Component video

In popular use, it refers to a type of component analog video (CAV) information that is transmitted or stored as three separate signals.

When used without any other qualifications, the term component video usually refers to analog YPBPR component video with sync on luma (Y) found on analog high-definition televisions and associated equipment from the 1990s through the 2000s when they were largely replaced with HDMI and other all-digital standards.

Component video cables and their RCA jack connectors on equipment are normally color-coded red, green and blue, although the signal is not in RGB.

For personal computer displays the 15-pin DIN connector (IBM VGA) provided screen resolutions including 640×480, 800×600, 1024×768, 1152×864, 1280×1024.

The various RGB (red, green, blue) analog component video standards (e.g., RGBS, RGBHV, RGsB) use no compression and impose no real limit on color depth or resolution, but require large bandwidth to carry the signal and contain a lot of redundant data since each channel typically includes much of the same black-and-white image.

Several methods are used: Composite sync is common in the European SCART connection scheme (using pins 17 [ground] and 19 [composite-out] or 20 [composite-in]).

Sony is a big proponent of SoG, and most of their monitors (and their PlayStation line of video game consoles) use it.

This combines with one or more color-carrying components, termed chroma, that give only color information.

The demise of analog is largely due to screens moving to large flat digital panels as well as the desire for having a single cable for both audio and video, but also due to a slight loss of clarity when converting from a digital media source to analog and back again for a flat digital display, particularly when used at higher resolutions where analog signals are highly susceptible to noise.

Progressive scan, for example, is often not enabled by default, even when component video output is selected.