Difference between red, white and yellow?

[Bodymechanic]

Most VCR's and DVD's come with a set of analog cables that are bound together so that there is a white end, red end and yellow end. In some cases the yellow end has a heavier guage cable running between than the other two. I understand what they are intended for but I'm curious; is there any internal construction difference between them?

Thanks in advance

 

[markw]

The wire with the yellow RCA plugs is for video and should be 75 ohms. The red/white audio wires are for audio and don't have to be 75 ohms*, but nowadays they usually are.

In the past these have been anywhere between 50 and 110 ohms but, due to manufacturing cost issues, many have been made of 75 ohm cable.

 

[edwelly]

Why 75 ohms? Is a 50 ohm cable better?
Thanks...

 

[Audioholics]

Long story and very technical, actually - complete with arguments about whether RCA can really truly be 75-ohms... blah blah...

The bottom line is that you should throw those cables out and use either s-video or component for connecting the DVD player to your TV unless you absolutely don't have those input options available to you (really old TV).

Order of Increasing Quality (generally speaking - there are exceptions):

composite (think yellow), s-video, component (think red, green, blue), DVI, HDMI (like DVI but with future expansion options and audio capabilities)

I've oversimplified - but hopefully this is some helpful info.

 

[j_garcia]

The yellow cable in those "throw in" cables is often shielded becasue the video signal may be more sensitive to EMI/RFI, thus a slightly larger cable than the other two which are likely unshielded. IMO, use a separate stereo analog cable and composite video in such cases as a VCR that has only RF (cable) and composite.

 

[Bodymechanic]

Thank you for the replies. Thanks Clint for poppin in on this one. I have a huge bag of these (read packrat) in my closet. I have never used them because I figured they were probably not up to the standards I like.

However, I just spent $4k on upgrades and the wife is barely speaking to me as it is so I used them to connect my multi-channel inputs from the Oppo I just bought. The multi-channel is all working fine and sounds really cool actually. I intend to buy a dedicated set of multichannel cables from bluejean but need to let the dust settle a bit. In the meantime Im stuck with these.

By the way, check out the blue man group on DVD-A its a lot of fun to listen to. I don't have much material to listen to yet in DVD-A but I can say that it sounds similar to playing redbook material, or any music really, in 7-channel stereo on my Yamaha RX-V2500. There is definately a difference but I can't quite put my finger on it.

Thanks again and kind regards,

BM