What is Component Video?

Component video is one of the high-end video interfaces offered on audiovisual equipment today. It supersedes composite video and S-Video by providing greater signal clarity than either, resulting in better picture quality. The component video interface consists of three RCA or coaxial jacks, one green, one red and one blue, requiring three cables. Component video carries visual data only, so audio cables are still required.

What does the Y Pr Pb mean?

Like composite and S-Video, component video is an analog interface, but its three cables better preserve the various elements of the video source signal. The first is the luminance signal, which indicates brightness or black & white information that is contained in the original RGB signal. It is referred to as the "Y" component. The second and third signals are called "color difference" signals which indicate how much blue and red there is relative to luminance. The blue component is "B-Y" and the red component is "R-Y". The color difference signals are mathematical derivatives of the RGB signal so green doesn't need to be transmitted as a separate signal since it can be inferred from the "Y, B-Y, R-Y" combination. The display device knows how bright the image is from the Y component, and since it knows how much is blue and red, it figures the rest must be green so it fills it in. This is done to save bandwidth.

Therefore, component video is sometimes referred to as "RGB" for red, green, blue. The component video interface is marked either Y Pr Pb or Y Cr Cb.

What are the advantages of Component Video over interfaces such as, S-Video and Composite video?

While regular television signals, VHS tapes and laserdiscs all encode visual data using lesser quality composite video, DVDs use component video for encoding visual data. A DVD player with component video outputs, connected to a television with component video inputs, will provide a picture far superior than one using composite video connections.

Component video is also a step up from S-Video in that component video is a multi-scan technology, which means it can deliver the video stream in differing modes to accommodate various frame rates for progressive-scan or interlaced televisions.

Component Video Modes

Component video is capable of carrying signals such as 480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p, 1080i and 1080p

To get higher resolutions, consider moving up to HDMI, if your tv and devices support it.

Connectors Used:

RCA (consumer), BNC (professional)

Component with Audio

Since component cables only carry video, its benificial to buy them with the audio cables attached. They can come with Toslink optical audio, or RCA analog audio. See left.

Common Mistakes...

Making a component video connection often does not lead to a satisfactory video signal instantly. The settings on many DVD players and TVs may need to be set to indicate the type of input/output being used, and if set wrong the image may not be properly displayed. Progressive scan, for example, is often not enabled by default, even when component video output is selected.

There is some misunderstanding among technophiles as to the difference between component video marked Y Pr Pb versus Y Cr Cb, with some claiming the latter is digital while the former is analog. Experts point out that both designations mean the same thing on consumer level equipment, and both are analog. There is a digital variety of Y Cr Cb, but it is not used in consumer level products.