OT Mini jack to RCA lead confusion

brianw wrote on 7/17/2009, 12:29 AM

Are you aware that those leads we use to connect cams etc to tvs (the ones that have a three way mini jack to three RCA plugs, red,white and yellow) can come in different connection styles. The "normal" seems to be tip-left audio ie white,next ring-video ie yellow,Next-ground and the rest which would normally be the body is right audio ie red. It meams you can use a normal sterio plug-lead to extract video and left audio at a pinch.
However I have a commercialy made lead which must have come with something ???? which I grabbed of the lead rack in a hurry to use to connect a cam to a recorder. Didnt work, weird distorted video and sound with a buzz.
Checked connections and found--- tip red??, first sleeve-white??, Next sleeve-yellow, Remainder-common ground. Now I have to track down what device this lead came from!!! Cheers, Brian

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 7/17/2009, 3:42 AM

I have two of them, one from my camcorder and one from a portable DVD player. Both of them are Left, Right, Video, Ground. That means if i use a regular 3-conductor cable i get stereo audio and no video.

musicvid10 wrote on 7/17/2009, 7:57 AM

There is no convention for TRRS jacks and plugs used for camcorder output. Each manufacturer may do it differently. And if you buy a replacement cable made in China, it's going to be backwards anyway . . .

Use a $5 continuity tester to sort it out and use colored tape to code the plugs.

TheHappyFriar wrote on 7/18/2009, 12:00 PM

a wire is just a wire, what it's used for is up to the person who makes it. What we would call stereo 1/4" jacks others call balanced audio (not l/r/g but three wires per channel). I make my own cables, have been for years, so I've learned from experience how the wiring works. :)

I'd suggest picking up cables @ a radioshack. They have a good selection & normally the people know what they're talking about. They can be a bit pricey though, but, imho, the quality of their brand of cables are excellent. Everything under their name is normally a single molded piece, very nice & durrable.

farss wrote on 7/18/2009, 3:49 PM

I now recall we had this same problem years ago. I don't think your cable was made to a different standard, simply made wrong. We've since bought the same cable under the same part number from the same supplier and they've been made correctly.
Quite likely the retailer you bought from or his supplier has still got inventory from a batch made years ago. If you want best quality leads especially firewire ones buy Sony. Fliggin expensive but...

Bob.

Opampman wrote on 7/18/2009, 7:09 PM

I had one of these that came with my Panasonic camcorder. When I bought a Panasonic portable DVD player, I thought I could use the same cable. But, guess what? The one from the camcorder was wired differently than what I needed for the DVD player. I had to buy one especially for the DVD player. Go figure!