Editing S-Video (section)

==Signal==
The S-video cable carries video using two synchronized signal and ground pairs, termed Y and C. Y is the ''luma'' signal, which carries the ''luminance''&nbsp;– or black-and-white&nbsp;– of the picture, including synchronization pulses. Y also carries horizontal and vertical sync pulses in the same way as a [[composite video]] signal. C is the ''chroma'' signal, which carries the ''[[chrominance]]''&nbsp;– or coloring-in&nbsp;– of the picture. This signal contains two color-difference components.

In composite video, the signals co-exist on different frequencies. To achieve this, the luminance signal must be low-pass filtered, dulling the image. As S-Video maintains the two as separate signals, such detrimental low-pass filtering for luminance is unnecessary, although the chrominance signal still has limited bandwidth relative to component video.{{cn|date=November 2024}}

Carrying the color information as one signal means that the color has to be encoded in some way, typically in accord with [[NTSC]], [[PAL]], or [[SECAM]], depending on the applicable local standard.

Compared with [[component video]], which carries the identical luminance signal but separates the color-difference signals into Cb/Pb and Cr/Pr, the color resolution of S-Video is limited by the modulation on a [[subcarrier]] frequency of either {{val|3.58|ul=MHz}} (NTSC) or {{val|4.43|u=MHz}} (PAL). This difference is meaningless on home videotape systems, as the chrominance is already severely constrained by both [[VHS]] and [[Betamax]].