Audio and Video Interfaces and Connectors

Audio and Video Interfaces and Connectors includes types, physical design of plugs, sockets maintaining the standards which defines the hardware interfaces. In the broader article on Connectors, we discussed about certain types of Audio and Video Interfaces and Connectors; in this article we will go in to details, specifically on Audio and Video Interfaces and Connectors.

Audio and Video Interfaces and Connectors : Introduction

Audio and Video Interfaces and Connectors standard may define a connectors. Audio connectors and video connectors are physical simple electrical connectors, usually manufactured with metal wire with better electrical conductivity for carrying the audio signal or video signal or both. Optical Fiber is also in use for this purpose. Audio and Video Interfaces often referred with the short name – AVI.

Audio and Video Interfaces and Connectors are usually the same, to ensure compatibility.
Some of these Audio and Video Interfaces and Connectors are cross used at radio frequency technology to connect a radio or television receiver.
These factors, make an average user confused about Audio and Video Interfaces and Connectors. As they carry electricity, misconfiguration can render a device unusable.

Audio and Video Interfaces and Connectors

3.5 mm Phone connector or plug is the most commonly used Analog Audio connector widely used for various signals including in earphones, speakers, microphone and line audio. Color coding for Audio Out is usually Green and Microphone is pink. Color coding is not honored when it is only Earphone or Headphone.

Image is created by Søren Peo Pedersen with GNU GPL License and the numbering points to :

1. Sleeve
2. Ring: Right channel for stereo signals, negative polarity for balanced mono signals, power supply for power-using mono signal sources
3. Tip: Left channel for stereo signals, positive polarity for balanced mono signals, signal line for unbalanced mono signals
4. Insulating rings

RCA connector is second most commonly used among all the Audio and Video Interfaces and Connectors. RCA is used for Digital Audio and Analog Video. RCA Plug has color coding – composite video is yellow and stereo audio is of white and red color.

 
Other most known Digital Video Connector is DVI :

There are other various types of Audio and Video Interfaces and Connectors which are not discussed here as they themselves needs separate article themselves, which includes HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) which is a compact audio/video interface for transferring compression-less digital audio/video, BNC (Bayonet Neill Concelman) connector, Separate Video (S-Video), Video Graphics Array (VGA) and others.