S-Video

S-Video
A standard 4-pin S-Video male connector on a cable
Type Analog video connector
Production history
Designed 1987
General specifications
Hot pluggable Yes
External Yes
Video signal NTSC, PAL, or SECAM video
Pins 4, 7, or 9
Connector Mini-DIN connector
Pinout
Looking at the female connector.
Pin 1 GND Ground (Y)
Pin 2 GND Ground (C)
Pin 3 Y Intensity (Luminance)
Pin 4 C Color (Chrominance)
The shells should be connected together by an overall screen/shield. However, the shield is often absent in low-end cables, which can result in picture degradation.
Same connector as Apple Desktop Bus.

S-Video (also known as separate video, Y/C, and erroneously Super-Video)[1] is an analog video signal format that carries standard-definition video, typically at 525 lines or 625 lines. It encodes video luma and chrominance on two separate channels, achieving higher image quality than composite video which encodes all video information on one channel. It also eliminates several types of visual defects such as dot crawl which commonly occur with composite video. Although it improved over composite video, S-Video has lower color resolution than component video, which is encoded over three channels.[2]

The Atari 800 was the first to introduce separate Chroma/Luma output in late 1979.[3] However, S-Video did not get widely adopted until JVC's introduction of the S-VHS (Super-VHS) format in 1987, which is why it is sometimes incorrectly referred to as Super-Video.[4] Before the shift towards digital video the S-video format was widely used by consumers, but it was rarely used in professional studios where YPbPr or component was generally preferred.[5]

  1. ^ S-Video – Definition Archived 2016-03-01 at the Wayback Machine About.com
  2. ^ Poynton, Charles (2002). Digital Video and HD: Algorithms and Interfaces (PDF) (First ed.). Morgan Kaufmann. p. 107. ISBN 1558607927.
  3. ^ Current, Michael. "Atari 8-bit FAQ". Retrieved 2018-02-23.[permanent dead link]
  4. ^ "Definition of S-VHS".
  5. ^ Poynton, Charles (2002). Digital Video and HD: Algorithms and Interfaces (PDF) (First ed.). Morgan Kaufmann. p. 107. ISBN 1558607927.