NOT SO LONG AGO, video was just video – or that’s the way it
seemed. Video monitors and TV sets had single RCA sockets for their video
inputs, as did VCRs for their video inputs and outputs. With this format, you
simply fed the video signal from one unit to another via a single RCA-to-RCA
coaxial cable, with other cables only needed for the audio.
When Laser disc players came along, most of them used exactly
the same arrangement (although they gave much clearer pictures than VCRs).
However, when DVD players arrived, even the early models had an extra video
output socket (usually a 4-pin mini DIN socket) which was marked "S-video". At
the same time, TV sets also started to appear with an S-video input socket –
this in addition to the more familiar RCA-type video input, which was now being
called the "composite video" socket.
So you now had a choice when it came to connecting a DVD player
to the TV – use either a single RCA-RCA cable or one of the new 4-pin DIN to
4-pin DIN "S-video" cables. And the word soon spread that using an S-video cable
gave better picture quality.
Then things got a little more complicated again. Some of the
higher-end DVD players started to appear with a third kind of video output known
as "component video". This was usually made available via three more RCA sockets
marked Y, Cb (or Pb or B-Y) and Cr (or Pr or R-Y). Naturally, component video
inputs also began appearing on TV sets and video projectors at about this time,
giving the consumer yet another choice when it came to connecting video
signals.
As before, word soon spread that using component video cables
gave the best possible picture quality – even better than S-video. And it wasn’t
too long before component video outputs appeared on even low-end DVD
players.
