YVU9 Format

Question: What is the difference between capturing single frames and capturing still images?

Single frames are captured in the YVU9 Raw format; still images are captured in the RGB 24 format.

Question: What is Indeo® video Raw?

A video image can be represented using three components called Y, V, and U. Y represents the luminance, or brightness, part of an image-essentially a black and white picture. V and U together represent the chrominance, or color, part of an image: V represents saturation and U represents hue. Indeo video Raw is a video data format in which the 24­bit RGB data is converted to YVU, then the V and U is reduced until the signal uses only nine bits per pixel.

Question: What's the difference between Indeo® video Raw and YVU9C?

The YVU9C format is the same as Indeo video Raw, but files in this format are compressed to roughly half the size as files in the Raw format. When capturing in Indeo video Raw, the input signal is only subsampled; but when capturing in YVU9C, an extra step of nearly lossless compression is performed by the Intel Smart Video Recorder III. Capturing in YVU9C reduces data rate during capture, allowing capture at higher frame rates without dropping frames. YVU9C does not impose any signal loss when compressed offline with Indeo video Release 3.2. Some signal loss occurs, however, if video captured in YVU9C format is later compressed using Indeo video interactive. The YVU9C driver is available at all of our electronic distribution sites as a file named YVU9C.EXE. If you plan to use the transparency features of Indeo video interactive, you'll get better results if you capture into an RGB 24 or motion JPEG format instead of Indeo video Raw or YVU9C. This strategy avoids multiple color conversions, with the inevitable resulting degradation.

* Legal Information © 1998 Intel Corporation