CompTIA A+® Certification All-In-One For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

1.7. Multimedia Connectors

Multimedia is one of the new hot areas of computers and how people are using them. Several standard types of connections are used for multimedia purposes. Table 1-4 provides some standard multimedia connectors and their uses.

Table 1.4. Types of Multimedia Connectors

Role	Connectors Used
Analog audio	The main analog audio connector used in your computer is the one-eighth-inch connector, which is the standard headphone, speaker, and microphone jack for most sound cards. This form of connector has been around for years as an audio connector.
MIDI	The Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) connector has been in use since the 1980s, but the standard for it was finalized only in the early 1990s. Most electronic keyboards and many other instruments have MIDI connections on them, which are usually 5-pin DIN connectors; the connector on a computer is a DB-15 connector. MIDI connections allow for time synchronization, sequencing, recording, editing, and playback of MIDI-formatted data. The MIDI file format is extremely efficient.
Analog video and cable	Computers make use of the same video transfer cables used in the home AV market. These include coaxial cable that can carry audio and video signals; RCA cables that can carry either an audio or video signal (but, if you have an RCA connector on your computer, it is likely a yellow video connector); and S-Video, which is used for higher quality video signals and uses a mini-DIN 4 connector. These cables are used to ...