Spyke
pawb.social

Inaccurate meme - the white and red RCAs in composite typically don't actually carry the left and right channels - usually, the white one is L+R, meaning both the left and right channels combined into one, and the red one is L-R, the difference between the right and left channels.

This is done so that a mono television, which will only have a yellow and white port, will still be able to hear both audio channels, as opposed to having to completely miss out on one of them

161
lemmy.world

That makes so much sense! I never understood it, and it became irrelevant before I worked it out.

17

It's so funny, I had the same reaction! Never quite understood it, just switched plugs until it worked. Then it got phased out and... decades later a meme brings light to my confusing childhood!

9

The video cable does a similar trick with how it supports color. This is why S-Video was superior to composite video until component came along. S-Video split the intensity and color into two signals and then component split the color further into a blue difference and a red difference. If you only wanted black and white, you didn't need to use the color signals and the image would degrade to a monochrome representation.

The composite video, with only one video signal wire, was similar to what was received over the antenna, with the broadcast signal separated from the carrier signal and the audio sub bands removed. It was the video signal with the color signal still combined. The progression from Antenna -> Composite -> S-Video -> Component -> DVI-I -> DVI-D -> HDMI -> Display Port has been an interesting one. The changes in the digital realm have been less about the image quality, the digital signal can either be read or not, and more about the bandwidth and how much data can be sent, aka resolution and framerate. Those first four transitions in particular had significant impact on the image quality.

11
rektifierreply
sh.itjust.works

This must be BS or a regional thing. All the RCA ports I've seen in North America are labeled L and R, not L+R and L-R.

5

I use those on my speakers and I can flip left/right stereo if I flip the cables. I think that confirms that they don't have both in one I think.

2
radostin04reply
pawb.social

It's possible that it might only be a thing in PAL regions - I'd try, but I don't have anything that uses composite to try now.

2

I can confirm that everything that uses component and L/R that I have used in my life (born in 2001 in the Netherlands, so PAL) has separate L and R channels. I have confirmed this with my multimeter before.

2

I appreciate you starting this comment with 'Inaccurate meme'. I think it should become a thing. Really helps me know to buckle in for something good

2

Thank you. Guess I must be a HDMI kid, who would have known.

22
danc4498reply
lemmy.world

Audio Right + Composite Video

Is that the guy that cut his ear off?

18
TheWoozyreply
lemmy.fmhy.net

They why did Radio Shack sell me a Y adapter to combine left and right?

1
Son_of_dadreply
lemmy.world

Things probably sounded weird there though. Lots of whooshing.

17
FarFarAwayreply
lemmy.world

Definitely. A piercing in my conch, was enough to give me some mildly annoying tinnitus for years.

Can't imagine if my ear was just...gone.

8

Well then that's not so bad. I mean it still will change the way you hear, but definitely not as drastic.

I was always under the impression he had like at least 3/4 of the ear gone. Lame.

TIL

1
lemmy.world

I'm viewing this through the Liftoff app and your username has big block letters and a blue circle for the O but looks normal when viewed from other apps. Is that some customization you can do that only shows up if an app supports it?

1

I think in your user profile settings, you can set a separate display name. Then it’s up to the client on how to render your username/displayname.

2

I think y'all are nitpicking this joke too hard

1
sh.itjust.works

laughs in european

I present to you: the Scart.

Our gaming consoles came with it.

We were clueless the first time we hooked up our N64 at gran-gran, since the old TV did not have a Scart connector, but we figured out that the Scart’s colored cables go in there.

35
Blackmistreply
feddit.uk

Scart was amazing. RGB, composite, component, audio. All in one cable. Granted that cable and connector were enormous, but one cable nonetheless.

11
BorgDronereply
lemmy.one

SCART was terrible.

