What do these color coding means on the connectors?

When you look at an RCA or RGB connector, there are a variety of color codings on them. For each color there is a corresponding audio or video signal or format. In the back of all consumer electronics products there are matching color codings. This enables the consumer or professional who is doing the installation to use the color codings and greatly simplify the hook up.

An RCA jack, also called a phono jack, it is used for composite video and stereo audio. The name of the connector, RCA, comes from the Radio Corporation of America.

The RCA connector has been adopted for numerous uses other than the original intention, including power connector, RF connector, and loudspeaker cable connector. It is also commonly used for composite video signals, but this application gives very bad impedance matching. RCA connectors may also frequently be used to carry SPDIF-formatted digital audio, with these plugs orange colored to distinguish them from any other typical connections.

The standard colors for the different signals will be described below. There is a color for 13 different signals. These colors are white, red, green, blue, gray, brown, tan, purple, orange, and yellow. The colors green, blue, and red are repeated once, because these three colors have a place in analog audio and in component video.

The first category for color coding we discuss is analog audio codings on the connector. There are color codings for up to eight different audio connections. For the left connection the coding is the color white. The right analog audio connection has a red color coding. Green is the color coding on the connector for the center audio connection. Left surround audio connections are coded by the color blue. The right surround audio connection is colored gray. There are also two colors that are used to color code surround sound audio connections. The color brown is for the connection that goes to the left back surround audio connection. Tan is the color used for coding the right back surround connection for analog audio. The last color coding for analog audio is the color purple, or sometimes brown, and this color identifies the connector for the sub-woofer.

The next category for the color codes that should be discussed is the digital audio connector. This is the orange colored coaxial cable, and carries S/PDIF instead of analog audio. Composite video is another category, and composite video has a color on the connector that is yellow.

Component video is the last color category that will be covered. RGB stands for red, green, and blue. This term applies to various analog components. These components generally offer the greatest analog video signals that are available in consumer electronics. With RGB there is no limit in resolution or color depth, and no compression is used. RGB has been pretty much ignored, despite the suitability and quality, as it can't be easily applied with Digital Rights Management. In North America RGB was never popular for consumer electronics, as the format S-video was considered adequate.

Other types of component analogue video signals do not use the red, green, blue components, but rather a component that has no color, called luma, in combination with one or components that carry color, called chroma, that give only information on color. Both S-Video component video output (which uses two separate signals) and Y'PbPr component video output (which uses three separate signals) that are seen on DVD players are a good example. By converting video into signals called luma and chroma, this conversion allows for a process called chroma subsampling, a method which JPG images and DVD players use to reduce most storage requirements for video and images.

When component video is talked about today, the Y'PbPr component video scheme is usually what is meant. Many consumer products use this format of color coding, such as DVD players, video projectors, plasma displays, and others. In component video there are three components that have a color coding. The first component is Y, and the color it is coded to is green. Component Pb is associated with the color blue on the color coding. The component Pr has a color coding association that is red.

And we hope that you be able to hook up easily at any given time. Good luck.