Many people will refer to component video. But actually there are two forms of component video: component YUV and component RGB. Though they sound similar and both use cables with three plugs at each end, they are completely different and incompatible.

Component YUV uses three signals to describe a video picture. These are the Y channel, called Luminance which is effectively a black and white signal. The other two channels then describe how to remove blue (the U channel) and remove blue (the V cannel) from the Y signal to create a colour correct picture. On a socket the YUV are often marked as Y, Cb and Cr. YUV requires lower bandwidth than RGB and has the advantage (albeit historic) that the Y signal could drive a black and white television with no conversion required.

Component RGB is a much more intuitive way to send a colour picture using three signals, each of which carries the Red, Green and Blue picture. However, since progressive scan is only supported by YUV the majority of quality DVD players and screens are designed to work most effectively using YUV.

The problem that many of our customers have is that they wish to connect together a YUV and RGB device. Since they both usually have three phono sockets this appears easy. However, it is not possible without a relatively expensive conversion device.