Written by James Fohl

Have you ever looked on the back of your television set, or perhaps the side of your television
set and saw a weird connector that looked much like a computer mouse port? This weird connector
has been placed on high end television sets for quite a while now, and is just starting to gain
popularity now.

It is known as a s-video connector, and started popping up in the 1980's. While s-video has had
several names over the years, including Y/C, SVHS, and SCART, s-video seems to be the name that has
survived since its creation. It is believed that the "s" refers to super, as in super video, since s-video
is far more better than composite RCA video plugs that have been commonly used in the past.

Apple Computer Users May Recognize S-Video, As The Same Type Of Connector Has Been Used On Apple
Computers For Several Years

S-Video delivers an analog video signal through a four pin mini-DIN connector. Computer
users who have owned an older Apple computer will recognize the S-Video port, as it is identical
to the ADB (Apple Desktop Bus) ports on the computers which connected keyboards, mice, and other
accessories to the Apple computers.

The very first widespread usage of S-Video came in the early 1980's, when the Commodore 64 home
computer system used S-Video for its display. Today, many high end computer graphics cards also
have the ability to display on television sets via S-Video cables.

S-video Is Gaining Popularity, Due To Users Wanting Crisp Displays Of Their High End Electronic
Equipment

While composite video and audio plugs (those yellow, red, and white plugs) were the main means
of connecting VCRs and video game systems to television sets during the 1980's and 1990's, today
S-Video is appearing as the number one choice to connect video game systems and DVD players to
television sets. This is most notably due to the fact that S-Video delivers a much more crisp
picture than composite video cables could ever accomplish.

S-video is for video only, hence its name. Because of this fact, many people believe audio is
being ignored since even though composite video has been replaced with s-video, composite audio (
white and red cables) are still being utilized for audio connections to video game consoles and
DVD players.

Composite cables however were made for audio, not video initially, and because of this composite
audio plugs are the most efficient as well as cheapest audio solution, as both channels of stereo
audio are given their own audio cable.

As more and more DVD players and new video game systems, as well as S-Video equipped television sets
are being sold, the usage of s-video is on a dramatic climb. While all DVD manufacturers used to
ship regular composite cables to connect DVD players with, now many DVD manufacturers are including
s-video connection cables with their DVD players so that the end user is experiencing S-video output
without having to go out and purchase an s-video cable.