When was the component video connection developed?
It was ‘invented’ by Sony in 1982 when they launched a broadcast VTR called ‘Betacam’ (based on Betamax). The recorder was unusual because it could record three signals instead of the usual one. This maintained picture quality during copying and editing. It was later used by semi-pro and domestic equipment. The reason ‘components’ are used as opposed to Red, Green and Blue goes back to the invention of colour TV (some Americans, I believe) and using component signals (Y is the ‘luminance’ or monochrome part, U &V – Pb, Pr – are known as the colour difference signals because they are made by taking the Y signal from both red and blue.) It’s acually a lot more complex than this, but the idea was to make a colour signal that was compatible with black and white TVs and could be carried on one signal or cable. So when when the colour signal was ‘encoded’ the Y (B&W) signal had the colour components added to it on a ‘subcarrier’ that was almost invisible to a monochrome TV, but a colour TV c
