Svideo vs. Component

I upgrade from composite to S-Video and never looked back since!

Too bad I can\'t find any RGB cables for PS2. Anyone knows any online store I can get from?

[videoholic]

You are probably right Racer, I don\'t have RGB inputs on my tv.  Just the full RGBHV so I am out of it without an adapter and it\'s not worth it to me.  I did notice quite a difference between composite and S-Vid though

I saw some tests and the results were

1,2,3,4
(SCART) RGB>Component>S-Video>Composite

[videoholic]

Um, what is the difference between component and RGB?  Could someone please explain this to me?  I\'ll give you a cookie.

Originally posted by Videoholic
Um, what is the difference between component and RGB?  Could someone please explain this to me?  I\'ll give you a cookie.

I have no idea.. Ill try to find the page again where they explain everything and show graphs from the tests.

I remember there was very little difference from component and RGB. You would never be able to tell the difference by looking at a screen.

[videoholic]

My question is kind of sarcastic since RGB IS Component.  It\'s seperating video into seperate "Components".  As I wrote before it\'s just one of the forms of component.

[Paul2]

Originally posted by Videoholic
My question is kind of sarcastic since RGB IS Component.  It\'s seperating video into seperate "Components".  As I wrote before it\'s just one of the forms of component.

not quite.
A 24 bits RGB VGA monitor carries up to 16.8 million of different kinds of color.  8 bits on Red, Blue, and Green.  They 100% full bandwidth.

On the other hand component video, also known as Y pb pr (y cb cr) or YUV is different.  Engineer know that human eyes can hardly tell much of a different so they split RGB to YUV.  Y is luminance, or a combination of RGB, full bandwidth but it\'s only composite(it\'s a shade of 256 greyscale between black and white).  U is blue, but only scan half bandwidth.  V is red, but like blue, it\'s only scan half bandwidth.  There is no green since is mostly been share with Y(luminance or a combination of RGB).  Most component video run at 4:2:2 bandwidth.  4 on Y, 2 on U, and 2 on V.  Y is full bandwidth, and 59% of 4 Y is green signal and about 30% is Red and the remaining 11% is blue, that\'s only for Y.  Reason why red and blue is less than green is because they have seperated on U and V.  So, why did engineer went all the trouble for this?  to save bandwidth!  Also, if you look at a digital camcorder like MiniDV or D8, you be surprise that they are recorded in a 4:1:1 YUV bandwidth.  red and blue are being seperated at a quarter bandwidth instead half or full.  Why?  To save even more bandwidth!

I am probably confusing you guys.  But overall, RGB is still better than YUV but it\'s really hard to tell the difference when watching video or playing games.

[Paul2]

Also, had anyone watch Star Wars: Attack of the Clone?  The movie is recorded from a high definition digital camcorder that runs at a 3:1:1 YUV format!  So, 75% of the bandwidth is Y(luminance), 25% on U(chrominance Blue), 25% V(chrominance red).  That\'s lower than consumer digital comcorder.  Since is run in 1920 x 1080 resolution, the quality is higher than consumer 720 x 480 resolution.  Not only that, the compression on the movie attack of the clone is about 7:1.  That\'s higher than consumer digital camcorder which compress only 5:1.  Compression means taking out informaiton, the less compression, the more detail the picture.
I remember watching attack of the clone and realize that the color bandwidth doesn\'t look as high and the picture seem somewhat blurry due to high compression.  I compare that to my experience watching Spider Man and I realize spider man picture quality is much, much sharper and more detail and true to life.  No compression, great natural color defintion.  Duh!  Spider Man is filmed on a 35mm camera and nothing beats film quality.  Digital have gone a far way, but film is still better.

Originally posted by Videoholic
My question is kind of sarcastic since RGB IS Component.  It\'s seperating video into seperate "Components".  As I wrote before it\'s just one of the forms of component.

Well that site still stated that (SCART) RGB was better than component
I searched for the site but I found nothing.. ( I want my bookmarks back!!)

Paul2: Thanks, nice to know.. I gotta check what you said about Spiderman VS Star Wars AoTC

[Paul2]

Also, DVD MOVIES are recorded in component (Y:U:V) format.  That\'s why Almost all American DVD players have Component Video output instead of RGB type.  Interesting thing is DVD use MPEG-2.  MPEG-2 works differently in component than consumer digital camcorder (like MiniDV).  They\'re recorded in 4:2:0 format.  You probably think that 4 on Y, 2 on U, and 0 on V.  Wrong.  MPEG-2 is more complex than that.  It\'s 4 on Y, and 2 on both U and V (1 each though).  There are on the same scanline.  This is the format well known in Europe as it\'s the case with their digital camcorder, too.  I will check out some pictures and post them to show you what I mean.  Why did MPEG-2 make YUV even more complex?  The reason was that 4:2:0 works better in a progressive scan video while 4:1:1 works better in interlaced video.  People who created MPEG-2 intended to use it for a progressive scan motion picture.  Film in theaters is progressive at 24fps, so transferring to DVD save a little bit more space as DVD player and MPEG-2 can scan up to 30fps.
Unfortunately, MPEG-2 isn\'t as flexible as it should be.    video runs in interlaced such as music videos, tv show, etc. won\'t look as good in MPEG-2 as progressive scan video.  It\'s better if MPEG-2 can do both 4:2:0 and 4:1:1, but no.

[videoholic]

Paul2, I understand all that.  Brings me back to my college days, but I\'ve been in it long enough, heh...  I know there is a difference between the two and I know RGB is better than YPbPr, but I was just stating that they are both still considered component video.

Nice little technical explaination though.  I need to go get some of my text books out of the closet.

[Titan]

I never heard of RGB. Well, my tv is a Panasonic 32" (it was pretty cheap when we got it) if that helps. I guess I\'ll go with component then. My picture of the games doesn\'t look too impessive with the standard video jacks. Thanks guys.

[Paul2]

here are some example of component video from a MiniDV digital camcorder.

4:2:2 Y:U:V sampling
http://www.adamwilt.com/422.gif

4:1:1 Y:U:V sampling (american & japanese version)
http://www.adamwilt.com/411.gif

4:2:0 Y:U:V sampling (co-sited) (europe version)
http://www.adamwilt.com/420.gif
Note that this is different from the 4:2:0 chroma sample positioning in JPEG, MPEG, and H.261 formats!

here is the site:
http://www.adamwilt.com/pix-sampling.html

I will post DVD MPEG-2 sampling later.

[Paul2]

here is the dvd mpeg-2 compression
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_8_2/images/chroma-figure-3.jpg

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_8_2/images/chroma-figure-4.jpg

the site:
http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_8_2/dvd-benchmark-special-report-chroma-bug-4-2001.html

Edit- actually read all that stuff Paul posted, great info!  I can see you\'ve been doing your homework Paul, I remember when you first came here you were asking us questions.  Now it\'s the opposite!

So what do you think will be the first HD-DVD format?  You think it will be 50gig MPEG-4 Blu-ray or the drummed up version of MPEG-2 that will just be a bigger sized disc allowing more data of the same ol format to be stored (poop).