RF still in use?

[RCBH928]

Out of curiosity
I noticed these ancient plug-ins are still used on big high-tech TV's with HD and all.
I have not seen an electronic device that uses these wires in ages.

U know the ones on the Nes and Snes fat and black.
Are they still used? Do you use them? Do they have an advantage?

[Erik_Twice]

Here in Spain we are still using it. Even when digital terrestial finally remplaces analog we will still use the same cable, there's nothing wrong with it.

[gtmtnbiker]

My Saturn has the RF box. I have to find a S-Video cable for it. One time I bought a GameCube from someone that had a Mad Catz rf box. Hard to believe that he wasn't able to use composite output.

[MrPopo]

RF is a type of signal. It's transmitted over a coaxial cable. However, a coaxial cable can also transmit HD cable signals and high-speed internet. That's why TVs still have the coaxial jack.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Yup, we get HD over the air through Coax. Thats also how we get our internet.

[Dakinggamer87]

I still used RF for some of my older consoles that don't use A/V cables...

[RCBH928]

this cable can out put HD?
For god sakes, then why they got us in all this 3 wires composite , component , hdmi, s-video, VGA?
It was there all along, one wire that outputs high quality image?

We still got a black wire coming from satellite dishes into a receiver , but the head is with a thin metal piece and you kind of need to screw it in. Is this the same cable with different head?

[elvis]

this cable can out put HD?
For god sakes, then why they got us in all this 3 wires composite , component , hdmi, s-video, VGA?
It was there all along, one wire that outputs high quality image?

You (and a few others) are confusing a signal type with a physical cable.

Coax cable can transmit many signals. One of them is digital HD MPEG-TS streams (which is how cable/satellite/DVB-T/S/C are all transmitted). Another is RF (Radio Frequency), which generally is used to encode standard def composite Luma/Chroma+audio.

The things you mention above are all analogue signal transmission types. All of them are limited by bandwidth and quality loss over distance. Digital transmissions are a little different, and old cable types can do some interesting things with new ways to transmit information over old cables.

The complaint about digital set top boxes is adequate, however. I think it's pretty piss poor that a lot of cable providers all around the world are still pushing analogue low-def signals out of cable boxes. But as usual, most are catering for a market full of ignorant users who probably wouldn't notice the difference between standard-def analogue and digital high def side by side on their big TVs. And the rampant fear that if they spit out high-quality signals, people will somehow "steal" (record/transcode) the content.

[BoringSupreez]

I only use RF for Sega Genesis anymore, and even then, only because my TV doesn't have a SCART input, and the only other output Sega Genesis 1 has is RF.