Is my video RGB or YUV. How to tell

[troyvcd1]

I capture video from my minidv to my computer using mediastudio. Is there a utility that can tell me if this video is RGB or YUV. I have always thought that my captured video would be yuv. When I edit my video in mediastudio and go to save the avi file I only have RGB output as my only option.

[ImaWeTodd]

1. Get the latest version of avisynth.
2. Create a text file named something like myFile.avs.
3. Paste the following script into the avs file.

AviSource("C:\filename.avi").Info 
# results in a video with information in the left corner:

4. Open the avs file in mediastudio. (If you can't, use virtualdub).
5. You'll get the following info kind of info:

ColorSpace: YV12
Width 480, Height 576
fps: 25
fieldbased video: no
parity: parity unknown
video pitch: 960 bytes
has audio: yes
audio channels: 6
sample type: integer 16 bit
samples per second: 44100[/code]

[BJ_M]

DV is YUV always (minidv that is)

[troyvcd1]

I used that avisynth tool and it shows up as yuy2. Is this the same as yuv. I still dont know why when I go to create an avi file from my edited avi file it says under data type the only option is 24 bit RGB. Does this make sense.

[ImaWeTodd]

Here is a link about color spaces :
http://www.video-demystified.com/mm/tutor/ch03.pdf

I have no idea what I am talking about, but here is a shot. YUV is a general reference to a color space, like RGB. YUV2 is a reference to a 4:2:2 sampling of the chroma for a YUV color space. Kinda like RGB32 probably refers to using 32bits to represent the range of red green and blue values.

On your origional question, do you need YUV format? I not sure if conversion looses info. Maybe you want to know that. I don't use mediastudio, but maybe if you clearified your question someone could help.

Appearently the DV in is YUV 4:2:2.

[BJ_M]

PAL DV is 4:2:2 , NTSC DV is 4:1:1

another reason why it is better to shoot in PAL if possable ..

[ImaWeTodd]

I found this to be an area where I just use the settings and don't really understand. So I did some reading.

It appears to me:

1) yuv is the color space
2) yuy2 is the fourcc which describes how the video datastream is formatted. In this case it is a yuv 4:2:2 stream.

Here is a great link for fourcc info: http://www.fourcc.org/

3) PAL DV is YUV 4:2:0. NTSC DV is YUV 4:1:1
4) 4:1:1 appears to "hold up" better http://www.adamwilt.com/DV-FAQ-tech.html#colorSampling for editing.

5) Big guess on my part: DV is upsampled to 4:2:2 when you edit. Hence the 4:2:0 or 4:2:1 is converted to 4:2:2 by interpolation or doubling.

6) Conversion from YUV to RGB and back does degrade the video.

This is just my very unknowledgable take on an unreliable source of information. The internet.

[troyvcd1]

I think this is a fault of mediastudio. In options it only gives data type output options as RGB. Of course I would not want my yuy2 to be converted to rgb and mediastudio does not actually convert to rgb but keeps it in yuy2 as verified by avisynth. There are a few thing in mediastudio like this including the output field order options. My dv is kept in bottom field first no matter what output options I choose. This I think is ok because I would not want mediastudio changing my field orders anyways.