YUV
YUV is a way of describing video color that separates brightness (luma, the Y) from color information (chroma, the U and V). Splitting them lets codecs compress color more heavily than brightness, which saves space without obvious loss. In digital video, the term YUV is often used loosely to mean YCbCr. Raw, uncompressed video frames are commonly stored in YUV formats.
Why it matters
Almost every video pipeline converts footage into a YUV format before encoding, because codecs and playback hardware expect it. Choosing the wrong YUV layout, such as 4:2:2 or 10-bit where devices expect 8-bit 4:2:0, can produce files that fail to play on some phones and browsers.
How it works
- A camera or screen capture produces red, green and blue (RGB) values for each pixel.
- Software converts them into one brightness value (Y) and two color values (U and V).
- Color values are usually subsampled, for example to 4:2:0, to save space.
- The encoder compresses the YUV frames, and the player converts back to RGB for the screen.
What is the difference between YUV and RGB?
RGB stores red, green and blue for each pixel, while YUV stores brightness separately from color. Screens display RGB, but video codecs work in YUV because separating brightness lets them compress color harder with little visible loss. Video is converted from RGB to YUV before encoding and back to RGB for display.
Is YUV the same as YCbCr?
In everyday digital video, mostly yes. YUV originally described analog TV color signals, while YCbCr is the digital version used in compressed video. Many tools, including FFmpeg pixel formats like yuv420p, use the name YUV for what is technically YCbCr. The exact math differs slightly, but the idea is the same.
Where it's used
Video platforms and creator apps convert every upload to 8-bit YUV 4:2:0 before encoding, because phones, browsers and smart TVs decode it, so clips play everywhere.
By the numbers
- In practice, the terms Y'CbCr and Y'UV are used interchangeably, so YUV often refers to digital YCbCr signals. (Wikipedia: YCbCr)
