component video and coax audio cables which also use the same RCA connectors. While these cables use different colors as well, they are still basically the same as the good old yellow, red and white cables you are familiar with. These cables will have slightly better electrical properties, but for short runs you can often get away with just any RCA cable.
2007-08-29 09:22:11 · answer #1 · answered by PoohBearPenguin 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
An audio cable is just that for audio, it has a signal, return and a shield. Video is video
However video cable types both composite, and component are 75Ω transmission cables. The other two yahoos ( yes the pun was intended) must not know what they speak of.
The only exceptions to 75Ω cable are s-video, which is constructed similarly to audio but has 2 signals, 2 returns and a video bandwidth shield! DVI and HDMI (both a digital transmission transports and are based on twisted pair.
You best bet for RCA video is a 75Ω cable. (That is characteristic impedance so you can't measure it).
Believe it or not the sales people are slightly bending the truth. A audio cable will work however your image quality will be greatly reduced and can be prone to artifacts and diminished colors. The only explanation for the two other yahoos experience was probably a Wal-Mart TV (cutting edge right). Where the image is not the hottest to start with and it worked with a little redneck magic.
In a Home theater system the interconnects should account for 10% of the total cost of the equipment. Anything more and it is not worth it, so the sales guy is partly right in getting you better cables but don't over buy and audition everything to see the difference, if it isn't there then take it back.
P.S. if in a pinch use a video cable for digital coax. It is closer to the construction of a digital coax cable.
P.P.S. stay out of best buy, circuit city and the like, they just want to move product.
2007-08-29 04:27:58 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yes- there's a difference. A $10 HDMI cable is sold cheaply because it is made cheaply. It doesn't go through the same tests, inspections or quality controls as a better made cable. Therefore you could end up with a cable that has copper contacts instead of gold, plastic snaps instead of metal clasps or something that just breaks in half or stops working altogether after a year or two. So if you can afford the higher quality cable, there's absolutely no reason you should skimp on it. In fact, people spend thousands of dollars on high-end gear and for some reason miss out on the little details like a good quality HDMI cable, component cable, speaker wire, surge protector, etc. and don't even realize the quality degrades through the use and they get used to it. Also, anytime you see a $100 HDMI cable in a store, you're sure to find it online for 50% of more off, anyway. So in that case, would you rather buy a cheap $10 cable, or a $100 cable on sale for $40?
2016-05-20 22:39:12 · answer #3 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It will work and I can tell you that no one even the super duper video dudes would take hours guessing which of ten TV have a 1 foot video cable connection and which have 1 foot RG9 cable in between (that a high quality video cable). Now you can get a 1 foot or so video cable for less than $10 so I do not see why not get the right cable. But if you do not want to spend anything the audio cable will do and I doubt anyone will be able to tell you are using it.
2007-08-29 19:52:14 · answer #4 · answered by Mister E 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
For very short distances such as in your case, I don't think you will see very much difference. It sounds like you are stringing together more than one cable to increase length. I think the connections between cables themselves (noise introduction) might be more of a problem than cable type. If I were you, I'd buy a longer cable.
As someone else has mentioned, video impedance is 75 ohms so in order to get maximum signal transfer the cable should be rated for 75 ohms. It does not have to be expensive cables - any properly constructed and terminated video cable with RCA connectors should work.
2007-08-30 10:52:54 · answer #5 · answered by gkk_72 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Nothing. No difference except the color. The colors are so you don't plug an audio jack to a video jack. But if I understand correctly you just want to use say a red audio cable to connect two yellow video plugs. That is OK you will not see a difference the wires are exactly the same if you take them apart. Good luck.
2007-08-28 16:22:02 · answer #6 · answered by benblanko 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I have done this in the past, over an even greater distance (the cable was 6 feet). I could not perceive any difference in quality on a standard TV.
2007-08-29 00:51:06 · answer #7 · answered by dansinger61 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The sales people are correct. You cannot use audio cable for video.
There are fairly reasonable priced video cables out there.
Try Wal-Mart, Target, Radio-Shack.
2007-08-29 13:22:08 · answer #8 · answered by coco2591 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no prob. just label the wire.
MIKE
2007-08-29 04:53:06 · answer #9 · answered by mike 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