When New Tech Makes You Feel Stupid
Last week I picked up a bunch of "classic" video games (I use the term lightly, I don't know how many people would deem them to be "classic" games). I'll write more in-depth about them - eventually - on my video game blog, but this post is more about how new & updated technology imparted a little bit of ineptitude on my part.
Connecting video games (and other video devices, like VHS players, DVD players) used to be simple. In the case of older consoles like the NES or SNES, you used a coax cable setup. As things got a little more sophisticated, you would connect your devices with composite cables: red & white for audio, yellow for video.
Simple, foolproof.
But then component cables were introduced; you've got three cables for video, as well as your standard audio cables. Things were further simplified with HDMI cables (thank goodness - 5 is too many cables for one device), but most TVs still have component input options to support older devices. These component input options double as composite - usually the "Green" input doubles as "Y" for composite cables.
All that to say - I was thrown for a loop when I expected hooking up the N64 composite cables to the component input to Just Work. Technically, it did work - but the video was black and white, no colour. I was racking my brain trying to figure out what wasn't working, because while I had the option of connecting via coax, that image was very fuzzy and not very nice to look at.
It took multiple searches to finally stumble on the answer: there was an additional input selection on my TV called "AV", that was meant for composite instead of component. It was hidden on my TV, and I had to turn it back on to select it. Bingo - full colour.
But it just strikes me as amusing that I had so much trouble hooking up old tech, which is usually simpler and easier to plug and play. Sometimes new technology has the amazing capability of making this 40-year old feel real dumb.
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