Strange composite video incident

[jared555]

In the process of hooking up the monitor out on the receiver through a splitter, I noticed the TV picture came on with only one of the two RCA conductors making contact (the plug that sticks out, not the metal that is around it).... How is this possible, unless it is going through the AC neutral wire, or the cable tv wire (the receiver menus do show up so it is the composite signal)....

Not really a problem just 1) Wondering how this is working and 2) If this is going to cause any interference on the picture when the wire is connected properly

 

[TLS Guy]

In the process of hooking up the monitor out on the receiver through a splitter, I noticed the TV picture came on with only one of the two RCA conductors making contact (the plug that sticks out, not the metal that is around it).... How is this possible, unless it is going through the AC neutral wire, or the cable tv wire (the receiver menus do show up so it is the composite signal)....

Not really a problem just 1) Wondering how this is working and 2) If this is going to cause any interference on the picture when the wire is connected properly

It is finding another ground, most likely the cable TV cables. You have not noticed anything unusual.

 

[jared555]

The combination of wires it must be going through is kind of interesting...

It is either the neutral wire on the AC (neither tv nor receiver have ground plugs) or a combination of the RCA signal wires from the receiver <> cable box and then the RF coax cable from the cable box <> the tv


I am guessing this is similar to ground loop hum, does it cause any degradation of video signal quality or is it just when there is an audio signal?

 

[Haoleb]

This is probably the same as how you get signal with only the center pin on audio, Only its not strong like it is with both connected.

I was even getting a decent signal using my body as a conductor the other day when I was troubleshooting my cables that I use to hookup my compuiter and was holding the rca's in my hand. In one hand the cables to my stereo, and in the other the cables from the computer