The Plasma TV Blog

The basic underlying problem that had to be overcome in order to make the television in your home a reality was how to send the signal from the studio to a receiver in your home, and how to connect that receiver to your display monitor. The first solution to this problem was a format known as composite video. The name came from the fact that two signals were needed, the video and the audio signal, and they had to be combined and modulated into a single radio frequency signal (RF carrier). The RF signal was broadcast, received by your antenna and then separated again into video and audio mode.

The term composite video also refers to the fact that the video signal itself consists of three distinct signals. They are sometimes called Y, U, and V, or together as YUV. The y signal carried the brightness, the light of the picture. By itself it would produce a black and white image. The U and V signals carry the color information. The signals are actually mixed to provide the color picture seen on the screen.

The device used to connect composite video signals to your television is usually a connector known as a RCA jack. The name comes from Radio Corporation of America which first developed the jack in the 1940’s to connect their phonographs to amplifiers. They are familiar now to any home owner who uses either video or audio equipment. They are the multicolored plugs with the video signal being carried by the yellow plug, and the audio signal through red and white plugs that divide the audio signal into right and left.