Theoretically it had all that in one cable, in practice it never did. You’d usually have 3-4 SCART ports on a TV, but not all ports accepted our output the same signals. There was no way to tell from the outside what the output or input from a SCART port so you either had to try different port combinations or look it up in the manual (if you had one). Most TV’s had one port that accepted s-video, on that accepted RGB and they usually accepted composite on all ports.

Worse, not all cables had all 21 connections. If you were lucky you could tell because not all pins on the connector would be there (but this wasn’t necessary the case).

Usually there was also one port on a TV that output the video from the tuner. This was used for analog pay TV decoders. You would hook it up to that SCART port and it would get the scrambled video from the TV and return the descrambled video over the same port.

Also, due to the size and design of the connector it was almost impossible to insert it blindly. Inserting one into the back of one of those enormous CRT television was always a challenge.

14

This is actually a pretty helpful diagram for when I inevitably forget which color does what

31
zebibitreply
sopuli.xyz

Ahh SCART, the beafiest connector. Feels like you're plugging/unplugging a nuclear power plant.

26

I see your SCART, and I raise you one Monsters Inc. Scream Extractor power plug.

2

I remember Christmas day getting a ps1 pulling out the cables and realizing that my tv didn't have the right ports and had to wait a couple of days to play it since the stores where closed and I couldn't buy one of those cables that connected to where the cable tv goes . Then getting stuck at the first section of tomb raider 2 for the next couple of days ...

17
Hyperi0nreply
lemmy.film

Composite cables.

Red is Right Audio

White is Left Audio

Yellow is Video.

Vincent van Gogh cut off his left ear but has his sight.

Mozart lost his ability to hear but has his sight.

Ray Charles is blind but unable to see.

37

Appreciate the effort. You clearly got the joke, but that's Beethoven and Stevie Wonder.

15

You are both wrong, these are pictures of Beethoven and Stevie Wonder, not the actual people.

7

The xbox 360 still came with composite video cables and a scart adapter. That's not THAT long ago.

8
Davel23reply
kbin.social

You're thinking of component. The two are (or were) frequently mixed up.

20
sdoorexreply
slrpnk.net

A good way to remember is that RGB on the same wire is a Composite signal whereas when they have their own cables they are sent as individual Components.

6

Composite is Red, White(Sometimes black) and Yellow.

The best way to remember is Composite rhymes with shit.

1
lemmy.world

This is RCA (the left / right audio) and composite video.

This meme would have been better with component video and TOSLINK or S-Video and toslink.

-2

I don't see how this meme would be better with an audio cable that doesn't have a separate physical signal path for left and right channels. The Van Gogh panel wouldn't make any sense.

7
soot_guyreply
lemmy.world

Van Gogh cut one of his ears off so the diagram shows only one audio cable, but still gets video. Beethoven was deaf and has only a video cable. Edit: Stevie Wonder being blind only gets the audio cables.

8
sh.itjust.works

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCA_connector

The one on the picture is called composite connector, compared to component, which used the same connector type but different colors codes. You had to be very careful where you plug them in your VHS player.

In composite the red and white plugs were the left and right sound, and the yellow the image. Van Gogh had one ear, so only one audio connector, Beethoven was deaf, so only yellow video, Ray Charles were blind.

7
lemmy.world

It is kinda funny that they mixed up Stevie wonder with another Blind musician. Quite a blunder to mix them up though, Stevie has such a distinctive look.

1

I never listened to any of their music, so I'm not familiar how do they look like. I just saw an image of a blind black musician, and guessed it wrong.

1

These are older audio/video cables. Back in the days, before HDMI came around you connected your TV to other components (VCR, cable box, HiFi, sound system, etc.) with these cables. Red and White were the audio cables for left and right channels. Yellow was for the video feed.

So when we consider the artists in the meme: Van Gogh, only had one ear and both his eyes, so he has a single audio cable (mono instead of stereo) and a video cable.

Beethoven only has the video cable because he was deaf.

Stevie wonder has both audio cables but no video cable because he is blind.

I hope that makes more sense :)

5