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What Duties Do the AV Cable Colors Represent for a PS3?

Game consoles may be more complicated than ever to connect to televisions, thanks largely to the complexity of television sets. While early game consoles connected directly to the coaxial port on the back of the television or VCR, there are now multiple types of standard-definition and high-definition televisions, each with separate connection types. The designs of the different types of PlayStation 3 AV cables attempt to simplify this process by implementing a color-coding scheme that makes the purpose of each connector more self-evident.

Standard AV Cable
- The standard AV cable is included with the PlayStation 3, while the other AV cables are separate products. You can identify the standard AV cable by the three RCA connections on the end. On the standard AV cable, the yellow connector is a composite video connector, while the white and red connectors are for the left and right stereo audio channels respectively.
Component AV Cable
- The component AV cable for the PlayStation 3 has five connectors on the end. Upon closer examination of the cable, you will see that the cable breaks off into two sections. One section has white and red connectors on the end. These provide the left-channel and right-channel connections for sound, just like in the standard AV cable. The remaining three connections are for high-definition component video. The yellow connector transmits luminance--or brightness--data to the television. The remaining two connectors of the component AV cable carry red and blue color data. Component video does not require a green connector because the amount of green in an image is determined by subtracting the red and blue from the total luminance.
S-Video Cable
- The PlayStation 3 S-Video cable uses the same red and white audio connectors as the standard and component AV cables. The remaining connector--the S-Video connector--is not color-coded. This connector is larger than the others on the cable because it contains several pins. Like the yellow connector for the standard AV cable, the S-Video connector transmits all of the video data from the PlayStation 3 to the television over one cable. However, the cable contains several internal wires that improve the video quality slightly compared to the standard composite cable.
HDMI Cable
- The PlayStation 3 HDMI cable is not color-coded. The connector on the end is rectangular and slightly over 1/2-inch wide. HDMI cables carry both audio and video data. Unlike the other PlayStation 3 cables, the HDMI cable transmits all data as zeroes and ones, like computer language.

PlayStation 3