
YPbPr or Y'PbPr, also written as , is a
color space used in
video electronics, in particular in reference to
component video cables. YP
BP
R is
gamma corrected
Gamma correction or gamma is a nonlinear operation used to encode and decode luminance or tristimulus values in video or still image systems. Gamma correction is, in the simplest cases, defined by the following power-law expression:
: V_\text = ...
YCBCR color space (it is not analog
YUV that was used for analog TV, though
component video is an
analog
Analog or analogue may refer to:
Computing and electronics
* Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable
** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals
*** Analog electronics, circuits which use analo ...
interface); the two are numerically equivalent but YP
BP
R is designed for use in
analog systems while YC
BC
R is intended for
digital video
Digital video is an electronic representation of moving visual images (video) in the form of encoded digital data. This is in contrast to analog video, which represents moving visual images in the form of analog signals. Digital video comprises ...
.
The EOTF (gamma correction) may be different from common
sRGB
sRGB is a standard RGB (red, green, blue) color space that HP and Microsoft created cooperatively in 1996 to use on monitors, printers, and the World Wide Web. It was subsequently standardized by the International Electrotechnical Commission ( ...
EOTF and
BT.1886
ITU-R BT.1886 is the reference EOTF of SDR-TV. It is a gamma 2.4 transfer function (a power law with a 2.4 exponent) considered as a satisfactory approximation of the response characteristic of CRT to electrical signal. It has been standardi ...
EOTF. Sync is carried on the Y channel and is a bi-level sync signal, however, in HD formats a
tri-level sync is used and is typically carried on all channels.
YP
BP
R is commonly referred to as ''component video'' by manufacturers; however, there are many types of component video, most of which are some form of
RGB. Some
video cards come with
video-in video-out (VIVO) ports for connecting to component video devices.
Technical details
YP
BP
R is converted from the
RGB video signal, which is split into three components: Y, P
B, and P
R.
* Y carries
luma (brightness or ''luminance'') and synchronization (sync) information. Luma is defined as
in
SMPTE 274M (1920x1080 resolution) and
SMPTE ST 296 (1280x720). It uses
BT.709-2 matrix coefficients and digital
YCBCR. Before the advent of color television, the Y axis on an oscilloscope display of a video waveform represented the intensity of the scan line. With color, Y still represents intensity but it is a composite of the component colors.
* P
B carries the difference between blue and luma (
B − Y).
* P
R carries the difference between red and luma (
R − Y).
There are other standards of YP
BP
R components derivation available: 1920x1035 uses
SMPTE 240M
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) (, rarely ), founded in 1916 as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers or SMPE, is a global professional association of engineers, technologists, and executives working in the m ...
(240M defined EOTF and uses SMPTE 170M primaries and white point) and
525 lines 60/1.001 Hz (SMPTE 273M) and
625 lines 50 Hz (
ITU-R BT.1358)
BT.601 matrix is used.
To send a
green signal as a fourth component is redundant, as it can be derived using the blue, red and luma information.
When color signals were first added to the NTSC-encoded black and white video standard, the hue was represented by a
phase shift of a color reference
sub-carrier
A subcarrier is a sideband of a radio frequency carrier wave, which is modulated to send additional information. Examples include the provision of colour in a black and white television system or the provision of stereo in a monophonic radio broa ...
. P for phase information or phase shift has carried through to represent color information even in the case where there is no longer a phase shift used to represent hue. Thus, the YP
BP
R nomenclature derives from engineering metrics developed for the NTSC color standard.
The same cables can be used for YP
BP
R and
composite video
Composite video is an analog video signal format that carries standard-definition video (typically at 525 lines or 625 lines) as a single channel. Video information is encoded on one channel, unlike the higher-quality S-Video (two channels) a ...
. This means that the yellow, red, and white
RCA connector cables commonly packaged with most audio/visual equipment can be used in place of the YP
BP
R connectors, provided the end user is careful to connect each cable to corresponding components at both ends. Also, many TVs use the green connection either for luma only or for composite video input. Since YP
BP
R is backwards compatible with the luminance portion of composite video even with just component video decoding one can still use composite video via this input, but only luma information will be displayed, along with the
chroma dots. The same goes the other way around so long as 480i or 576i is used.
YPBPR advantages

Signals using YP
BP
R offer enough separation that no color
multiplexing
In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...
is needed, so the quality of the extracted image is nearly identical to the pre-encoded signal.
S-Video and
composite video
Composite video is an analog video signal format that carries standard-definition video (typically at 525 lines or 625 lines) as a single channel. Video information is encoded on one channel, unlike the higher-quality S-Video (two channels) a ...
mix the signals together by means of electronic multiplexing. Signal degradation is typical for composite video, as most display systems are unable to completely separate the signals, though HDTVs tend to perform such separation better than most
CRT
CRT or Crt may refer to:
Science, technology, and mathematics Medicine and biology
* Calreticulin, a protein
*Capillary refill time, for blood to refill capillaries
*Cardiac resynchronization therapy and CRT defibrillator (CRT-D)
* Catheter-re ...
units (see
dot crawl).
S-Video can mitigate some of these potential issues, as its luma is transmitted separately from chroma.
Among consumer analog interfaces, only YP
BP
R and
analog RGB component video are capable of carrying non-
interlaced video and resolutions higher than
480i
480i is the video mode used for standard-definition digital television in the Caribbean, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, Laos, Western Sahara, and most of the Americas (with the exception of Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay). The ''480 ...
or
576i
576i is a standard-definition television, standard-definition digital video mode, originally used for digitizing analog television in most countries of the world where the utility frequency for electric power distribution is 50 Hz. Because ...
, up to
1080p
1080p (1920×1080 progressively displayed pixels; also known as Full HD or FHD, and BT.709) is a set of HDTV high-definition video modes characterized by 1,920 pixels displayed across the screen horizontally and 1,080 pixels down the screen vert ...
for YP
BP
R.
References
External links
Color FAQ Charles Poynton
{{Color space
Color space
Video signal
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