Video Connectors Tutorial

Component Video

Component video offers far better quality than S-Video. It is the preferred video connection to use between your video source and your TV set or video projector, when they support this kind of connection and don’t have a better connectivity option, such as DVI or HDMI. It uses three cables that should be connected as follows:

• Green connector: green input or input labeled as Y
• Blue connector: blue input or input labeled as Pb or Cb or B-Y
• Red connector: red input or input labeled as Pr or Cr or R-Y

The Y connector transmits video information (black-and-white image) while the color information is transmitted on the other connectors.

Figure 18: Component video connectors on a DVD player

On the PC, some video cards have this kind of output, which should be used if you want to connect your PC to your TV set, but your TV doesn’t have a better kind of connection, i.e., VGA, DVI or HDMI.

The problem, however, is that it is not easy to recognize whether or not a video card has this kind of output, because it shares the same connector used by Separated Video (S-Video). If your video card has an S-Video output, it may or may not have support for component video.

One way to detect if your S-Video connector has component video output is by looking at it. If it has only four pins, this means it has only S-Video output and doesn’t support component video. If it has more than four pins, this may mean that it has component video. See Figure 19.

Figure 19: Identifying the S-Video connector used by your video card

Notice that we said “may.” This happens because there are some video cards, especially those with video capture (VIVO) function, that have more than four pins on their S-Video connector, but these extra pins are used by another feature, not by component video.

In summary: If the S-Video connector from your video card has four pins, it doesn’t have component video output. If it has more than four pins, it may have component video output. To be sure, read the card’s manual to see if it has this feature.

To use the component video output from your video card, you will need an adapter. This adapter usually comes with video cards that have component video output. Therefore, if your video card came with a component video adapter, this means it has component video output!

The aspect of this adapter can vary; the two most common models are shown in Figures 20 and 21.

Figure 20: Component video adapter

Figure 21: Another model of component video adapter

If your video card does not have component video output, you can still convert the VGA or DVI output of your video card into component video using an adapter. It is worth noticing that this connection is not just an electrical connection; it needs electronic components to make the conversion from the RGB standard to the YPbPr one used by the component video adapter. That is why this adapter cannot be easily made at home. Be careful, because there is a USD 15 cable on the market that claims to convert the VGA output into component video, but this cable doesn’t work correctly.

ATI (now AMD) used to sell an adapter for video cards that used this company’s chip for USD 30, called “DVI-to-HDTV Adapter” (ATI part number 151-V01093). This adapter didn’t work on video cards with chips from other manufacturers. (This occurred because boards with ATI chips already had support for the component video as a standard feature.) Click here for more information on this adapter.

Other manufacturers produce VGA or DVI converters for component video compatible with any video card, but their price is higher (up to USD 150, depending on the manufacturer and the functionalities). Be careful, as the cheapest converters may not generate a component video signal at the best resolution or quality that your TV may support. That is why you have to check the resolutions and modes your TV supports and the resolutions and modes the adapter is capable of generating before buying it. The two most popular adapters among enthusiasts are the Digital Key KD-VTCA3 and the Audio Authority 9A60.