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I was searching for something around the house and came across an adapter which seemed pretty weird to me.

It was like this:
this,
except it had ports for all 3 RCA jacks. It has 3 black loops on the male end, I remember seeing somewhere that this is important for something, but I don't know what. Could this be used to run video through an audio jack?

Christos
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    why not take a photo of the adapter in question and post that instead of something else? – Máté Juhász Apr 04 '16 at 08:37
  • I don't have access to a decent camera right now, sorry. I don't have my phone at the moment and my laptop camera is pretty bad. – Christos Apr 04 '16 at 08:39
  • You mean the male is like this: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/3.5mm.jpg/220px-3.5mm.jpg? I guess it's still 3.5mm to RCA Audio but with microphone in? – Tom Yan Apr 04 '16 at 09:26
  • Some newer computers, such as Lenovo laptops, have 3.5 mm TRRS headset sockets, which are compatible with phone headsets and may be distinguished by a headset icon instead of the usual headphones or microphone icons. These are particularly used for Voice over IP. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_connector_%28audio%29) – Tom Yan Apr 04 '16 at 09:27
  • Oh- so is the yellow port on it microphone in? I thought it was for video, as it had all 3 colours, but you may be right. If I find a mic I'll check. – Christos Apr 04 '16 at 12:30
  • Hmm, yellow port sounds more like composite video...is it an RCA port too? – Tom Yan Apr 04 '16 at 12:37
  • Yeah, I'm pretty sure they're RCA ports. Yellow, white and red, RCA plugs fit in just fine. I checked out the wikipedia page, and... It's like an audio jack... but with video? Forgive my ignorance, i'm not the greatest at this sort of stuff. Does that mean I can transfer both video and audio through the 3.5 mm audio port? – Christos Apr 04 '16 at 12:42
  • Let's put it this way, "3.5mm port" is not always "audio only port", and some device use a variant of it for both video and audio input/output, but not all device does. – Tom Yan Apr 04 '16 at 12:49
  • Well, the one on my laptop has a headset symbol, which seems like it would only provide audio input/output. Is there any way to test for video? – Christos Apr 04 '16 at 12:50
  • I doubt that a TRRS on a laptop would be able to provide video anyway. I would say the adapter probably comes with a camcorder or so. But if the adapter physically fits in the port of your laptop, I guess you can try connect it to a TV and then see if your display card setting have any mentioning of composite video output. – Tom Yan Apr 04 '16 at 12:59
  • FYR: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_connector_%28audio%29#TRRS_standards – Tom Yan Apr 04 '16 at 13:00
  • There are certain electronics that output video via a 3.5mm headphone jack, with older iPods being one (i.e iPod 5G/Video/Classic models). There are likely other electronics as well, but I'm only aware of the iPod. – JW0914 Oct 23 '19 at 16:48

2 Answers2

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This is RCA Audio Female to 3.5mm Stereo adapter. The RCA out consists of Video, Left Audio & Right Audio. You can plug the L & R Audio RCA into the two input ports and connect it to any 3.5mm Line In or equivalent input like Aux Audio.

e.g. I have a Set Top Box that outputs AV in RCA cables. However I have a TV Tuner card on my PC that accepts 3.5mm Line in Audio & Video in RCA format. Now to connect the audio output of RCA to 3.5mm Line In I shall use this adapter and plug the Video as is in the Video In. Some TV tuner cards maintain compatibility with 3.5mm Line-In as Audio format rather than all 3 Inputs being RCA. See this pic below. Image Courtesy of http://www.media-tech.eu/pub/File/instrukcje_obslugi/MT4155_EN.pdf

enter image description here

ramki
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    Sorry, I don't fully understand. Is the video part of it useless? – Christos Apr 04 '16 at 09:18
  • Above I have given an example of a traditional TV Tuner Card that takes Video In as RCA (Yellow Plug as is) but Line-In as 3.5mm stereo jack. It can also be used where only Audio devices are involved e.g. some amplifier out as RCA Audio (Red & White) to 3.5 mm jack. In principle it's is a bidirectional adapter. If an audio amplifier has RCA Audio In and you want to pass the output of say mobile phone audio to it, you can use it the other way. – ramki Apr 04 '16 at 11:45
  • Ok, but what is the 3rd, yellow port on my RCA adapter for? And by AV in, I assume that means the yellow video jack? – Christos Apr 04 '16 at 12:28
  • @Christos I think ramki is right but he just didn't give a good enough example. Apparently some device use TRRS for audio AND composite video input/output, and there are even variants of it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phone_connector_%28audio%29#Video – Tom Yan Apr 04 '16 at 12:46
  • Ok. So how would I know? Are there any programs available to test/get video from TRRS? – Christos Apr 04 '16 at 12:48
  • @Christos actually what you are asking for is 4 Pole ( 3.5mm including L,R Video & GND) to 3 PIN RCA cable or adapter. Example I have quoted is for 3 Pole to 2 RCA. 4 pole 3.5mm to RCA can be used in older handycams that output SD output in 4Pole TRRS socket. – ramki Apr 04 '16 at 14:52
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I used an rca audio to 3.5 mm jack adapter many years ago to connect a turntable (rca output) to a computer sound card (3.5mm jack input). Played vinyl records on the turntable and created audio files on the computer, which were burned to cds.

R Morton
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  • Hey there, the answer you provided did not answer the question(s) that are being asked. Valuable answers include answers to the asked questions. – Gizmo Oct 24 '19 at 11:17