Although they’re not as common as they once were, the trusty RCA cable is still something that you might see if you’re hooking up devices like a VCR or DVD player to your TV. Even if you don’t know what I mean by ‘RCA cable,’ I bet you’d recognize the thing itself straight away.
A wire that ends in three outputs, with each connector jack differentiated by a different color – red, white, and yellow. The other end of the wire is usually adapted to fit whichever device the cable is meant to be used with. And there are plenty of devices that use RCA cables to connect to other devices.
Gaming consoles, CD players, digital cameras, stereo systems – the list is a long one. But how do you use these cables, and why do you not see them as much anymore?
In this article, I’ll explain almost everything about them, so next time you see one around the back of a TV, you’ll know if you need it or not!
Table of Contents
RCA Cables – An Overview
The RCA cable is also known by a few other names: the composite cable, a phono cable, or an AV cable. RCA doesn’t actually stand for anything to do with the inputs or connectors involved, it stands for Radio Corporation of America, the company that first created the cable design in the 1930s.
The phono cable namesake derives from the initial use of the cable – to connect a phonograph to a radio receiver.
So, what do all those different connectors actually do? Well, two of them handle stereo audio, and one of them handles video. So you can see why the name AV cable is sometimes used.
Red, White, and Yellow
Typically, RCA cables are designed to transmit analog audio and video signals, but in reality, many newer cables are also capable of transmitting:
- Analog audio
- Digital audio
- Component analog video
- Composite analog video
So the RCA cable transmits both audio and video in one connection. But how do you know which plug goes into which jack?
This is where the color coding comes in, although, usually, the device you’re connecting your RCA cable to will probably have some kind of descriptive labeling next to each input jack which will tell you everything you need to know.
If it doesn’t, here’s what everything means:
- Yellow – Video
- White – Audio (L)
- Red – Audio (R)
Connecting anything but all of the plugs will result in issues when it comes to playback. The yellow cable carries all composite video information, so failing to connect it could result in no picture or a black-and-white picture at best.
Failing to connect either the white or red audio plugs will result in audio-only playing from one side/speaker. In theory, you should be able to connect the R and L audio plugs into the opposite or ‘incorrect’ jack – provided the inputs are switched at the other end of the cable connection too.
However, it’s always best to follow the planned use and connect everything to its designated input jack.
2-Plug RCA Cables
Sometimes, you may come across an RCA cable that is lacking the yellow video plug. These types of 2-plug RCA cables are generally reserved for strictly audio use, such as speaker systems or surround sound setups.
Obviously, there will be no yellow video jack on a speaker, so there is no need for anything to connect to one. If you don’t have a 2-plug RCA, but you do have a need for one and only have a 3-plug available, you should be able to use that in place of a 2-plug. Just connect the L and R audio correctly and leave the video disconnected.
The RCA Cable – Where is It Now?
The main reason that RCA cables are less common these days is that there are better options available. The advent of digital technology increased the need for high-quality hardware to preserve the improved video and audio quality it was to transmit.
For audio setups, RCA cables are still fairly common, especially the 2-plug varieties in speaker systems. There are other options available, such as optical cables, which use light instead of electricity to transmit audio data and maintain crisp quality.
As well as optical cables for strictly audio applications, coaxial cables are capable of transmitting digital audio, at high speed and quality. They are often still used to connect televisions to soundbars, for example. But, this still leaves a question about the video signal transmission…
By far the most common connector used in place of RCA cables is the high-definition multimedia interface or HDMI cable. HDMI can transmit audio, video, and ethernet digitally, resulting in little-to-no loss of quality.
Not only can HDMI transmit all those things, it can do it all at the same time, through one connector plug which is the same on both ends of the cable. It is most commonly used as a means of projecting onto a large screen, for example streaming on a laptop and watching on a TV, or connecting a games console to a TV.
However, as mentioned above, HDMI can also be used to transmit solely audio and is a cheap and improved method if you’re looking to replace RCA in your audio setup.
HDMI is also much faster at transmitting multiple types of data than RCA. RCA is limited to around 20MHz, while HDMI can transmit in GHz.
Final Thoughts
The RCA cable played a crucial role in the technology of audio and video transmission, but, like most technology, it has dwindled in popularity and usage thanks to the rise of better, easier-to-use alternatives.
HDMI is so commonplace now that almost all laptops will have one and TVs will have multiple HDMI ports fitted as standard, allowing more than one device to be connected at any one time.
When it comes to high-end audio set-ups, optical or coaxial cables are preferred, but great sound with no interference is achievable through HDMI. At the time of writing, the latest version of HDMI is 2.1, so it’s come a long way since its inception in the mid-2000s, and it looks like it’s here to stay!
