Component Video

A high quality analogue video-only connection, found on video sources such as Blu-ray players, DVD players, AV amplifiers and receivers, and of course on display devices such as plasma, projectors, etc.

Component Video can also be used for carrying the signal when DVD players have Progressive Scan output.

Most commonly component video uses 3 RCA phono connections in red, green and blue, but it can also use an 8 pin DIN style of connector as shown above.

Labelled as "Y" "Cr" and "Cb":
"Y" is luminance, luma, or "Brightness". This describes the level of white (or black). It also contains the composite sync signal for horizontal and vertical control.
"Cr" is the level of Red
"Cb" is the Level of Blue
The green section of the final colour output is derived from the levels of red, blue and white level. Whatever the difference present in the white level, after subtracting blue and red, must be green.

Component Video connections may also be labelled "Y" "Pb" and "Pr".

In quality terms component video is better than S-Video, but not as good as RGB or RGBHV quality. However some component video systems carry Progressive Scan, which gives more solid results on flat panel plasmas and LCDs, and projectors. Component video is also less prone to interference than RGB using SCART connections. All these analogue connections are below digital systems in quality.

Component Video can be in resolutions up to 1080p ie Full High Definition, although many Blu-ray and DVD players will only output 720p or 1080i on the actual component video connection outputs. To achieve 1080p on component video you may have to convert the 1080p signal on HDMI to 1080p on component. Use the Vision FC4 converter to achieve this. If you are using a Media Center PC with VGA output then consider the TV One-Task 1T-VS-434 VGA to component 1080p converter.