What Is The Difference Between YUV444, YUV422, and YUV420 video formats?

YUV (also known as YCbCr) is a color encoding system used for digital video. The chroma subsampling ratios YUV444, YUV422, and YUV420 refer to the number of samples used to encode color information relative to the brightness information in a video signal.

The main differences between these chroma subsampling ratios are:

1. YUV444: This is a full chroma subsampling format that uses the same number of samples for color information as for brightness information. For every pixel in the video frame, there are separate samples for the red, green, and blue (RGB) color components, resulting in the highest color accuracy.

2. YUV422: This is a horizontal chroma subsampling format that uses half the number of samples for color information as for brightness information, horizontally. This means that for every two pixels in a row, there is one sample for the U (Cb) component and one for the V (Cr) component. This results in good color accuracy but lower resolution color information than YUV444.

3. YUV420: This is a horizontal and vertical chroma subsampling format that uses half the number of samples for color information as for brightness information, both horizontally and vertically. This means that for every four pixels in a square block, there is one sample for the U (Cb) component and one for the V (Cr) component. This results in lower color accuracy than YUV422 and YUV444, but requires less data and bandwidth to transmit.

In summary, YUV444 provides the highest color accuracy but requires more data and bandwidth to transmit. YUV422 provides good color accuracy and lower data requirements than YUV444, while YUV420 provides lower color accuracy but even lower data requirements than YUV422. The choice of chroma subsampling ratio depends on the application and available bandwidth for transmission.