Video Connections

[Tosh McCaber]

I've just purchased a Toshiba HDD domestic DVD recorder. For being a top end machine with all the (too many?) bells and whistles, the manuals that come with it, whilst being very comprehensive, are written in poor, ambiguous translations from the original Japanese.

To my question, one of many not explained in the manual.

I intend to connect my Sony digital camcorder to the DVD recorder, but the recorder has no I-Link/ DV socket- just the three white/ yellow/ red plugs for connecting from the external source.

a) What is the description for this connection- S-Video, RGB, or composite?

b) Can anyone point me in the direction of the difference in quality between S-Video, RGB, and composite connections? I've heard that composite is inferior, but I dont know what to look for physically with each connection

c) Will the connection give good quality recordings from the camcorder onto DVD disk?

d) And where do Scart cables figure in all this??

Thanks,

Tosh

[Background Noise]

Yellow is composite video, red and white are left and right audio. You should have an output capability in that format (?) from your camcorder I suspect. I wouldn't think that you would see any loss of quality using that connection. You can get cables with y/r/w on one end and scart the other but there is no need if you have y/r/w on both machines. I guess you have to set the dvd recorder to record form the correct input somehow.

[Loose rivets]

Are you sure that there is not a miniature plug hidden away someware?

I'm really very surprised that the recorder is limited to composite video. DVD is a reasonable standard, so going in on composite could cause a reduction in its potential. But, I'm not sure.

Anyone know the theoretical ‘cost' of combining the colour data with the luminance signal?